The Russia-installed head of occupied parts of Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk region said late on Monday that Ukrainian forces had launched heavy drone and missile attacks on two cities in the area, killing two people and injuring 16.
Denis Pushilin, writing on the Telegram messaging app, said Ukrainian forces had struck targets in the region’s main city, also called Donetsk, and in Makiivka, an industrial town further north.
There was no comment from Ukrainian officials on the attacks.
Russian news agencies quoted security officials in the occupied areas as saying that at least 20 drones had been deployed in the two assaults and that air defense units were in action. They said explosions had resounded throughout the city of Donetsk and the air was hanging heavy with smoke.
The popular Russian war blog Rybar said there had also been explosions in Yenakiievo, another Russian-held industrial town, where it said at least one apartment block had been hit.
Russian forces, which invaded Ukraine in February 2022, control a little less than 20 percent of all of Ukraine’s territory and about 75 percent of Donetsk region.
Russia has formally annexed four regions, including Donetsk, and is engaged in a slow drive westward to capture the rest of the area.
Russian-installed official reports Ukrainian attacks on Russian-held parts of Donetsk region
https://arab.news/y96n7
Russian-installed official reports Ukrainian attacks on Russian-held parts of Donetsk region
- Russia has formally annexed four regions, including Donetsk, and is engaged in a slow drive westward to capture the rest of the area
US ‘totally stupid’ to attack Iran during talks: UN ambassador
- “War was not our option. War was imposed on Iran,” Bahreini told UN correspondents
- “Nobody should expect Iran to show restraint in front of aggression”
GENEVA: The United States made a “totally stupid decision” to attack Iran while in negotiations, and betrayed Gulf nations by trashing their diplomatic efforts, Tehran’s UN ambassador said Tuesday.
Ali Bahreini, Iran’s ambassador in Geneva, insisted Tehran had no problem with its neighbors, but could not let US bases in the Gulf be used as launchpads for attacks on Iran.
“War was not our option. War was imposed on Iran,” Bahreini told UN correspondents.
“Nobody should expect Iran to show restraint in front of aggression.
“We will continue our defense until the point that this aggression is stopped,” he said.
On February 26, Washington and Tehran held indirect negotiations in Geneva on Iran’s nuclear program — with the Omani mediators reporting “significant progress.”
Bahreini was present for part of those talks and said “everybody was optimistic” and the US team “agreed to continue negotiations” in Vienna this week.
But Bahreini said Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had convinced US President Donald Trump to destroy diplomacy and attack Iran, with strikes starting on Saturday.
“It was a totally stupid decision. They will know in the future how stupid this decision has been. Both of them will understand, because Iran will firmly determine the situation and the destiny of this war,” he said.
“All our neighbors are now disappointed with the betrayal of the United States because everybody was working for diplomacy, particularly Oman.
“The US betrayed everybody.”
- ‘Not a regional war’ -
Tehran has launched strikes against countries in the region that host US bases.
“I cannot accept labelling what we are doing as reprisal. What we are doing is a kind of self-defense,” said Bahreini.
The ambassador said Iran’s problem was not with its neighbors, describing the Gulf countries as friends.
“We are in daily dialogue with our neighbors to convey to them the message that this war is not a war against our neighbors.
“This is not a regional war.
“But we cannot ignore the fact that the US bases in their lands are operational against us.
“In no way we can allow those bases to be used to make military operations against Iran.”
He said Iran’s operations were “exclusively” against US military targets, and said “there has been very serious order given to our military forces not to make any harm to civilians.”
Trump claimed Tuesday that the Iranian leadership “want to talk” but Bahreini insisted no approach had been made to Washington, saying “there hasn’t been any contact from our side” since the war erupted.
