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
Bolivia and Israel to restore ties severed over the war in Gaza
- Paz's government eased visa restrictions on American and Israeli travelers last month
- The Bolivian foreign ministry said its top diplomat would meet his Israeli counterpart in Washington later Tuesday to discuss the revival of bilateral ties
LA PAZ, Bolivia: Bolivia's new right-wing government said Tuesday that it would restore diplomatic relations with Israel, the latest sign of the dramatic geopolitical realignment underway in the South American country that was once among the most vocal critics of Israeli policies toward Palestinians.
The Bolivian foreign ministry said its top diplomat would meet his Israeli counterpart in Washington later Tuesday to discuss the revival of bilateral ties, which Bolivia's previous left-wing government severed two years ago over Israel's devastating campaign against Hamas in Gaza.
Bolivia said the effort came as part of a new foreign policy strategy under conservative President Rodrigo Paz aimed at “rebuilding Bolivia's international prestige, opening new economic opportunities and strengthening alliances that directly benefit the country and our citizens abroad."
Bolivian Foreign Minister Fernando Aramayo is in the midst of a whirlwind trip to Washington for meetings with American officials as his government works to warm long-chilly relations with the United States and unravel nearly two decades of hard-line, anti-Western policies under the Movement Toward Socialism, or MAS, party that left Bolivia economically isolated and diplomatically allied with China, Russia and Venezuela.
Paz's government eased visa restrictions on American and Israeli travelers last month.
In announcing his expected meeting with Aramayo on Monday, Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar thanked Bolivia for scrapping Israeli visa controls and said he spoke to Paz after the center-right senator's Oct. 19 election victory to express “Israel’s desire to open a new chapter” in relations with Bolivia.
Paz entered office last month, ending the dominance of the MAS party founded by Evo Morales, the charismatic former coca-growing union leader who became Bolivia's first Indigenous president in 2006. Not long after taking power, Morales sent Israel's ambassador packing and cozied up to Iran over their shared enmity toward the U.S. and Israel.
When protests over Morales' disputed 2019 reelection prompted him to resign under pressure from the military, a right-wing interim government took over and restored full diplomatic relations with the U.S. and Israel as it sought to undo many of Morales’ popular policies.
But 2020 elections brought the MAS party back to power with the presidency of Luis Arce, who in 2023 once again cut ties with Israel in protest over its military actions in Gaza.
Other left-wing Latin American countries, like Chile and Colombia, soon made similar moves, recalling their ambassadors and joining South Africa’s genocide case against Israel before the United Nations’ highest judicial body.
