KYIV: Russia launched 20 drones and five missiles at Ukraine on Wednesday, killing two people in the Black Sea region of Odesa, damaging port infrastructure and hitting an energy facility in the northwest, officials said.
A truck driver and security guard were killed in the southern Odesa region during the missile attack, which damaged port warehouses, trucks and a civilian ship, regional governor Oleh Kiper said. A sailor was also wounded, he said.
Odesa region is the central hub for Ukraine’s Black Sea exports that it has revived without Russia’s assent after Moscow quit a UN-brokered deal last summer that had allowed Kyiv to export food during the war with Russia.
The region’s port facilities have been regularly attacked by long-range strikes by Moscow. Russia, which launched its full-scale invasion in February 2022, has repeatedly denied targeting civilians or civilian infrastructure in Ukraine.
Two shipping and insurance sources said a cargo ship had sustained minor damage from shrapnel, adding that it was unlikely that the vessel had been directly targeted.
Commercial ships have been able to sail in and out of certain Ukrainian ports, including Odesa, for the past year without suffering any damage, which has helped bring down the cost of insurance for shipments.
Additional war risk premiums for ships entering Ukrainian ports have hovered around 0.5 percent of the value of the ship for a number of months, the insurance source said, which still works out at hundreds of thousands of dollars in additional estimated costs for a seven-day voyage.
Separately, attack drones damaged an energy facility in the northwestern region of Rivne, the national grid operator said. A fire that broke out has been localized and no casualties were reported, governor Oleksandr Koval said.
The attack caused temporary power cuts in the region but did not require any changes to be made to scheduled power cuts, the Ukrenergo grid operator said.
Ukraine has been forced to introduce regular hours-long power cuts amid a supply shortage due to significant damage to power facilities since March caused by Russian air strikes.
Ukraine’s air force said in a statement that it had downed 14 of 20 drones over eight regions during the attack. It also prevented three of four Russian Kh-59/Kh-69 missiles from reaching their targets.
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Russian attack on Ukraine’s Odesa region kills two, damages port, Ukraine says
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Russian attack on Ukraine’s Odesa region kills two, damages port, Ukraine says
- A truck driver and security guard were killed in the southern Odesa region during the missile attack
- The region’s port facilities have been regularly attacked by long-range strikes by Moscow
China executes 11 linked to Myanmar scam compounds
- Fraud compounds where scammers lure Internet users have flourished across Southeast Asia
- The 11 people executed Thursday were sentenced to death in September by a court in Wenzhou
BEIJING: China executed 11 people linked telecom scam operations, on Thursday, state media reported, as Beijing toughens its response to the sprawling, transnational industry.
Fraud compounds where scammers lure Internet users into fake romantic relationships and cryptocurrency investments have flourished across Southeast Asia, including in the lawless borderlands of Myanmar.
Initially largely targeting Chinese speakers, the criminal groups behind the compounds have expanded operations into multiple languages to steal from victims around the world.
Those conducting the scams are sometimes willing con artists, and other times trafficked foreign nationals forced to work.
In recent years, Beijing has stepped up cooperation with regional governments to crack down on the compounds, and thousands of people have been repatriated to face trial in China’s opaque justice system.
The 11 people executed Thursday were sentenced to death in September by a court in the eastern Chinese city of Wenzhou, state news agency Xinhua said, adding that the court also carried out the executions.
Crimes of those executed included “intentional homicide, intentional injury, unlawful detention, fraud and casino establishment,” Xinhua said.
The death sentences were approved by the Supreme People’s Court in Beijing, which found that the evidence produced of crimes committed since 2015 was “conclusive and sufficient,” the report said.
Among the executed were “key members” of the notorious “Ming family criminal group,” whose activities had contributed to the deaths of 14 Chinese citizens and injuries to “many others,” Xinhua added.
Fighting fraud ‘cancer’
Fraud operations centered in Myanmar’s border regions have extracted billions of dollars from around the world through phone and Internet scams.
Experts say most of the centers are run by Chinese-led crime syndicates working with Myanmar militias.
The fraud activities — and crackdowns by Beijing — are closely followed in China.
Asked about the latest executions, a spokesman for Beijing’s foreign ministry said that “for a while, China has worked with Myanmar and other countries to combat cross-border telecom and Internet fraud.”
“China will continue to deepen international law enforcement cooperation” against “the cancer of gambling and fraud,” spokesman Guo Jiakun told a regular press conference.
The September rulings that resulted in Thursday’s executions also included death sentences with two-year reprieves to five other individuals.
Another 23 suspects were given prison sentences ranging from five years to life.
In November, Chinese authorities sentenced five people to death for their involvement in scam operations in Myanmar’s Kokang region.
Their crimes had led to the deaths of six Chinese nationals, according to state media reports.
The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime warned in April that the cyberscam industry was spreading across the world, including to South America, Africa, the Middle East, Europe and some Pacific Islands.
The UN has estimated that hundreds of thousands of people are working in scam centers globally.
Fraud compounds where scammers lure Internet users into fake romantic relationships and cryptocurrency investments have flourished across Southeast Asia, including in the lawless borderlands of Myanmar.
Initially largely targeting Chinese speakers, the criminal groups behind the compounds have expanded operations into multiple languages to steal from victims around the world.
Those conducting the scams are sometimes willing con artists, and other times trafficked foreign nationals forced to work.
In recent years, Beijing has stepped up cooperation with regional governments to crack down on the compounds, and thousands of people have been repatriated to face trial in China’s opaque justice system.
The 11 people executed Thursday were sentenced to death in September by a court in the eastern Chinese city of Wenzhou, state news agency Xinhua said, adding that the court also carried out the executions.
Crimes of those executed included “intentional homicide, intentional injury, unlawful detention, fraud and casino establishment,” Xinhua said.
The death sentences were approved by the Supreme People’s Court in Beijing, which found that the evidence produced of crimes committed since 2015 was “conclusive and sufficient,” the report said.
Among the executed were “key members” of the notorious “Ming family criminal group,” whose activities had contributed to the deaths of 14 Chinese citizens and injuries to “many others,” Xinhua added.
Fighting fraud ‘cancer’
Fraud operations centered in Myanmar’s border regions have extracted billions of dollars from around the world through phone and Internet scams.
Experts say most of the centers are run by Chinese-led crime syndicates working with Myanmar militias.
The fraud activities — and crackdowns by Beijing — are closely followed in China.
Asked about the latest executions, a spokesman for Beijing’s foreign ministry said that “for a while, China has worked with Myanmar and other countries to combat cross-border telecom and Internet fraud.”
“China will continue to deepen international law enforcement cooperation” against “the cancer of gambling and fraud,” spokesman Guo Jiakun told a regular press conference.
The September rulings that resulted in Thursday’s executions also included death sentences with two-year reprieves to five other individuals.
Another 23 suspects were given prison sentences ranging from five years to life.
In November, Chinese authorities sentenced five people to death for their involvement in scam operations in Myanmar’s Kokang region.
Their crimes had led to the deaths of six Chinese nationals, according to state media reports.
The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime warned in April that the cyberscam industry was spreading across the world, including to South America, Africa, the Middle East, Europe and some Pacific Islands.
The UN has estimated that hundreds of thousands of people are working in scam centers globally.
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