KYIV: A Russian attack using cluster munitions killed three people Thursday in a suburb of Ukraine’s southern city of Kherson, a Ukrainian official said, bringing the number of civilians to die in a day of war to at least six.
Five people were wounded in what Ukrainian Interior Minister Ihor Klymenko said was heavy afternoon shelling of Kherson’s Chornobayivka suburb. More than 60 residential and infrastructure buildings were damaged in the daylight attack, he said.
Cluster munitions — a type of bomb that opens in the air and releases smaller “bomblets” across a wide area — are used by both Russia and Ukraine, which has received them as military aid from the United States. Critics say the weapons litter the ground and harm and kill many more civilians than combatants.
Kherson city is the capital of a region of the same name that is located on the Dnieper River near the mouth of the Black Sea and a key gateway to Crimea. Russia annexed the Crimean Peninsula from Ukraine in 2014 and uses it for logistics operations and rear supply depots during the current war.
Of military significance and lying on the war’s long front line, the Kherson region has been a stage for heavy fighting. Ukrainian troops last week reported gaining multiple bridgeheads on the Russian-held eastern side of the river.
Before the afternoon attack, Russian forces fired other parts of the province with eight nighttime artillery barrages, killing a 42-year-old man in his apartment building and wounding another man, the Ukrainian presidential office said.
Russian shelling also killed two people in the Donetsk region of eastern Ukraine, the office said.
It was not possible to independently verify the reports. Long-range Russian shelling that hits civilian areas has been a hallmark of Moscow’s 21-month war in Ukraine.
Meanwhile, Russian state media reported that TV journalist Boris Maksudov died after being wounded in a drone attack while working in southern Ukraine’s Russian-occupied Zaporizhzhia region.
Maksudov, who worked for Russian state television channel Russia 24, was hit Wednesday while working on a story about Ukraine allegedly shelling civilians, according to Russia’s Ministry of Defense. Zaporizhzhia is one of the four Ukrainian regions that Russia illegally annexed last year.
A stepped-up Russian bombardment of civilian infrastructure has prompted Ukraine and its Western allies to beef up air defense systems. Officials fear the Kremlin’s forces will repeat their aerial attacks on the Ukrainian power grid this winter in an effort to break the country’s will.
The grid is already showing signs of strain. Ukrainian national electricity operator Ukrenergo reported an energy deficit Wednesday due to a steep rise in consumption caused by a drop in temperatures after a spell of mild weather, a company statement said.
Ukrenergo asked system operators in Romania, Slovakia and Poland to provide emergency assistance.
At a meeting Wednesday of some 50 countries supporting Ukraine’s war effort, US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said they were placing extra emphasis on ground-based air defense, with Germany and France leading the European effort to furnish equipment.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said in a Telegram post that “Ukraine’s sky shield is getting more powerful literally every month.”
Ukraine says 3 civilians were killed in a daylight Russian cluster bomb attack
https://arab.news/ndfag
Ukraine says 3 civilians were killed in a daylight Russian cluster bomb attack
- Five people were wounded in what Ukrainian Interior Minister Ihor Klymenko said was heavy afternoon shelling of Kherson’s Chornobayivka suburb
- More than 60 residential and infrastructure buildings were damaged in the daylight attack
Drunk driver gets 24 years to life in prison for killing 4 people at July 4 barbecue in NYC park
- Judge April A. Newbauer sentenced Hyden on Friday to 24 years to life in prison
- The crash happened less than an hour after Hyden was refused entry to a nearby party boat and clashed with security
NEW YORK: Halena Herrera can’t cross a street without thinking about the pickup truck that barreled toward her, killing her best friend and three other people, at a New York City park two Fourth of Julys ago.
Daniel Hyden was drunk at the wheel as the Ford F-150 jumped a curb, bulldozed a chain-link fence and plowed into a group of friends and relatives who were holding a holiday barbecue at Corlears Hook Park in Manhattan. The truck stopped just feet from Herrera, its momentum halted by bodies trapped underneath.
Judge April A. Newbauer sentenced Hyden on Friday to 24 years to life in prison in the deaths of Ana Morel, 43; Lucille Pinkney, 59; her son, Herman Pinkney, 38; and Herrera’s best friend, Emily Ruiz, 30.
Seven people were hurt, including Herrera, who was hit in the face by debris.
“Learning that the only reason I lived was because four other people were dying under the car is still very hard to deal with,” Herrera told reporters after Hyden’s sentencing in state court in Manhattan.
“I’m glad that at least now there’s some sense of justice,” she said. “It doesn’t help much. It doesn’t bring anything back, but it’s good to have it over with, so I’m happy for that.”
Diamond Pinkney, Lucille’s son and Herman’s brother, said seeing Hyden sentenced was a “big relief.” The driver, a substance abuse counselor who wrote a 2020 book about coping with addiction, “knew what he did, he knew the possibility he could’ve caused and he did it,” Pinkney said.
Hyden, 46, from Monmouth, New Jersey, described it as an “accident” in his courtroom apology. He was convicted in November at a non-jury trial of murder, aggravated vehicular homicide and other charges.
“I’m processing how deeply disturbed and deeply hurt I was and still am. And I’m still processing the amount of people I hurt with my actions,” he said, standing in a room packed with victims, relatives of the people he killed and about two-dozen officers.
Hyden said he had broken his sobriety after his own sister was killed by a drunk driver in New Jersey in 2021. At the time of his crash in July 2024, he was preparing to speak at that driver’s sentencing, he said.
“What kind of human being would put other human beings through the same thing he was going through?” Hyden asked.
Herrera scoffed at Hyden’s newfound shame, telling reporters afterward: “He has shown no remorse from the very beginning, so for him to sit there and say that he’s sorry is just — I don’t believe any of it.”
The crash happened less than an hour after Hyden was refused entry to a nearby party boat and clashed with security. Police officers who responded to the boat incident testified that they didn’t witness anything warranting arrest, so they walked Hyden to a park bench and left.
He then got behind the wheel of the pickup truck, prosecutors said, accelerating through a stop sign at 39 mph (63 kph), speeding through a construction zone and zooming over sidewalk at up to 54 mph (87 kph) before reaching the park.
Hyden was pressing the gas pedal down fully and didn’t hit the brakes until half a second before he hit the crowd, prosecutors said. He then tried to put the vehicle in reverse, but witnesses pulled the keys from the ignition to stop him.
Hyden’s lawyer suggested he had a foot injury that complicated his driving.
“While this prison sentence will not reverse the fatalities, injuries, and trauma, I hope this sentencing brings a measure of comfort for those who were impacted by this mass casualty event,” Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg said in a statement. “If you are intoxicated, do not get behind the wheel — it risks the lives of others, and you will be prosecuted.”
Herrera and Pinkney both said they want Hyden to remain in prison for the rest of his life so he does not have a chance to hurt anyone else.
Herrera, who is studying to be a therapist, said she has had bouts of depression and struggles with post-traumatic stress — the horror of that night infecting her daily activities. But, she said, she has to stay strong for her 7-year-old son.
“Every day, I’m worried that something else can happen,” Herrera said. “You know of it — you know that death happens, you know that accidents happen and things happen. But to live it is a different thing.”
“So, now it’s like: Am I going to get hit by a car crossing the street? Is something going to happen to me?”
