KYIV: Multiple Russian attacks killed at least seven and wounded more than two dozen others in the eastern Donetsk region of Ukraine on Friday, officials said.
Moscow has centered its firepower on the industrial region, which it claims to have annexed and has been partially controlled by Kremlin-backed forces since 2014.
Russian-installed officials also said Ukrainian shelling killed five people on its side of the front line in the Donetsk region.
Two Russian strikes on the town of Selydove, which lies close to the front where Moscow’s forces are advancing, killed at least five and injured eight, regional governor Vadym Filashkin said.
“Russians dropped two guided aerial bombs on the town,” he said in a statement on Telegram.
The regional prosecutor’s office said the strikes were an hour apart and used cluster munitions and a glide bomb.
A 32-year-old woman was killed and 20 others were wounded by Russian shelling in the town of Komar, damaging homes, shops, and an administrative building, Filashkin also said.
And one person was killed and another was wounded in a Russian Smerch rocket attack on the town of Ukrainsk.
“It is dangerous to stay here, as well as in the rest of Donetsk region,” he wrote on social media.
Further north in the Donetsk region, Russian forces are pushing toward the hilltop settlement of Chasiv Yar.
Images distributed by Ukrainian forces show rows of destroyed and smoldering Soviet-era housing blocks in the town.
Denis Pushilin, the Moscow-installed official of the Donetsk region, said five people were killed in various Ukrainian attacks on territory that Russia controls.
Russia claimed to have annexed the Donetsk region in 2022, even though its forces do not have full control of the area.
In Moscow, Russian President Vladimir Putin told Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban that Ukraine must abandon four regions in the east and south — including Donetsk — if Kyiv wants peace.
Russian strikes kill 7, wound dozens in east Ukraine
https://arab.news/rbnzj
Russian strikes kill 7, wound dozens in east Ukraine
- Moscow has centered its firepower on the industrial region
- Two Russian strikes on the town of Selydove, which lies close to the front where Moscow’s forces are advancing, killed at least five and injured eight
Israeli firm loses British Army contract bid
- Subsidiary Elbit Systems UK’s campaign for $2.6bn program was marred by controversy
- Senior govt civil servant overseeing contract was dined, handed free Israel tour
LONDON: A UK subsidiary of Israeli weapons giant Elbit Systems has lost its bid to win a prominent British Army contract, The Times reported.
The loss followed high-profile reporting on controversy surrounding Elbit Systems UK’s handling of the bid.
The subsidiary led one of two major arms consortiums attempting to secure the $2.6 billion bid to prepare British soldiers for war and overhaul army standards.
Rivaling Elbit, the other consortium led by Raytheon UK, a British subsidiary of the US defense giant, ultimately won the contract, a Ministry of Defence insider told The Times.
It had been decided following an intricate process that Raytheon was a “better candidate,” the source said.
Elbit Systems UK’s controversial handling of its contract campaign was revealed in reports by The Times.
A whistleblower had compiled a dossier surrounding the bid that was shown to the MoD last August, though the report was privately revealed to the ministry months earlier.
It alleged that Elbit UK had breached business appointment rules when Philip Kimber, a former British Army brigadier, had reportedly shared information with the firm after leaving the military.
Kimber attending critical meetings at the firm to discuss the training contract that he had once overseen at the ministry, the report alleged.
In one case, Kimber was present in an Elbit meeting and sitting out of view of a camera. He reportedly said he “should not be there,” according to the whistleblower’s report.
In response to a freedom of information request, the MoD later admitted that it had held the dossier for seven months without investigating its claims. Insiders at the ministry blamed the investigative delay on “administrative oversight.”
A month after being pushed on the allegations by The Times, a senior civil servant completed an “assurance review” in September and found that business appointment rules had not been breached.
Other allegations concerned lunches and dinners hosted by Elbit UK in which civil servants at the heart of the contract decision process were invited.
One senior civil servant was dined by the British subsidiary seven times, while rival Raytheon did not host events.
Mike Cooper, the senior responsible owner at army headquarters for the army training program, also traveled to Jerusalem with two senior British military officers.
He took part in a sightseeing tour funded by Elbit Systems, the British subsidiary’s parent company.
In response to the allegations, an MoD spokesperson said in a statement: “The collective training transformation programme will modernise training for soldiers to ensure the British Army can face down the threats of the future.
“We will not comment further until a preferred tenderer announcement is made public in due course.”
Amid mounting criticism of Israel within the British military establishment, four former senior army officers, in a letter to Prime Minister Keir Starmer, recently urged the government to end involvement with Israeli-owned or Israeli-supported weapons companies.
“Now is not the time to return to business as usual with the Israeli government,” they wrote, urging harsher sanctions.
