International News

Russian Strike On Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia Kills 13

Published

1 year ago

January 9, 2025

Spread the love

EDITORS NOTE: Graphic content / This handout photograph published on January 8, 2025, on the official Telegram channel of the head of the Zaporizhzhia Regional Military Administration Ivan Fedorov, shows paramedics assisting a wounded person at the site of a Russian strike in the city of Zaporizhzhia, amid the Russian invasion of Ukraine. (Photo by Handout / Telegram /@ivan_fedorov_zp / AFP)

A Russian strike on the Ukrainian city of Zaporizhzhia killed at least 13 people, Ukrainian officials said, one of the deadliest single air attacks for weeks in the three-year war.

Moscow has ramped up its strikes on Ukraine since the onset of winter, casting some of the attacks as retaliation for Kyiv firing on Russian territory with Western-supplied weapons.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky called Wednesday’s bombardment cruel” and called for the world to rally around Ukraine, and against Russia, to bring about a “lasting peace”.

He posted video footage showing several people lying wounded on the streets, covered with debris, and first responders hoisting victims onto makeshift stretchers.

The strike came hours after Ukrainian drones hit an oil depot that supplies Russia’s air force, hundreds of kilometres (miles) behind the front lines, triggering a blaze that claimed the lives of two Russian firefighters.

“The Russians conducted two strikes with guided aerial bombs on the city of Zaporizhzhia. They exploded among crowds of people,” Ukraine’s interior ministry said in a statement.

Thirteen people were killed and at least 30 wounded in the attack, Zelensky said, accusing Russia of deliberately targeting civilians.

“There is nothing more cruel than launching aerial bombs on a city, knowing that ordinary civilians will suffer,” he said in a message on social media.

“This again demonstrates what Russia really wants. They want only war and only victims.”

The Ukrainian leader will attend a meeting of Ukraine’s key allies in Germany on Thursday in a bid to rally support for Kyiv.

It will be the last Ramstein meeting — named after the air base in Germany where the gatherings take place — before US President-elect Donald Trump assumes office.

Trump has threatened to cut vital military aid to Ukraine and pledged a swift end to the war — raising fears in Kyiv he could force it to accept peace terms favourable to Moscow.

NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte and the outgoing US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin will also travel to Germany for the meeting.

Oil depot strike

Zaporizhzhia had a pre-war population of around 700,000 and lies around 35 kilometres (20 miles) from the frontline in southern Ukraine.

Russia controls swathes of the surrounding Zaporizhzhia region, and claims to have annexed it in 2022.

Rumours have swirled in Ukraine about a possible fresh Russian offensive towards the regional capital, which has been repeatedly struck by Russian forces since they invaded nearly three years ago.

Another Russian strike on Wednesday killed two people in the village of Stepnogirsk, around 30 kilometres south of Zaporizhzhia and close to the frontline, Governor Ivan Fedorov said on social media.

Four people became trapped under a house that was hit by Russian shelling there, two were pulled from the rubble but the other two were found dead, he said.

Ukraine earlier on Wednesday said its forces had hit an oil depot it said supplies Russia’s air force in the Saratov region, some 500 kilometres from the border.

The attack, on a site near the Engels air force base, marks the latest Ukrainian drone strike deep behind the front lines.

The governor of the Saratov region, where the strike happened, reported a large fire was spreading at an “industrial enterprise that was attacked by drones” and introduced a local state of emergency.

Governor Roman Busagrin said on Telegram that two firefighters were killed while battling the blaze.

Unverified images circulating on social media of the attack showed a large fireball rising into the sky at night alongside huge plumes of black smoke.

Ukraine’s general staff said “the destruction of the oil depot creates serious logistical problems for the strategic aviation of the Russian occupants and significantly reduces their ability to strike at peaceful Ukrainian cities and civilian objects.”

Two people were also killed in Russian artillery and drone strikes on the southern Ukrainian region of Kherson, local officials said.

Russia claimed to have annexed that region and has demanded that Ukraine fully withdraw from both Kherson and Zaporizhzhia in the south — along with Donetsk and Lugansk in the east — as a precondition to any peace talks.

AFP

Related Topics:Russia Ukraine Zaporizhzhia

Up Next

President Tinubu Advocates Boost in China-Nigeria Currency Swap Agreement

Don't Miss

Gunfire Heard Near Presidency In Chad Capital

Click to comment

International News

Israel Says It had Struck Two Naval Missile Production Sites In Tehran

Published

19 hours ago

March 25, 2026

thecolumnng

Spread the love

The Israeli military announced on Wednesday it had struck two naval cruise missile production facilities operating under Iran’s ministry of defence in Tehran.

“In recent days, the Israeli air force acting on IDF intelligence struck two key naval cruise missile production sites in Tehran,” the military said.

It said the facilities were used to “develop and manufacture long-range naval cruise missiles, which are capable of rapidly destroying targets at sea and on land”.

The strikes “represent another step in deepening the damage done to the regime’s military production infrastructure”, the military added.

Last week, the military announced its fighter jets had struck several Iranian naval ships in the Caspian Sea, including vessels equipped with anti-submarine missiles.

AFP

International News

2025 ‘Deadliest Year’ Yet For Red Sea Migrants, UN Reports 922 Deaths

Published

19 hours ago

March 25, 2026

thecolumnng

Spread the love

The number of migrants who died on the “Eastern Route” from the Horn of Africa to the Arabian Peninsula doubled to a record high of 922 last year, the UN migration agency said Wednesday.

Tens of thousands of migrants from Ethiopia, Somalia and neighbouring countries take the route across the Red Sea each year, mostly from Djibouti to Yemen, in search of work as labourers or domestic workers in wealthy Gulf countries.

