Russian attacks kill elderly man and woman in Kherson, Ukraine says
KYIV, May 19 (Reuters) - A man and woman in their seventies were killed in separate Russian attacks on the southern Ukrainian region of Kherson, police and regional officials said on Monday.
A 75-year-old woman was killed and two people were wounded in shelling late on Sunday of a central area of Kherson, the region's main city, local authorities and police said on the Telegram messaging app.
A 76-year-old man was killed in a drone attack on Monday morning on a residential area of the Kakhovka district of Kherson on the Dnipro River, the police said.
Photographs posted by the police on Telegram showed devastated buildings and vehicles after the attacks, which they said had damaged two apartment buildings, 17 private houses and a factory, among other infrastructure.
Russia, which began its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, did not immediately comment on the reports. It carried out its largest drone attack of the war on Sunday.
U.S. President Donald Trump is set to speak to Russian President Vladimir Putin later on Monday as the White House steps up efforts to end Russia's war in Ukraine.
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The Independent
9 minutes ago
- The Independent
Retaliation, regime change, sleeper cells and impeachment: The looming questions in the wake of Trump's attack on Iran
President Donald Trump bombed Iran's nuclear facilities just weeks after Israel began attacking the nation over concerns it was developing a nuclear weapon. What happens next? Should Americans expect retaliation from Iran? If so, where, and in what form? Secretary of State Marco Rubio said on Sunday that what happens next will largely be up to Iran and its response to the U.S.'s bombing. 'If the regime wants peace, we're ready for peace. If they want to do something else, they're incredibly vulnerable. They can't even protect their own airspace,' Rubio said on CBS's Face the Nation. How did the US attack Iran? On June 21, Trump initiated Operation Midnight Hammer, which saw B-2 bombers and missiles strike Iran's nuclear facilities where the U.S. and Israel believe Iran was enriching uranium for use in nuclear weapons. The Natanz and Isfahan nuclear sites were hit by a salvo of 30 Tomahawk Land Attack Missiles — cruise missiles with a range of at least 1,000 miles — fired from American submarines. At the Fordow nuclear site, which is located hundreds of feet underground, as many as six 30,000 munitions known as Massive Ordnance Penetrators — which are referred to by the Air Force designation GBU-57A/B — hit the site. The MOP so-called bunker-buster bombs were designed specifically to attack and destroy hardened facilities such as Fordow which are otherwise protected from typical munitions. The bombs used against Fordow were dropped from B-2 Spirit stealth bombers flying out of Whitman Air Force Base in Missouri. Will Iran retaliate? No one knows, perhaps not even Iranian leaders. Tehran could choose not to retaliate in an effort to reopen diplomatic options with the U.S., though its unclear if that would stop Israel from continuing to launch missiles into its territory. In 2020, after Trump assassinated Iranian general Qassim Suleimani, Iran launched a wave of missile attacks against U.S. troops in Iraq, but then pulled back from further retaliation, possibly in order to avoid a larger regional war. Iran could proceed in a similar fashion now. It's unclear if Ayatollah Khamenei will seek to re-establish diplomatic avenues with Trump. What can Iran do to the U.S.? Iran could seek to attack U.S. troops or U.S. assets in the region. The United States has about 40,000 troops stationed across the Middle East, in more than a dozen countries including in Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Kuwait and the UAE, and on ships in the region. It could also target U.S. commerce. Tehran could try to shut down the Strait of Hormuz, cutting off a vital shipping lane and blocking oil tankers from entering or leaving the Persian Gulf. Iran also has cyberwarfare capabilities or it could work with allied elements — like Al Qaeda — to carry out proxy attacks on U.S. and Israeli interests in the region. Is the U.S. at war? Officially, the U.S. would have to declare war, which requires Congressional approval. But that is mostly a formality. The U.S. did not declare war on Afghanistan or Iraq but still was involved in "boots on the ground" armed conflict in both countries. Asked directly during an interview with NBC's Kristen Welker whether the U.S. was now at war with Iran, Vice President JD Vance replied: 'No Kristen, we're not at war with Iran, we're at war with Iran's nuclear program.' Is the U.S. aiming for regime change? There have been mixed messages from the Trump administration about whether they are trying to bring down the Ayatollah's regime. The U.S. stated that regime change was an aim in its 2003 invasion of Iraq – something it achieved but at very great cost and leaving a long and controversial legacy. Vance told NBC's Kristen Welker on Sunday morning: 'Our view has been very clear that we don't want a regime change. We do not want to protract this or build this out any more than it's already been built out. We want to end their nuclear program and then we want to talk to the Iranians about a long-term settlement here.' However, several hours later, Trump appeared to contradict him with a post on his social media site: 'It's not politically correct to use the term, 'Regime Change,' but if the current Iranian Regime is unable to MAKE IRAN GREAT AGAIN, why wouldn't there be a Regime change??? MIGA!!!' What is the War Powers Resolution and can Trump be impeached over the attack? Trump's opponents have called his strike illegal, citing the War Powers Resolution of 1973, which requires the president to give Congress a 48-hour notification before taking any military action. It also limits the deployment of U.S. armed forces to 90 days without a formal declaration of war. Some Democrats have already accused Trump of violating the act. "The President's disastrous decision to bomb Iran without authorization is a grave violation of the Constitution and Congressional War Powers," Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, posted on X. If Trump did violate the Constitution and the War Powers Resolution, he could theoretically be impeached, but due to Republicans' control of both the House and the Senate, an impeachment vote would be extremely unlikely to succeed. 'This is not about the merits of Iran's nuclear program. No president has the authority to bomb another country that does not pose an imminent threat to the US without the approval of Congress. This is an unambiguous impeachable offense,' Democratic Congressman Sean Casten wrote on X. What has Iran said about the strikes? Iranian Minister of Foreign Affairs Abbas Araghchi accused the US of breaching international law in a social media post following the strike. 'The United States, a permanent member of the United Nations Security Council, has committed a grave violation of the UN Charter, international law and the NPT [Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty] by attacking Iran's peaceful nuclear installations,' Araghchi said. He called on the rest of the UN to share in Iran's outrage over the attack, and said that Iran 'reserves all options to defend its sovereignty, interest, and people'. 'The events this morning [Sunday] are outrageous and will have everlasting consequences. Each and every member of the UN must be alarmed over this extremely dangerous, lawless and criminal behavior," he said. According to a New York Times report, Iran's Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Khamenei, has taken shelter in a bunker since the start of Israel's missile attacks, and has named three possible successors to lead the country in the event of his assassination. What's the deal with sleeper cells? Following Saturday's strikes, which Trump claimed 'totally obliterated' Iran's nuclear sites of Fordow, Natanz and Isfahan, both White House and FBI officials have been on high alert for Iranian sleeper cells. Sleeper cells consist of spies or terrorists hiding out in the U.S. or Western countries that remain inactive, often living quiet and unassuming lives working regular jobs until they are ordered to act on a mission. According to reports, Tehran may now try to activate these covert spies – should they exist – after the U.S. joined Israel's military operations against Iran. Sleeper cells have been broken up in the U.S. in the past, such as in 2010 when 10 Russian sleeper agents were arrested and exchanged in a prisoner swap with Moscow. Who are Iran's allies? Iran's allies include some of the same groups and nations that oppose the U.S.'s role on the world's stage. Iran backs both the Lebanese militant force Hezbollah and Palestinian militants Hamas, and both groups would be considered allies of Iran. The Popular Mobilization Force in Iraq, Yemen's Houthi rebels, and Bashar Al-Assad's loyalists before his ousting in Syria are all also supporters of Iran. The country has also been supporting Russia in its war against Ukraine, and enjoys a relationship with Moscow. Similarly, Iran maintains a strategic and economic partnership with China. What has the rest of the world said about the U.S. strikes? The world's response to Trump's attack in Iran has been mixed, though most statements express concerns over what happens next. Democrats The Democrats have condemned Trump's attack, accusing him of pushing the nation toward all-out war with Iran. House Minority Leader Congressman Hakeem Jeffries issued a scathing response to Trump's attacks. 'President Trump misled the country about his intentions, failed to seek congressional authorization for the use of military force and risks American entanglement in a potentially disastrous war in the Middle East,' Congressman Hakeem Jeffries said in a statement. 