Russia hits Kyiv with massive air attack, biggest of war so far
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LONDON — Russia overnight hit Ukraine with the biggest missile and drone attack of the war, launching a record number of drones at Kyiv.
Hundreds of Russian drones swarmed the capital all night as videos show huge fires and plumes of smoke on the skyline. Residents describe it as one of the most intense nights since the start of the full-scale invasion and people in Kyiv are waking up Friday morning to the city being blanketed by smoke from the fires still burning.
Russia launched over 500 drones, a huge number and the second time in less than a week it has launched the biggest air attack of the war. The attack comes after the Trump administration froze deliveries of critical air defense missiles to Ukraine.
The mayor of Kyiv said that at least 23 people were injured as many people spent the night sheltering in Kyiv’s metro system.
The aerial assault began shortly after President Trump spoke with Russian President Vladimir Putin by phone which, in Ukraine, is being widely taken as a clear message to Ukrainians.
“Notably, the first air raid alerts in our cities and regions yesterday began to blare almost simultaneously with media reports discussing a phone call between President Trump and Putin,” Ukrainian President Zelenskyy wrote on Friday morning. “Yet again, Russia is showing it has no intention of ending the war and terror. Only around 9 a.m. today did the air raid alert end in Kyiv. It was a brutal, sleepless night.”
Eugene Abrasimov/Suspilne Ukraine/JSC “UA:PBC”/Global Images Ukraine via Getty Images
(LONDON) — A Russian drone hit a civilian minibus in Bilopillia, northeastern Ukraine early Saturday morning local time, killing nine people and injuring four others, according to the Sumy regional military administration.
The bus was en route to Sumy, not far from the Russian border and was struck at approximately 6:17 a.m.
Ukrainian national police condemned the attack as a “cynical war crime”, stating that Russia once again deliberately targeted a civilian object, violating international humanitarian law as regional governor Oleh Hryhorov called the strike “inhumane.”
The attack occurred just hours after Russia and Ukraine held their first direct peace talks since March 2022 in Istanbul. While the negotiations did not produce a ceasefire, both sides agreed to a mutual exchange of 1000 prisoners of war in the coming days.
Russia has not directly commented on the civilian bus strike, but the Russian Ministry of Defense claimed to have hit a “military staging area” in the Sumy region.
Meanwhile, Russian official Kirill Dmitriev praised yesterday’s peace talks in Istanbul — calling the outcome a “good result” –while highlighting the largest prisoner-of-war exchange, possible ceasefire options and a better understanding of each side’s position.
He credited the progress to Donald Trump’s team and the U.S. delegation sent to help negotiations, saying the talks wouldn’t have happened without their help.
However, many key issues remain unresolved.
Russia is demanding that Ukraine give up control of parts of its territory — something Ukrainian officials say is unacceptable. and have accused Russia of using the talks to buy time and avoid more international sanctions.
Ukrainian President Zelenskyy, meanwhile, expressed disappointment and urged Ukraine’s allies to keep up pressure on Moscow to reach a meaningful peace deal.
(LONDON) — An overnight fire at a shopping mall in Iraq has killed more than 60 people, according to the country’s interior ministry.
The massive fire broke out early Thursday in the new, five-story shopping center in Kut, the capital of the Wasit province in eastern Iraq.
Most of the 61 victims died from smoke inhalation in the building’s bathrooms, while 14 others were severely burned, according to the interior ministry. Forty-five people were rescued, it said.
Rescue teams worked for hours to recover bodies trapped inside the charred structure, battling dense smoke and debris.
Iraqi authorities have declared three days of national mourning as search and recovery operations continue.
The Wasit governor, Mohammed Mayahi, described the fire as a national disaster. Many of the victims are believed to be entire families caught in the fire, with Mayahi saying children were among those killed.
“The day is painful for all of Wasit,” he said.
An investigation committee has been formed to determine the cause of the fire, the interior ministry said. Investigators have been tasked with determining whether violations of fire codes or construction standards played a role.
The blaze erupted less than a week after the Corniche shopping mall opened.
Mayahi said legal complaints had been filed against the building owner, the mall operator and others involved in the case.
“There will be no leniency,” he said.
The Kut disaster follows a series of similar incidents in Iraq recent years. In 2023, more than 100 people died after a fire started by pyrotechnic devices swept through a wedding hall in Hamdaniyah. The incident drew national outrage, raising broader concerns about public venue safety and allegations of corruption in the approval of business licenses.
