KYIV: A large Russian drone and missile barrage on Ukraine’s western city of Ternopil killed at least 25 people, including three children, authorities said Wednesday, as President Volodymyr Zelensky went to Turkiye in search of diplomatic support for his fight against Russia’s invasion.
The nighttime attack hit two nine-story apartment blocks in Ternopil, located around 200 kilometers (120 miles) from the Polish border, according to Interior Minister Ihor Klymenko. At least 73 people, including 15 children, were injured, emergency services said.
At least 19 among those killed were burned alive, including three children aged 5, 7 and 16, Klymenko said. Two dozen people are still unaccounted for, he said on national television, and rescuers expect to work at least two more days to complete the search of rubble.
Russia fired 476 strike and decoy drones, as well as 48 missiles of various types, at Ukrainian targets overnight, Ukraine’s air force said. The bombardment included 47 cruise missiles, with air defenses intercepting all but six of them, the air force said. Western-supplied F-16 and Mirage-2000 jets intercepted at least 10 cruise missiles, it said.
“Every brazen attack against ordinary life indicates that the pressure on Russia (to stop the war) is insufficient,” Zelensky wrote on the messaging app Telegram.
Zelensky meets with Turkish president
Zelensky met with Turkiye’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in Ankara later Wednesday as part of his efforts to diplomatically isolate Russian President Vladimir Putin and bring more international pressure to bear on him. Putin has so far resisted making compromises, despite US pressure.
In brief statements to the press, Zelensky and Erdogan expressed their commitment to finding a peaceful settlement. Turkiye is a key broker in the Black Sea region, preserving relations with both Ukraine and Russia.
“We count on the strength of Turkish diplomacy, on (how) it’s understood in Moscow,” Zelensky said.
Zelensky said before the talks that he had seen “some positions and signals from the United States” about the war. He didn’t elaborate but tough new American sanctions on Russia’s oil industry, devised to push Putin to the negotiating table, are due to take effect on Friday.
A senior Turkish official initially said that US special envoy Steve Witkoff would join Zelensky in Turkiye, but backtracked later in the day and said Witkoff wouldn’t be coming. The official spoke on the condition of anonymity Tuesday because he wasn’t permitted to speak publicly about the arrangements.
Romania and Poland scramble fighter jets
Ternopil sits in a part of relatively peaceful western Ukraine, where many people from the east and south moved to as they fled danger along the front line.
Almost 50 people were injured in Russian strikes on three other Ukrainian regions.
Russia’s Defense Ministry said it attacked Ukrainian energy facilities and military-industrial targets, including long-range drone depots, in retaliation against strikes by Kyiv on Russian territory.
Two Eurofighter Typhoon jets and two F-16s were scrambled in Romania when a drone entered the NATO member’s airspace during the Russian attacks, Romania’s Ministry of National Defense said.
The Polish military said that Polish and allied aircraft were deployed in the middle of the night as a preventive measure. Poland’s Rzeszów and Lublin airports were closed temporarily to prioritize military aviation, the Polish Air Navigation Services Agency said.
In northeastern Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second-largest city, Russian droned injured 46 people, including two girls, the head of the regional military administration, Oleh Syniehubov, wrote on Telegram. Drones hit several city districts, at least 16 residential buildings, an ambulance station, school and other civilian infrastructure, he said.
Russia’s Defense Ministry said Wednesday that Ukraine fired four American-supplied ATACMS missiles at the Russian city of Voronezh on Tuesday. All four were shot down, the ministry said, but the debris damaged a private house, an orphanage and a gerontology center. There were no casualties, the ministry said.
Ukraine’s General Staff on Tuesday reported firing ATACMS missiles at Russia without offering details.
Russian attack kills 25 in Ukraine’s Ternopil as Zelensky meets Erdogan in Turkiye
https://arab.news/cnz82
Russian attack kills 25 in Ukraine’s Ternopil as Zelensky meets Erdogan in Turkiye
- At least 19 among those killed were burned alive, including three children
- “Every brazen attack against ordinary life indicates that the pressure on Russia (to stop the war) is insufficient,” Zelensky wrote
At least 4 countries pull out of 2026 Eurovision contest as Israel’s participation sows discord
- The pullouts came after a general assembly of the European Broadcasting Union met to discuss concerns about Israel’s participation
- The feel-good pop music gala that draws more than 100 million viewers every year has been roiled by the war in Gaza for the past two years
GENEVA: Public broadcasters from at least four countries — including Spain and the Netherlands — on Thursday pulled out of next year’s Eurovision Song Contest after organizers decided to allow Israel to compete.
