At least 10 killed, 33 injured in Russian attacks across Ukraine overnight, officials say
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(KYIV and LONDON) — The Ukrainian Air Force said Saturday morning that Russia had carried out 114 aerial attacks on Ukraine overnight with drones and missiles.
At least 10 people were killed and 33 others were injured across Ukraine as a result of Russia’s aerial attacks as well as from laser-guided bombs, artillery and smaller drone strikes, according to regional and local authorities.
In the Zaporizhzhia region, one person — a 9-year-old girl — was killed and two people — a 16-year-old boy and an elderly man — were injured, according to a statement from the Zaporizhzhia Regional Military Administration.
In the Kharkiv region, five people were injured, according to statements from the Kharkiv city mayor, the Kharkiv Regional Military Administration and the Kharkiv Regional Prosecutor’s Office.
In the Kherson region, three people were killed and 12 others were injured, according to statements from the Kherson Regional Military Administration.
In the Donetsk region, five people were killed and nine others were injured, according to a statement from the Donetsk Regional Military Administration, and ,in the Sumy region, one person was killed and five were injured, according to statements from the Sumy Regional Military Administration.
Earlier this week, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy again appealed to the U.S. to apply more pressure on Russian President Vladimir Putin in pursuit of peace talks to end Moscow’s 3-year-old invasion of its neighbor.
“Russian strikes are becoming increasingly brazen and large-scale every night,” Zelenskyy wrote in an evening message to Telegram, after consecutive days of intense Russian strikes involving more than 900 attack drones and missiles. “There is no military logic in this, but it is a clear political choice — the choice of Putin, the choice of Russia — the choice to keep waging war and destroying lives.”
“New and strong sanctions against Russia — from the United States, from Europe, and from all those around the world who seek peace — will serve as a guaranteed means of forcing Russia not only to cease fire, but also to show respect,” Zelenskyy said.
The Ukrainian president is seeking to frame Putin as the key impediment to a peace deal, as Kyiv navigates a fractious bilateral relationship with President Donald Trump’s administration.
Months of U.S.-brokered peace talks have failed to produce a lasting ceasefire or a clear framework for a peace deal.
Trump’s building frustration has been evident, with Trump saying last weekend that Putin had gone “absolutely crazy,” while also rebuking Zelenskyy for causing “problems” with his public statements.
ABC News’ David Brennan contributed to this report.
(NEW YORK) — Activists are demanding an investigation after they say a humanitarian ship headed to Gaza was bombed by a drone in the Mediterranean Sea overnight Friday.
The passenger vessel Conscience made a mayday call shortly after midnight, reporting a fire on its bow, the government of Malta said.
The ship, located off the coast of Malta in international waters at the time, was being operated by activists with the Freedom Flotilla Coalition (FFC), which is campaigning to end Israel’s ongoing blockade of aid into Gaza.
Israel began the aid blockade on March 2 after the end of the temporary ceasefire deal, saying they were imposing the blockade to put pressure on Hamas to release the remaining Israeli hostages still being held in Gaza after the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas-led attack on Israel.
Malta’s government said that 12 crew members and four civilian passengers were on board and none were injured.
It was not immediately clear who was responsible for the reported attack.
FFC spokesperson Yasemin Acar told ABC News in a video interview from Valletta, the capital of Malta, that most of those aboard were asleep when they awoke to the sound of an explosion, Acar said the vessel was struck twice “which why they knew they were under attack.”
The group claims the blasts were caused by a drone whose immediate origin the group did not know. ABC News has not been able to verify the group’s claims.
Video and photos provided by the FFC showed fire and smoke on board Conscience, as well as damage to the bow of the vessel in the aftermath of the reported attack.
ABC News showed the FCC photos showing the damaged sustained to the Conscience to Trevor Ball, a former U.S. Army explosive ordinance disposal specialist.
“The damage is consistent with two small blast munitions, which can be deployed by drone,” Ball said. “You’d need remnants to confirm that though, well as country of origin.”
Acar said the vessel had been carrying humanitarian aid, which Israel’s government is not allowing to enter Gaza.
In an online statement, the FFC called for an investigation into the reported attack and demanded that “Israeli ambassadors must be summoned and answer to violations of international law, including the ongoing blockade and the bombing of our civilian vessel in international waters.”
ABC News has reached out to the Israel Defense Forces, the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the U.S. State Department for comment on the incident.
The moments after the reported strike are visible in ship tracking data from MarineTraffic. Shortly after midnight, the Conscience can be seen veering off its course. According to MarineTraffic, the vessel left Bizerte, Tunisia, on Wednesday and was scheduled to dock in Malta on Friday.
There, the FFC said, the vessel planned to bring aboard more passengers — including climate activist Greta Thunberg and retired US Army Colonel Mary Ann Wright — before continuing on to Gaza.
Data from online flight tracker ADSBExchange shows that a military transport plane operated by Israel’s military flew over Malta in the hours before the attack.
The Lockheed KC-130H plane entered Maltese airspace at around 3:25 p.m. local time. Data shows the plane flying in a zig-zag pattern around the eastern coast of Malta at an altitude as low as 4,350 feet before beginning its return to Israel at around 7:30 p.m. local time, nearly five hours before the reported attack on Conscience.
ABC News’ Dana Savir and Benjamin Siu contributed to this report.
(BELGRADE and LONDON) — Eleven people injured in a school shooting in Graz, Austria, on Tuesday are still being treated but are not in life-threatening condition, officials at the three hospitals treating the patients told ABC News.
Ten people were killed in the shooting at a high school in Austria’s second-largest city on Tuesday, with the shooter also dying by suicide in a bathroom during the incident, according to local officials.
Twelve people were initially injured, one of whom died in hospital on Tuesday.
