KYIV: Russian attacks on eastern and southern Ukraine killed two people and wounded 10 others, officials said Wednesday, as Kyiv called for Patriot air defense systems to battle a surge in missile strikes.
Moscow has escalated its aerial attacks on Ukraine in the past few weeks, targeting key infrastructure including power stations in retaliation for fatal bombardment of Russia’s border regions.
A 55-year-old man was killed by artillery fire in Ukraine’s southeastern city of Nikopol, Dnipropetrovsk region head Sergiy Lysak said.
The governor of Ukraine’s southern Kherson region, which is partially occupied by Russia, said one woman had been killed in a drone attack on the village of Mykhailivka.
Ukrainian forces retook swathes of the Black Sea territory in late 2022 but Russia has been shelling recaptured towns and villages since.
“A 61-year-old local resident was fatally wounded in her own home,” the official, Oleksandr Prokudin, wrote on social media.
The governor of the neighboring Mykolaiv region said later that a Russian ballistic missile had struck the coastal territory, leaving six wounded, with one in a critical condition.
Separately, the governor of the eastern Kharkiv region, Oleg Sinegubov, said three men and one woman all over the age of 50 were injured in separate strikes on towns and villages in the region.
The mayor of the region’s capital, also called Kharkiv, said that a strike on a residential neighborhood had left “dead and wounded,” but did not give details about casualties.
The Ukrainian air force said Russia had launched 13 Iranian-designed attack drones at Ukraine overnight and that 10 were downed over the Kharkiv region, the neighboring Sumy region and near the capital Kyiv.
During an online briefing Wednesday, Ukraine’s Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba called for urgent deliveries of air defense systems to ward off an increase in ballistic missile strikes.
“The peculiarity of the current Russian attacks is the intensive use of ballistic missiles that can reach targets at extremely high speeds, leaving little time for people to take cover and causing significant destruction,” Kuleba said.
“Patriot and other similar systems are defensive by definition. They are designed to protect lives, not take them,” he said.
Ukraine has been forced onto the defensive in the past few months as it struggles with ammunition shortages and a hold up to a $60 billion aid package from Washington.
It has also been forced to concede ground to Russia on the eastern front in recent months, warning earlier this week of “difficult” battles around the eastern city of Chasiv Yar.
Russia meanwhile announced that its air defense systems had shot down 18 rockets near the border city of Belgorod, which has recently seen an uptick in fatal Ukrainian attacks.
The governor of Russia’s Belgorod region, Vyacheslav Gladkov, said one person was wounded during the barrage.
Two dead, 10 wounded in Russian attacks on Ukraine
https://arab.news/49etb
Two dead, 10 wounded in Russian attacks on Ukraine
- Moscow has escalated its aerial attacks on Ukraine in the past few weeks, targeting key infrastructure including power stations
- A 55-year-old man was killed by artillery fire in Ukraine’s southeastern city of Nikopol
Two high-speed trains derail in Spain, police sources say 21 people killed
- The accident happened near Adamuz, in Cordoba province. So far, 21 people have been confirmed dead by police
MADRID: A high-speed train derailed and smashed into another oncoming train in southern Spain on Sunday, pushing the second train off the tracks in a collision that police sources confirmed to Reuters had killed at least 21 people.
The accident happened near Adamuz, in Cordoba province. So far, 21 people have been confirmed dead by police, with state broadcaster Television Espanola adding that 100 people had been injured, 25 seriously. The driver of one of the trains, which was traveling from Madrid to Huelva, was among those who died, the TV station added.
“The Iryo 6189 Malaga — (to Madrid) train has derailed from the track at Adamuz, crashing onto the adjacent track. The (Madrid) to Huelva train which was traveling on the adjacent track has also derailed,” said Adif, which runs the rail network, in a social media post.
Adif said the accident happened at 6:40 p.m. (1740 GMT), about 10 minutes after the Iryo train left Cordoba heading toward Madrid.
Iryo is a private rail operator, majority-owned by Italian state-controlled railway group Ferrovie dello Stato. The train involved was a Freccia 1000 train which was traveling between Malaga and Madrid, a spokesperson for Ferrovie dello Stato said.
The company said in a statement that it deeply regretted what had happened and had activated all emergency protocols to work closely with the relevant authorities to manage the situation.
The second train was operated by Renfe, which also did not respond to a request for comment.
Adif has suspended all rail services between Madrid and Andalusia.
HORRIFIC SCENE
The Iryo train had more than 300 passengers on board, while the Renfe train had around 100.
Paco Carmona, Cordoba fire chief, told TVE the first train heading to Madrid from Malaga had been evacuated.
The other train’s carriages were badly damaged, he said, with twisted metal and seats. “There are still people trapped. We don’t know how many people have died and the operation is concentrating on getting people out of areas which are very narrow,” he said. “We have to remove the bodies to reach anyone who is still alive. It is proving to be a complicated task.”
Transport Minister Oscar Puente said he was following events from rail operator Adif’s headquarters in Madrid.
“The latest information is very serious,” he posted on X. “The impact was terrible, causing the first two carriages of the Renfe train to be thrown off the track. The number of victims cannot be confirmed at this time. The most important thing now is to help the victims.”
The mayor of Adamuz, Rafael Moreno, told El Pais newspaper that he had been among the first to arrive at the scene of the accident alongside the local police and saw what he believed to be a badly lacerated body several meters from the accident site.
“The scene is horrific,” he said. “I don’t think they were on the same track, but it’s not clear. Now the mayors and residents of the area are focused on helping the passengers.”
CALLS FOR MEDICS
Images on local television showed a reception center set up for passengers in the town of Adamuz, population 5,000, with locals coming and going with food and blankets amid nighttime temperatures of around 42 degrees Fahrenheit (6 degrees Celsius).
A woman named Carmen posted on X that she had been on board the Iryo train to Madrid. “Ten minutes after departing (from Cordoba) the train started to shake a lot, and it derailed from coach 6 behind us. The lights went out.”
Footage posted by another Iryo train passenger, also on X, showed an Iryo staffer in a fluorescent jacket instructing passengers to remain in their seats in the darkened carriages, and those with first aid training to keep watch over fellow passengers. He also urged people to maintain mobile phone batteries to be able to use their torches when they disembarked.
Salvador Jimenez, a journalist for RTVE who was on board the Iryo train, shared images showing the nose of the rear carriage of the train lying on its side, with evacuated passengers sitting on the side of the carriage facing upwards.
Jimenez told TVE by phone from beside the stricken trains that passengers had used emergency hammers to smash the windows and climb out, and they had seen two people taken out of the overturned carriages on stretchers.
“There’s a certain uncertainty about when we’ll get to Madrid, where we’ll spend the night, we’ve had no message from the train company yet,” he said. “It’s very cold but here we are.”