'Donald Trump shoulders complete and total responsibility for any adverse consequences that flow from his unilateral military action.' United Nations United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres said he was "gravely alarmed" by Trump's action. 'This is a dangerous escalation in a region already on the edge – and a direct threat to international peace and security', he said. 'At this perilous hour, it is critical to avoid a spiral of chaos. There is no military solution. The only path forward is diplomacy. The only hope is peace.' United Kingdom In the United Kingdom, Prime Minister Keir Starmer cautioned Iran to seek a diplomatic response and insisted maintaining stability in the region was a priority, according to a statement from Downing Street. 'Iran's nuclear programme is a grave threat to international security. Iran can never be allowed to develop a nuclear weapon and the US has taken action to alleviate that threat,' Starmer said in a statement. European Union The European Union walked the line, saying that it agreed that Iran must be stopped from developing a nuclear weapon, but also urging restraint from both Tehran and the U.S. and Israel. Israel Israel praised Trump's actions. 'Congratulations, President Trump. Your bold decision to target Iran's nuclear facilities with the awesome and righteous might of the United States will change history,' Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a televised address. 'History will record that President Trump acted to deny the world's most dangerous regime the world's most dangerous weapons.' Russia Russia brushed off the attack, saying that it didn't do anything to stop Iran's alleged nuclear ambitions. The deputy head of President Vladimir Putin's Security Council, former president Dmitry Medvedev, said in a statement that multiple nations would be willing to provide Iran with nuclear weapons — though he did not specify which — and said the strike caused minimal damage to Iran's nuclear facilities. China The Chinese foreign ministry also "strongly condemned" the attack, saying they 'seriously violate the purposes and principles of the UN Charter and international law, and have exacerbated tensions in the Middle East' 'China calls on the parties to the conflict, Israel in particular, to reach a ceasefire as soon as possible, ensure the safety of civilians, and start dialogue and negotiation,' the foreign ministry said on X. 'China stands ready to work with the international community to pool efforts together and uphold justice, and work for restoring peace and stability in the Middle East." Latin/South America and Iran's regional allies Several Latin and South American countries with left-wing governments condemned Trump's attacks. Mexico, Venezuela, Cuba, and Chile, all voiced their opposition to the U.S.'s attack. Iran's allies, Hamas, Hezbollah, and the Houthis, all strongly condemned the attacks in their own statements.
Sky News
43 minutes ago
- Sky News
Israel-Iran live: Trump calls to 'make Iran great again' - as Tehran urges UN over 'historic test'
Donald Trump has asked why there would not be a "regime change" in Iran following US strikes, calling to "make Iran great again". Meanwhile, Iran's UN envoy says the current situation provides a "historic test" for the body. Watch and follow the latest below.
BBC News
an hour ago
- BBC News
How the US says it hit Iran's nuclear sites
A continuous flight over 18 hours, multiple mid-air refuelings, and a series of decoys - this is how the mission to bomb Iran's nuclear facilities played out, according to four-star General Dan Caine, the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the highest-ranking officer in the US the full impact of what the US is calling 'Operation Midnight Hammer' is still unclear, a timeline of how the complex mission unfolded was laid out in a Pentagon briefing on Sunday morning, mere hours after the bombers went "in and out and back without the world knowing at all", US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth told reporters. It all began just after midnight when Secretary Hegseth joined US President Donald Trump, Vice-President JD Vance, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, and elite Pentagon staff in the Situation Room at the White House to watch as a fleet of aircraft departed an American airbase in rural the cover of darkness, B-2 stealth bombers took off from Whiteman Air Force Base at 00:01 EDT (05:01 BST), according to the ultimate target: Iran's most secure nuclear subsonic jets, which travel just below the speed of sound, flew over the Atlantic Ocean loaded with powerful "bunker buster" bombs capable of penetrating concrete over 18m (60ft) the kind of weaponry needed to hit Iran's nuclear enrichment facility at Fordo, which is buried below a mountain deep underground and considered to be the epicentre of the country's nuclear programme. The US