Austrians observed a nationwide minute of silence on Wednesday morning to mourn the victims.
The suspect, a 21-year-old Austrian citizen and former student of the school who never graduated, acted alone, authorities said. The shooter used a long gun and a handgun which were found at the scene and are now being investigated, a Styria police spokesperson said.
The suspect — who was not employed at the time of the shooting — legally owned the two weapons used in the attack, officials said.
Police had no prior records on the suspect, a spokesperson said, and there was no prior warning. Officials searching the premises where the suspect lived found a farewell letter, but police have not offered a motive for the attack.
“The school shooting in Graz is a national tragedy that has deeply shocked our entire country,” Austrian Chancellor Christian Stocker said in a statement posted on social media.
He added, “Young people suddenly ripped from the lives they had ahead of them. There are no words for the pain and grief that all of us — all of Austria — are feeling right now.”
ABC News’ Morgan Winsor, Kevin Shalvey, Felix Franz and Megan Forrester contributed to this report.
LONDON — Russia and Ukraine continued long-range cross-border drone attacks on Sunday night into Monday morning, despite President Donald Trump’s criticism of presidents Vladimir Putin and Volodymyr Zelenskyy — the latest signal of Trump’s frustration at his inability to bring Moscow’s 3-year-old invasion of its neighbor to a close.
Ukrainian officials said air defenses engaged targets across the country, including in the capital Kyiv where damage was reported to buildings.
Ukraine’s air force said Russia launched a total of 364 “air attack vehicles” — nine cruise missiles and 355 attack drones — in the latest bombardment. All missiles and 288 drones were shot down or neutralized in flight, the air force said. Impacts were reported in five regions and falling debris in 10 regions, the air force said.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in a post to Telegram that Russian forces “used the largest number of drones against our cities and communities since the beginning of the full-scale war.”
“Only a sense of complete impunity can allow Russia to carry out such strikes and constantly increase their scale,” Zelenskyy said. “Like any criminal, Russia can only be brought to justice by force. Only through force — the force of the United States, the force of Europe, the force of all nations that respect life — can we achieve a complete cessation of these attacks and real peace.”
Russia’s Defense Ministry, meanwhile, said its forces downed 128 Ukrainian drones over 12 regions overnight and into Monday morning.
Andriy Kovalenko, the head of the Counter-Disinformation Center operating as part of Ukraine’s National Security and Defense Council, said “unknown drones” attacked the city of Yelabuga in Russia’s Tatarstan Republic — more than 500 miles east of Moscow and some 740 miles from the closest Ukrainian-controlled territory.
The target was a facility producing Russia’s Iranian-designed Shahed strike drones, Kovalenko said.
Other drones attacked “a chemical enterprise” in the Ivanovo region, around 150 miles northeast of Moscow, he added. The facility “creates components for Russian equipment and weapons, including missiles,” Kovalenko said.
Near-nightly cross-border strikes have become a prominent feature of Russia’s war on Ukraine, now more than three years old with little sign of an imminent ceasefire or peace deal. Recent months have seen the bombardments grow in size.
On Saturday night into Sunday, for example, Russia launched what Ukrainian officials described as its largest aerial attack of the war. The assault included 367 drones and missiles and killed at least 18 people, officials said.
The attack prompted Trump to rebuke Putin while speaking with reporters and later on social media.
“I’m not happy with what Putin is doing,” the president said. “He’s killing a lot of people, and I don’t know what the hell happened to Putin. I’ve known him a long time. Always gotten along with him, but he’s sending rockets into cities and killing people, and I don’t like it at all.”
Trump reiterated his close relationship with Putin but suggested that “something has happened” which has made him “crazy.”
“I’ve always said that he wants ALL of Ukraine, not just a piece of it, and maybe that’s proving to be right, but if he does, it will lead to the downfall of Russia!” Trump wrote on Truth Social.
Trump also attacked Zelenskyy, who he has repeatedly framed as an impediment to a U.S.-brokered peace deal. “Likewise, President Zelenskyy is doing his Country no favors by talking the way he does,” Trump wrote.
“Everything out of his mouth causes problems, I don’t like it, and it better stop,” Trump continued.
On Monday, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said Russia is “really grateful to the Americans and personally to President Trump for his assistance in organizing and launching this negotiation process. This is a very important achievement.”
“President Putin makes the decisions that are necessary to ensure the security of our country,” Peskov said, adding that the Kremlin is “closely monitoring” any “emotional overload” and “emotional reactions” connected to the peace process.
Zelenskyy and his officials have cited Russia’s continued massed strikes as evidence that Moscow is not genuine in its public appeals for peace.
Ukrainian leaders have repeatedly appealed to Trump to impose new, tougher sanctions on Moscow to push the Kremlin to downgrade its maximalist war goals. Those include the annexation of swaths of Ukrainian territory, Ukrainian demilitarization and a permanent block on the country’s accession to NATO.
Ukrainian requests have so far gone unanswered, despite Trump’s threats to introduce new measures to press Putin into negotiations. Kyiv is pushing for a 30-day ceasefire during which time peace talks can take place. Russia has so far refused the proposal.
Following the latest round of Russian strikes, Andriy Yermak — the head of Zelenskyy’s presidential office — wrote on Telegram on Monday morning, “Russia should speed up the ceasefire, now Moscow is slowing down even with the discussion of proposals, no specifics, only delaying time.”
Zelenskyy again urged sanctions. “The increase in Russian attacks should be met with increased sanctions,” he wrote on Telegram on Monday. “Russia’s disregard for diplomacy and refusal to even accept a ceasefire should be met with a blockade of Russian finances and trade in Russian oil.”
“Thank you to everyone in the world who is pushing this very strong agenda,” the president added. “Russia must end this war of its own. And for that to happen, we must deprive their will to fight of resources.”