“2025 was the deadliest year ever recorded on the Eastern migration route… with 922 people dead or missing — double the number from the previous year,” Tanja Pacifico, head of mission for the International Organisation for Migration (IOM) in Djibouti, told AFP.

The majority of victims were from Ethiopia, the second most-populous country in Africa with more than 130 million people. It is plagued by multiple internal conflicts and deep poverty.

“IOM remains fully committed to working alongside the government of Djibouti to promote safe and dignified migration pathways, in order to prevent further tragedies,” said Pacifico.

Many migrants who cross the Red Sea find themselves stuck in Yemen, the poorest country on the Arabian Peninsula, which has been embroiled in a civil war for nearly a decade, and some even choose to return.

Rapid economic growth in Ethiopia — estimated to reach around 10 percent in 2026 — could encourage less migration, IOM says, but that is mitigated by high inflation, also around 10 percent in February.

AFP

International News

Denmark Faces Lengthy Negotiations To Form A Government

Published

19 hours ago

March 25, 2026

thecolumnng

Spread the love

Election workers recount ballots in the Marselisborg Hallen in Aarhus, Denmark on March 25, 2026. (Photo by Mikkel Berg Pedersen / Ritzau Scanpix / AFP) /

Denmark’s political parties began the thorny process of forming a government Wednesday, with the centrist Moderates as kingmaker after the prime minister’s Social Democrats scraped through a general election without a majority.

Greenland’s Inuit Ataqatigiit party member Naaja Nathanielsen (C) looks on in a polling station in Nuuk, on March 24, 2026, during the parliamentary election in Denmark (Photo by Oscar Scott Carl / Ritzau Scanpix / AFP) / Denmark OUT

Danes were braced for a weeks-long process as Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen seeks to consolidate power in the deeply splintered parliament after Tuesday’s snap vote.

Denmark’s Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen arrives at Amalienborg Palace in Copenhagen to inform the king about the election result one day after the parliamentary election on March 25, 2026. (Photo by Martin Sylvest / Ritzau Scanpix / AFP)

A left-wing bloc made up of five parties, including Frederiksen’s Social Democrats, won 84 seats; the right-wing and far-right claimed 77; and the Moderates won 14 in the election.

The Social Democrats posted their worst election score since 1903—though they remained Denmark’s largest single party, with 38 seats in the 179-seat parliament.

Chairwoman of the Social Democrats Mette Frederiksen attends a party leader debate hosted by Publicists’ Club one the day after the parliamentary election at the Confederation of Danish Industry’s building in Copenhagen on March 25, 2026. (Photo by Liselotte Sabroe / Ritzau Scanpix / AFP)

Frederiksen formally tendered her coalition government’s resignation to King Frederik on Wednesday, telling a televised party leader debate she wanted to try to form a centre-left government.

“The most realistic scenario” would be a coalition with the five parties on the left and the centre-right Moderates, she said.

But it is not certain the Moderates, led by Foreign Minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen, would agree to that.

“I don’t believe that Denmark needs policies aligned with” the leftist Red-Green Alliance, Lokke said.

Chairman of the Moderates Lars Loekke Rasmussen attends a party leader debate at the Confederation of Danish Industry’s building in Copenhagen on March 25, 2026, the day after the parliamentary election. (Photo by Liselotte Sabroe / Ritzau Scanpix / AFP) / Denmark OUT

King Frederik was to meet party leaders individually later Wednesday to determine who should be asked to try to form the next government.

“My expectation is that Mette Frederiksen will become prime minister,” University of Copenhagen political science professor Rune Stubager told reporters.

“But I don’t know with the backing of which parties, like the left wing or the right wing,” he said.

He noted that Lokke, a two-time former prime minister, would likely vie for the position of prime minister, even though he has adamantly denied any interest in the job.

“Danes want me and not another prime minister. I still have the backing to be able to continue on behalf of the Danish people,” Frederiksen insisted during the debate.

Frederiksen has for the past four years headed an unprecedented left-right coalition made up of her Social Democrats, the Moderates and the Liberals.

The Liberals have refused to continue in a Social Democrat-led government.

‘Too Hard To Say’

Danes are now prepared for long negotiations. After the 2022 election, the talks lasted six weeks.

“It’s a long process, which means the government won’t be formed and it will be quite difficult to pass laws during this period,” lamented Jesper Dyrfjeld Christensen, a 54-year-old engineer.

“It’s really too hard to say who will be part of the coalition,” admitted Stubager.

With 12 parties in parliament, the political landscape is jagged — though Denmark is accustomed to minority governments.

“To some extent, this is the way Danish politics works. You have a minority government in the centre which forms a majority with the left on some issues and with the right on others,” he explained.

The negotiations are expected to focus on economic and pension issues, pollution and immigration, he said.

The traditional far-right party, the Danish People’s Party, which has heavily influenced policy since the late 1990s but slumped in the 2022 election, more than tripled its result to 9.1 per cent of votes.

The three anti-immigration groups together garnered 17 per cent, a stable figure for Denmark’s populist right over the past two decades.

“If negotiations take place in the left-wing bloc with the moderates, then there will be more focus on green issues than on immigration,” Stubager said.

“But if, instead, the Moderates negotiate with the parties on the right, then the central issue will be immigration.”

Four seats in Denmark’s parliament are held by its two autonomous territories — two for Greenland and two for the Faroe Islands.

While the Faroese renewed the mandates of the two outgoing lawmakers, with one for each bloc, Greenland overwhelmingly backed the left-wing party and Naleraq, which advocates rapid independence from Denmark.

AFP