is the only country in the world known to possess this type of weapon. But the world wasn't watching - yet. All eyes were facing west, towards the Pacific Ocean, following reports bombers had been sent to the US island territory of Guam."While the deployment is not being officially connected to discussions around the US joining Israel's war on Iran, few will doubt the link," the BBC wrote at the it was just a ruse - according to the account delivered by the Pentagon - a decoy to distract from the top-secret flights heading straight for Iran over the Atlantic. The planes that flew west over the Pacific were "a deception effort known only to an extremely small number of planners and key leaders," Gen Caine said."The main strike package comprised of seven B-2 spirit bombers, each with two crew members, proceeded quietly to the east with minimal communications," he military planes don't show up on flight tracking websites, making it difficult for the BBC to independently verify the Pentagon's description of the although satellite images can help show the extent of damage at the sites overnight, they can't tell us the exact times when they were the fleet made it to the Middle East, sometime around 17:00 EDT (22:00 BST), it was joined by support aircraft that helped protect the bombers by sweeping in front of them to look for enemy fighters and surface-to-air missile threats, in what Gen Caine called a "complex, tightly timed manoeuvre".But Iranian fighter jets didn't take off and no air defences appeared to fire a shot, according to US officials."Israeli dominance over Iranian airspace primed the pump for American bombers to operate with impunity," Patrycja Bazylczyk, a missile defence expert at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington DC, told BBC next hour and forty minutes were described by Gen Caine during the Pentagon briefing in a level of detail not normally disclosed to the the briefing provided timings for certain events, the map showing the bombers' journey wasn't a specific flight path and differed slightly in two versions Trump administration has proclaimed the subsequent events as a total victory, claiming the US had "obliterated" Iran's nuclear regime. But the true extent of the damage, and its aftermath, has yet to be Iran has confirmed the attacks, it has minimised the extent of the damage and has not provided a specific account of the sequence of around 17:00 EDT (22:00 BST) US officials say more than two dozen Tomahawk land attack cruise missiles were launched from a US submarine stationed in the Arabia Sea towards the nuclear site near Isfahan, a city of about two million the nuclear facility there is hundreds of kilometres inland, the submarines were close enough to enable the cruise missiles to impact at roughly the same time as the stealthy B-2s dropped their "bunker buster" bombs over the other two nuclear sites, said Dr Stacie Pettyjohn, a defence expert at the Center for a New American all meant that the US was able to provide "a coordinated surprise attack on multiple sites", she told BBC the fleet of bombers entered Iranian airspace, where the US employed several other deception tactics, including more decoys, according to the the air strikes lead bomber dropped two GBU-57 Massive Ordnance Penetrator weapons - known as MOPs - on the first of several targets at Fordo at about 18:40 EDT (23:40 BST), just after 02:00 in the morning in MOP bomb is able to drop through about 18m (60ft) of concrete or 61m (200ft) of earth before exploding, according to experts. This means that although it's not guaranteed success, it is the only bomb in the world that could come close to impacting the depth of tunnels at the Fordo facility - thought to be 80-90m (262-295ft) below the was the first time the "bunker buster" bombs were ever dropped in a real combat operation. The remaining bombers then hit their targets - with a total of 14 MOPs dropped on Fordo and a second nuclear facility at Natanz, according to the Pentgaon. And at the Isfahan nuclear site, over 200km away from Fordo, the Tomahawk missiles hit their the planes spent 18 hours in the air, all the targets were hit in just about 25 minutes before they exited Iran at 19:30 EDT (00:30 BST) to return to the US, according to the total, about 75 precision guided weapons and more than 125 US aircraft were used, and Secretary Hegseth claimed the mission provided "powerful and clear" destruction of Iran's nuclear evidence of the full scope of the strikes will take time to assess - with more footage needed to see how deep underground the bunker buster bombs were able to penetrate at the key nuclear sites."This was an incredibly complicated and very sophisticated attack that no other country in the world could have performed," Dr Pettyjohn said."Despite the success of the operation tactically, it is unclear if it will achieve the goal of permanently setting back Iran's nuclear program." What do you want BBC Verify to investigate?
