Ukraine says Russian shelling kills two in east

A Ukrainian soldier takes a rest in a trench on the frontline near Liman, Lyman, Donetsk region on Mar. 29, 2024. (AP)
Short Url
Updated 30 March 2024
Follow

Ukraine says Russian shelling kills two in east

  • Krasnogorivka lies directly on the frontline in the eastern Donetsk region
  • “The town was under enemy fire during the night and morning,” Donetsk regional head Vadym Filashkin said

KYIV: Ukraine said Saturday that Russian shelling overnight and in the morning killed two elderly people in the eastern town of Krasnogorivka, and urged civilians still living there to evacuate.
Krasnogorivka lies directly on the frontline in the eastern Donetsk region, more than half of which is under the control of Russian forces and is an active combat zone.
“The town was under enemy fire during the night and morning. A 70-year-old woman and a 73-year-old man were killed,” Donetsk regional head Vadym Filashkin said on social media.
“Krasnogorivka has been on the frontline for 10 years and remains one of the most dangerous places in the country. Do not expose yourself to mortal danger. Evacuate,” he said.
Ukrainian forces have reported “difficult” battles on the eastern front in recent months as they face ammunition shortages and Russia launches relentless aerial strikes.
Moscow is outgunning Kyiv sixfold on the front lines, causing losses of troops and positions, Ukraine’s recently appointed commander-in-chief Oleksandr Syrsky said Friday.


Second doctor in Matthew Perry overdose case sentenced to home confinement

Updated 17 December 2025
Follow

Second doctor in Matthew Perry overdose case sentenced to home confinement

  • Dr. Mark Chavez, 55, a onetime San Diego-based physician, pleaded guilty in federal court in October
  • Judge Sherilyn Peace Garnett also sentenced Chavez to 300 hours of community service

LOS ANGELES: A second California doctor was sentenced on Tuesday to eight months of home confinement for illegally supplying “Friends” star Matthew Perry with ketamine, the powerful sedative that caused the actor’s fatal drug overdose in a hot tub in 2023.
Dr. Mark Chavez, 55, a onetime San Diego-based physician, pleaded guilty in federal court in October to a single felony count of conspiracy to distribute the prescription anesthetic and surrendered his medical license in November.
Judge Sherilyn Peace Garnett also sentenced Chavez to 300 hours of community service. As part of his plea agreement, Chavez admitted to selling ketamine to another physician Dr. Salvador Plasencia, 44, who in turn supplied the drug to Perry, though not the dose that ultimately killed the performer. Plasencia, who pleaded guilty to four counts of unlawful drug distribution, was sentenced earlier this month to 2 1/2 years behind bars.
He and Chavez were the first two of five people convicted in connection with Perry’s ketamine-induced death to be sent off to prison.
The three others scheduled to be sentenced in the coming weeks — Jasveen Sangha, 42, a drug dealer known as the “Ketamine Queen;” a go-between dealer Erik Fleming, 56; and Perry’s former personal assistant, Iwamasa, 60.
Sangha admitted to supplying the ketamine dose that killed Perry, and Iwamasa acknowledged injecting Perry with it. It was Iwamasa who later found Perry, aged 54, face down and lifeless, in the jacuzzi of his Los Angeles home on October 28, 2023.
An autopsy report concluded the actor died from the acute effects of ketamine,” which combined with other factors in causing him to lose consciousness and drown.
Perry had publicly acknowledged decades of substance abuse, including the years he starred as Chandler Bing on the hit 1990s NBC television series “Friends.”
According to federal law enforcement officials, Perry had been receiving ketamine infusions for treatment of depression and anxiety at a clinic where he became addicted to the drug.
When doctors there refused to increase his dosage, he turned to unscrupulous providers elsewhere willing to exploit Perry’s drug dependency as a way to make quick money, authorities said. Ketamine is a short-acting anesthetic with hallucinogenic properties that is sometimes prescribed to treat depression and other psychiatric disorders. It also has seen widespread abuse as an illicit party drug.