The developments expose how political discord has taken center stage over a usually joyful celebrating harmony through music.
The pullouts, which were joined by Ireland and Slovenia, came after a general assembly of the European Broadcasting Union — a group of public broadcasters from 56 countries that runs the event — met to discuss concerns about Israel’s participation, which some countries oppose over its conduct of the war in Gaza.
Earlier, EBUs members voted to adopt tougher voting rules in response to allegations that Israel manipulated the vote in favor of their contestants, but took no action to exclude any broadcaster from the competition.
The feel-good pop music gala that draws more than 100 million viewers every year has been roiled by the war in Gaza for the past two years.
A report on the website of Icelandic broadcaster RUV, meanwhile, said it would hold a meeting next Wednesday to discuss whether Iceland would take part, after its board last week recommended Israel be barred from the contest in Vienna next May.
The broadcasting union, in a statement emailed to The Associated Press, said it was aware that broadcasters from four countries — RTVE in Spain, AVROTROS in the Netherlands, RTE in Ireland, and Slovenia’s RTVSLO — had publicly said they would not take part.
“We await formal confirmation of their decision,” the union said. A final list of participating countries will be announced by Christmas.
Israeli President Isaac Herzog said on X that he was “pleased” Israel will again take part, “and I hope that the competition will remain one that champions culture, music, friendship between nations, and cross-border cultural understanding.”
“Thank you to all our friends who stood up for Israel’s right to continue to contribute and compete at Eurovision,” he added.
Austria, which is set to host the competition after Viennese singer JJ won this year with “Wasted Love,” supports Israel’s participation. Germany, too, was said to back Israel.
Dutch broadcaster AVROTROS said that the participation of Israel “is no longer compatible with the responsibility we bear as a public broadcaster.”
Spain’s state broadcaster RTVE echoed similar concerns: “We would like to express our serious doubts about the participation of Israeli broadcaster KAN in Eurovision 2026,” said Secretary General Alfonso Morales.
The EBU said the new rules would strengthen “transparency and trust” and allow all countries, including Israel, to participate.
“Eurovision is becoming a bit of a fractured event,” said Paul Jordan, an expert on the contest known as Dr. Eurovision. “The slogan is ‘United by Music’ ... unfortunately it’s disunited through politics.”
“It’s become quite a messy and toxic situation,” he said.
Divided over politics
The contest, whose 70th edition is scheduled for Vienna in May, pits acts from dozens of nations against one another for the continent’s musical crown.
It strives to put pop before politics, but has repeatedly been embroiled in world events. Russia was expelled in 2022 after its full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
The war in Gaza has been its biggest challenge, with pro-Palestinian protesters demonstrating against Israel outside the last two Eurovision contests in Basel, Switzerland, in May and Malmo, Sweden, in 2024.
Iceland, Ireland, the Netherlands, Slovenia and Spain had previously threatened to sit out the contest, if Israel was let in.
Opponents of Israel’s participation cite the war in Gaza, which has left more than 70,000 people dead, according to the territory’s Health Ministry, which operates under the Hamas-run government and whose detailed records are viewed as generally reliable by the international community.
Israel’s government has repeatedly defended its campaign as a response to the attack by Hamas-led militants that started the war on Oct. 7, 2023. The militants killed around 1,200 people — mostly civilians — in the attack and took 251 hostage.
A number of experts, including those commissioned by a UN body, have said that Israel’s offensive in Gaza amounts to genocide, a claim that Israel — home to many Holocaust survivors and their relatives — has vigorously denied.
Earlier, it wasn’t clear whether a decrease in violence in Gaza, where a US-brokered ceasefire is holding, or planned EBU plans to change voting processes would placate some broadcasters who opposed Israel’s participation.
A boycott by some European broadcasters could have implications for viewership and money at a time when many broadcasters are under financial pressure from government funding cuts and the advent of social media.
The pullouts include some big names in the Eurovision world. Spain is one of the “Big Five” large-market countries that contribute the most to the contest. Ireland has won seven times, a record it shares with Sweden.
The controversy over Israel’s 2026 participation also threatens to overshadow the return next year of three countries — Bulgaria, Moldova and Romania — after periods of absence because of financial and artistic reasons.
