KYIV: Russian shelling killed two civilians in the city of Sumy in northeastern Ukraine on Tuesday, President Volodymyr Zelensky said.
Zelensky said in a video on the Telegram messaging app that a rescue operation was underway at the site and more people could be under debris.
City officials earlier said that Sumy, located about 30 km (19 miles) from the Russian border, had been hit by a Russian airstrike at about 12.10 p.m. (1010 GMT). They said a car servicing station, several houses, and an educational building were damaged in the attack.
But Zelensky, citing preliminary findings, later said Sumy had been struck by a multiple-launch rocket system.
“It is realistic to protect against it only by destroying Russian weapons, the Russian launch systems on Russian territory. That is why the ability to strike at Russian territory is so important for us,” Zelensky said.
Russia’s defense ministry said that Ukraine hit Russia with US-produced ATACMS missiles twice over the last three days, adding that Moscow was preparing retaliatory measures.
The war between Russia and Ukraine is at a critical stage, with Moscow reported to be using North Korean troops and Kyiv using Western-supplied missiles to strike back inside Russia.
Russian shelling kills two in Ukraine’s Sumy, President Zelensky says
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Russian shelling kills two in Ukraine’s Sumy, President Zelensky says
- Zelensky said in a video on the Telegram messaging app that a rescue operation was underway at the site and more people could be under debris
- “It is realistic to protect against it only by destroying Russian weapons”
128 journalists killed worldwide in 2025: press group
- The press group voiced particular alarm over the situation in the Palestinian territories, where it recorded 56 media professionals killed in 2025
BRUSSELS, Belgium: A total of 128 journalists were killed around the world in 2025, more than half of them in the Middle East, the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) said Thursday.
The grim toll, up from 2024, “is not just a statistic, it’s a global red alert for our colleagues,” IFJ general secretary Anthony Bellanger told AFP.
The press group voiced particular alarm over the situation in the Palestinian territories, where it recorded 56 media professionals killed in 2025 as Israel’s war with Hamas ground on in Gaza.
“We’ve never seen anything like this: so many deaths in such a short time, in such a small area,” Bellanger said.
Journalists were also killed in Yemen, Ukraine, Sudan, Peru, India and elsewhere.
Bellanger condemned what he called “impunity” for those behind the attacks. “Without justice, it allows the killers of journalists to thrive,” he warned.
Meanwhile, the IFJ said that across the globe 533 journalists were currently in prison — a figure that has more than doubled over the past half-decade.
China once again topped the list as the worst jailer of reporters with 143 behind bars, including in Hong Kong, where authorities have been criticized by Western nations for imposing national security laws quashing dissent.
The IFJ’s count for the number of journalists killed is typically far higher than that of Reporters Without Borders, due to different counting methods. This year’s IFJ toll also included nine accidental deaths.
Reporters Without Borders said 67 journalists were killed in the course of their work this year, while UNESCO puts the figure at 93.