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
(WASHINGTON) — After President Donald Trump threatened to impose “very severe” economic penalties against Vladimir Putin’s Russia if he doesn’t agree to a ceasefire in Ukraine within 50 days, the Trump administration has so far declined to provide many additional details about the consequences Russia will face or why he picked the deadline he chose.
“Well, at the end of 50 days, if we don’t have a deal, it’s going to be too bad,” Trump told reporters at the White House on Tuesday.
When asked why he decided to give the Russian leader nearly two months to comply with his demand, President Trump deflected.
“I don’t think 50 days is very long. It could be sooner than that,” Trump said.
“You should have asked that same question to Biden. Why did he get us into this war?” he continued. “You know why he got us in? Because he’s a dummy, that’s why.”
Despite pledging additional U.S. made weapons for Ukraine, Trump also said he didn’t support Ukraine’s President Zelenskyy ordering strikes on the Russian capital.
“He shouldn’t target Moscow,” he said. “No, we’re not looking to do that.”
On Monday, Trump said that Russia’s failure to reach a negotiated settlement with Ukraine within 50 days would lead to his administration imposing a 100% tariff rate on Russian imports as well as what he called “secondary tariffs” on countries that have continued to do business with Moscow.
“We’re very, very unhappy with him,” Trump said of Putin on Monday. “We’re going to be doing very severe tariffs if we don’t have a deal in 50 days.”
U.S. imports from Russia, which totaled around $3 billion in 2024 according to the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative, account for a small share of Moscow’s revenue, meaning Trump’s threat to hike tariffs on Russian goods likely wouldn’t pack much punch.
However, the president’s promise to raise tariffs on imports from third-party countries could carry more weight.
Some secondary sanctions aimed at weakening Russia’s war economy are already in place. The Biden administration steadily ramped up its use of the penalties throughout the conflict, primarily targeting foreign financial institutions accused of supporting Moscow’s military industrial complex and the so-called “shadow fleet” of tanker operators working to circumvent Western sanctions and price caps on Russian oil.
But going after countries that import oil and other resources from Russia would be a significant escalation.
Through much of the war, the Biden administration avoided taking direct aim at Russian energy exporters out of concern that doing so would cause global fuel prices to rise. Instead, the former administration worked with other members of the G7 to cap the price of Russian oil products, cutting into Moscow’s profits while allowing the exports to remain on the market.
Trump, on the other hand, has previously promised to go after Russia’s customers.
In March, Trump threatened to put “secondary tariffs on oil, on all oil coming out of Russia” during an interview with NBC News — adding “if you buy oil from Russia, you can’t do business in the United States.”
What countries would feel the impact?
The White House has yet to release specific details on Trump’s secondary tariffs, but his ambassador to NATO, Matthew Whitaker, said on Monday the top importers of Russian oil would be in the administration’s crosshairs.
“It’s about tariffs on countries like India and China that are buying their oil. And it really is going to I think dramatically impact the Russian economy,” he said during an interview with CNN.
But whether the secondary tariffs would stop at countries like China and India is an open question.
Despite the web of sanctions in place against Russia, the country still has many meaningful trade relationships, including ones with European allies.
Since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the EU has significantly dropped its share of Russian oil and gas imports and its plan to fully phase out those imports isn’t expected to fully come to fruition until the end of 2027 at the earliest.
Some Eastern European and Central Asian countries also have economies that rely on doing business with Russia, meaning they would almost certainly be unable to significantly scale back trade with Russia and would have the face the consequences of secondary tariffs.
The next 50 days
If the president sticks to his 50-day window, Russia can continue to carry out its summertime campaign against Ukraine until early September without facing additional consequences.
In his interview with CNN, Whitaker was also asked about how Trump made the decision on the timeline but didn’t give a clear answer.
“The time to end the slaughter is now. The time to end the killing is now. And so 50 days is the appropriate amount of time because it needs to happen now,” he responded.
Currently, Russia is making modest gains against Ukraine and may soon seek to leverage those advances to launch additional offenses in the eastern reach of the country, according to a recent assessment from the Institute of the Study of War.
Many officials and experts have long predicted that the Kremlin would push off serious talks on ending the war until the cooler months set in because it hopes to strengthen its position at the negotiating table by claiming as much territory as possible during the summer season.
In an interview with the BBC on Monday, Trump indicated he still wanted to pursue diplomacy with Russia, but that his patience with Putin was wearing thin.
“I’m not done with him, but I’m disappointed with him,” he said.
Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov responded to Trump’s threats on Monday, saying Moscow needed “time to analyze” the comments.
“The U.S. president’s statements are very serious,” Peskov said.
