Russia, Ukraine continue air attacks with ceasefire prospects uncertain

In this photo provided by the Ukrainian Emergency Service, firefighters put out a fire at a apartment building following a Russian drone attack in Chernihiv, Ukraine, Sunday, March 16, 2025. (Ukrainian Emergency Service via AP)
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Updated 16 March 2025
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Russia, Ukraine continue air attacks with ceasefire prospects uncertain

  • Both sides have since traded heavy aerial strikes, and Russia moved closer on battlefield to ejecting Ukrainian forces from their months-old foothold

Russia and Ukraine continued aerial attacks on each other, inflicting injuries and damages, officials said early on Sunday, as the fate of a proposed ceasefire to the three-year-old war remained uncertain.
Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Thursday he supported in principle Washington’s proposal for a 30-day ceasefire with Ukraine but that his forces would fight on until several crucial conditions were worked out.
Both sides have since traded heavy aerial strikes, and Russia moved closer on battlefield to ejecting Ukrainian forces from their months-old foothold in the western Russian region of Kursk.
The Russian defense ministry said on Sunday that its air defense units destroyed a total of 31 Ukrainian drones over Russian territory.
Of those, 16 were downed over the southwestern region of Voronezh, nine over the territory of the Belgorod region and the rest over the Rostov and Kursk regions, the ministry said on the Telegram messaging app.
In a Ukrainian drone attack on the Russian border region of Belgorod, three people were injured, including a 7-year-old, regional Governor Vyacheslav Gladkov said earlier on the Telegram messaging app.
Two of the people were injured after a drone hit their house, sparking a fire in the Gubkinsky district of the region, while the other person was injured in a drone attack on the village of Dolgoye, Gladkov said.
Alexander Gusev, governor of Voronezh, said on Telegram that there was no immediate reports of injuries or damage.
The acting governor of the southern Russian region of Rostov said there were no immediate reports of injuries or damage reported there either.
In Ukraine, authorities reported several Russian drone strikes, including on the northern region of Chernihiv, where firefighters were battling a blaze at a high-rise building that was sparked by Russian drone attack, Ukraine’s state of emergency service said.
Ukrainian media reported a series of explosions in the region surrounding the capital Kyiv, after Ukraine’s air force issued warnings of a threat of drone attacks on Kyiv and a number of other central Ukrainian regions.
By 0300 GMT on Sunday, there was no official information about damage in the Kyiv region.


Macron says EU move on Mercosur deal a ‘bad surprise’

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Macron says EU move on Mercosur deal a ‘bad surprise’

  • “For France, this is a surprise, and a bad one,” Macron said
  • The move showed “bad manners toward the European Parliament“

PARIS: President Emmanuel Macron denounced Friday the European Commission’s “bad manners” following its decision to provisionally apply the Mercosur trade deal and called the move a “bad surprise” for France.
EU chief Ursula von der Leyen said earlier Friday that the European Union will implement the mammoth trade deal with the South American Mercosur bloc while waiting for a top court’s ruling on its legality.
“For France, this is a surprise, and a bad one,” Macron said in a strongly-worded statement, adding the move showed “bad manners toward the European Parliament.”
“The European Commission has made the unilateral decision to provisionally apply the agreement with Mercosur, even though the European Parliament has not voted on it. It is thus taking on a very heavy responsibility.”
Speaking alongside Slovenia’s Prime Minister Robert Golob, Macron said he would make sure “that what we have negotiated hard for over the last few months is respected.”
“We will be uncompromising on compliance with these rules, because Europe has significantly tightened the rules on our producers in recent years,” Macron added.
“And so I will never defend an agreement that is lax on imports and tough on what we produce at home, because it is inconsistent for European consumers and criminal for European sovereignty,” he said.