KYIV: Ukraine said on Tuesday that a Russian overnight drone strike had killed a family of four in the northeastern Sumy region.
Oleg Grygorov, the head of the regional military administration, said Russian forces had hit a residential building in the village of Chernechchyna, in the Krasnopillia community.
“A couple with two young children lived in this house. Unfortunately, no one managed to escape,” Grygorov wrote on the Telegram platform.
“Rescuers (recovered) the bodies of four deceased people from under the rubble – parents and their sons, six and four years old,” he said.
“This is a terrible and irreparable loss for the entire community and the region.”
Russia’s defense ministry said it had “intercepted and destroyed” 81 Ukrainian drones overnight.
The governor of Volgograd, Andrey Bocharov, said the Russian military had repelled a “massive” Ukrainian drone attack over the southern region.
“According to preliminary information, there was no damage to structures or injuries,” Bocharov said.
On Sunday, a massive Russian drone and missile attack against Ukraine lasting 12 hours killed at least four people in the capital Kyiv, including a 12-year-old girl, and left dozens injured across the country.
Ukraine said it had been targeted by 595 drones and 48 missiles that night, most of which were shot down by air defenses.
The fighting in Ukraine is essentially taking place in the east and Russia controls about a fifth of Ukrainian territory.
On Monday, Russian President Vladimir Putin called up 135,000 men for routine military service, the country’s biggest autumn conscription drive since 2016.
Conscripts are expected to serve for a year at a military base inside Russia, not to fight in Ukraine, although there have been reports of conscripted men being sent to the front line.
Since launching his full-scale military assault on Ukraine in February 2022, Putin has put Russia on a war footing, boosting military spending to levels unseen since the Soviet era and expanding the size of the army.
Ukraine says Russia drone strike kills family of four in Sumy
https://arab.news/be5qp
Ukraine says Russia drone strike kills family of four in Sumy
- Russian forces hit a residential building in the village of Chernechchyna, in the Krasnopillia community
- Russia’s defense ministry meanwhile said it had “intercepted and destroyed” 81 Ukrainian drones overnight
US officials say Gaza stabilization force will not fight Hamas
- An American two-star general is under consideration to lead the ISF, but no decision has been made, officials said
NEW YORK: International troops could be deployed in the Gaza Strip as early as next month to form a UN-authorized stabilization force, two US officials said, but it remains unclear how Hamas will be disarmed.
Officials said the International Stabilization Force, or ISF, would not fight Hamas.
They said many countries have expressed interest in contributing, and US officials are currently working out the size of the ISF, its composition, housing, training, and rules of engagement.
There is a lot of quiet planning that’s going on behind the scenes right now for phase two of the peace deal.
Karoline Leavitt, White House spokesperson
An American two-star general is under consideration to lead the ISF, but no decision has been made, officials said.
Deployment of the force is a key part of the next phase of US President Donald Trump’s Gaza peace plan.
Under the first phase, a fragile ceasefire in the two-year war began on Oct.10, and Hamas released hostages, and Israel freed detained Palestinians.
“There is a lot of quiet planning that’s going on behind the scenes right now for phase two of the peace deal,” White House spokesperson Karoline Leavitt said.
“We want to ensure an enduring and lasting peace.”
Indonesia has said it is prepared to deploy up to 20,000 troops to take on health and construction-related tasks in Gaza.
“It is still in the planning and preparation stages,” said Rico Sirait, spokesperson of the Indonesian Defense Ministry.
“We are now preparing the organizational structure of the forces to be deployed.”
Israel still controls 53 percent of Gaza, while nearly all the 2 million people in the enclave live in the remaining Hamas-held area. The plan — which needs to be finalized by the so-called Board of Peace — is for the ISF to deploy in the area held by Israel, the US officials said.
Then, according to the Trump peace plan, as the ISF establishes control and stability, Israeli troops will gradually withdraw “based on standards, milestones, and timeframes linked to demilitarization.”
A UN Security Council resolution adopted on Nov. 17 authorized a Board of Peace and countries working with it to establish the ISF.
Trump said on Wednesday that an announcement on which world leaders will serve on the Board of Peace will be made early next year.
The Security Council authorized the ISF to work alongside newly trained and vetted Palestinian police to stabilize security “by ensuring the process of demilitarizing the Gaza Strip, including the destruction and prevention of rebuilding of the military, terror, and offensive infrastructure, as well as the permanent decommissioning of weapons from non-state armed groups.”
However, it remains unclear exactly how that would work.
US Ambassador to the UN Mike Waltz noted on Thursday that the Security Council authorized the ISF to demilitarize Gaza by all means necessary, which means the use of force.
“Obviously, that’ll be a conversation with each country,” he told Israel’s Channel 12, adding that discussions on rules of engagement were underway.
Hamas has said the issue of disarmament has not been discussed with them formally by the mediators — the US, Egypt, and Qatar — and the group’s stance remains that it will not disarm until a Palestinian state is established.
Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a speech on Sunday that the second phase would move toward demilitarization and disarmament.
“Now that raises a question: Our friends in America want to try and establish a multinational task force to do the job,” he said. “I told them I welcome it. Are volunteers here? Be my guest,” Netanyahu said.
“We know there are certain tasks that this force can perform ... but some things are beyond their abilities, and perhaps the main thing is beyond their abilities, but we will see about that,” he said.
