MOSCOW: A massive drone attack on Russia’s southern city of Volgograd killed one person and caused a fire in an industrial area, a local official said Thursday, as Ukraine claimed to have struck a nearby refinery.
The attack hit a 24-story apartment block, damaging balconies and shattering windows of nearby houses, Volgograd governor Andrey Bocharov said on Telegram,
“A 48-year-old civilian man was killed by shrapnel from the attack,” he said.
“Falling debris caused a fire in an industrial area in the Krasnoarmeysky district,” he said, adding that the blaze had since been extinguished.
Volgograd, more than 400 kilometers (250 miles) from the fighting in eastern Ukraine, is an industrial hub home to gas and petroleum refining plants.
Ukraine has stepped up its drone attacks deep behind the front lines, targeting Russia’s energy sector, but fatal strikes so far from the border are still relatively rare.
Unverified images circulating on social media showed a large fire at an oil refinery in the region and an apartment block with charred black marks on the outside and smashed glass strewn across a parking lot.
Ukraine said it had successfully hit the oil facility.
“Explosions and a fire were recorded in the target area,” the Ukrainian General Staff said on Telegram.
Kyiv’s security chief said recently that Ukraine had carried out nearly 160 successful strikes on Russian oil facilities so far this year.
Russia’s defense ministry said it had downed 75 Ukrainian drones, the majority over the Volgograd region.
Moscow, whose forces launched a full-scale offensive on Ukraine in 2022, has also escalated aerial attacks on Ukrainian energy facilities and its rail network, triggering warnings the country could face a winter of power blackouts and disruption to heating supplies.
Russia fired 135 drones at Ukraine overnight, Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky said Thursday.
Eight people were wounded in the Dnipropetrovsk region when a drone hit a residential building, he said.
“The targets are our critical infrastructure — everything that supports ordinary civilian life,” Zelensky said, urging Western allies to slap more sanctions on Russia.
Ukraine drone attack kills one in Russia as Kyiv claims refinery hit
https://arab.news/c3s96
Ukraine drone attack kills one in Russia as Kyiv claims refinery hit
- Ukraine has stepped up its drone attacks deep behind the front lines, targeting Russia’s energy sector, but fatal strikes so far from the border are still relatively rare
Poland to seek help from two other countries in Epstein investigation
- The Polish National Prosecutor’s Office confirmed in its statement that it had initiated an investigation into human trafficking
- Prosecutors suspect the trafficking consisted of recruiting women and girls for work abroad
WARSAW: Poland will ask two other European countries for information and evidence needed for its investigation into human trafficking related to late US sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, prosecutors said on Wednesday.
In a statement, they said documents from the Epstein files indicated a reasonable suspicion that human trafficking had taken place in Poland. They did not name the European countries they would contact but a source familiar with the matter told Reuters the prosecutors would ask France and Sweden for help.
The US Justice Department’s release of millions of internal documents related to Epstein has revealed the late financier and sex offender’s ties to many prominent people in politics, finance, academia and business — both before and after he pleaded guilty in 2008 to prostitution charges.
In February, Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk announced that Poland would launch an investigation into possible links between Epstein and Russian intelligence, as well as any offenses affecting Polish citizens.
The Polish National Prosecutor’s Office confirmed in its statement that it had initiated an investigation into human trafficking committed in the period from 2009 to August 2019 on the territory of Poland and other countries.
Prosecutors suspect the trafficking consisted of recruiting women and girls for work abroad under false pretenses and of then transporting them outside Poland and handing them over to other people for sexual exploitation, the statement said.
Files reviewed by Reuters show that a man called Daniel Siad had informed Epstein about his travels through Poland, Slovakia, the Czech Republic, among other countries, scouting for models.
He also mentioned his cooperation with Jean-Luc Brunel, a key suspect and longtime Epstein associate, who died in a French prison in 2022.
According to Polish media reports, Siad was born in Algeria and moved to Sweden at the age of 23.
Reuters reached out to him on two phone numbers and an email address found in the files, but has not yet received answers to questions sent.
In February, Swedish newspaper Expressen quoted Siad as saying he had never committed a crime and was open to talking to investigators in any interested country.
