ODESA, Ukraine: Russian forces killed six people and wounded dozens of others, including two children and a pregnant woman, in attacks on Ukraine’s energy facilities, Kyiv announced Tuesday.
President Volodymyr Zelensky said the latest bombardment undermined peace efforts and urged allies to step up pressure on Moscow to end the war, which is grinding toward its fourth anniversary.
“Every such Russian strike erodes the diplomacy that is still ongoing and undermines the efforts of partners who are helping to end this war,” he wrote on social media.
A Russian drone barrage killed two people whose bodies were retrieved from rubble and wounded nearly three dozen people in the southern city of Odesa, regional officials said.
The Black Sea city key for Ukrainian exports has been pummelled routinely by Russian forces since they invaded Ukraine nearly four years ago.
Ukrainian private energy firm DTEK said Russian forces had inflicted “enormous” damage on one of its facilities in the Odesa region that would take time to repair.
The governor Oleg Kiper said Russia had launched more than 50 attack drones on the region, damaging dozens of residential buildings, a church and schools.
An AFP journalist on the scene saw rescue workers digging for survivors in the debris at a residential building.
The attack wounded at least 32 people, including two girls and a woman 39 weeks pregnant, he said.
A married couple aged 45 and 48 were killed in Sloviansk in the eastern Donetsk region, a key prize for the Kremlin, which has concentrated its firepower there.
Their 20-year-old son survived the attack in the region that the Kremlin claims to have annexed, local prosecutors said.
In a separate drone attack in the southern region of Zaporizhzhia, a 58-year-old was killed in their home. A 72-year was also killed in her home by Russian shelling in the southern Kherson region.
Russian drone and missile attacks have recently knocked out power, lighting and heat to millions of Ukrainians across the country.
The Ukrainian air force said Russia had launched 165 attack drones overnight, and Ukrainian officials said an infrastructure facility in the western Lviv region was hit.
State gas company Naftogaz said the attack had left one of its facilities on fire in western Ukraine, describing it as the fifth attack of its kind this month.
Russian forces meanwhile are advancing across the front. The Russian defense ministry announced on Tuesday it had captured two more villages in the eastern Ukrainian regions of Zaporizhzhia and Kharkiv.
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Russia kills 6 in Ukraine, hits energy sites
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Russia kills 6 in Ukraine, hits energy sites
- Zelensky said the latest bombardment undermined peace efforts and urged allies to step up pressure on Moscow
- A Russian drone barrage killed two people whose bodies were retrieved from rubble
US immigration officials grilled by Congress over Trump crackdown
- Trump administration officials faced a barrage of criticism and tough questions from Democratic lawmakers over the major crackdown on migrants in multiple US cities
- Rodney Scott hailed efforts on the southern US frontier, saying CBP ‘spent the last year rebuilding what was an intentionally broken border’
WASHINGTON: The heads of US immigration agencies faced heavy criticism in Congress Tuesday as they defended President Donald Trump’s mass deportation drive and fielded questions about the fatal shootings of two protesters in Minneapolis.
Trump acknowledged in the wake of the Minneapolis killings that a “softer touch” may be needed on immigration, and his administration announced concessions including the withdrawal of hundreds of officers from the Midwestern city.
But the issue remains far from resolved, with Democrats demanding changes to the way the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) conducts its immigration sweeps and threatening to block its funding, while Trump’s administration vows to maintain its deportation efforts, with backing from Republican lawmakers.
“The president tasked us with mass deportation, and we are fulfilling that mandate,” Todd Lyons, the acting head of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), said in his opening remarks during the Tuesday hearing on DHS oversight.
He testified alongside Rodney Scott, the head of US Customs and Border Protection (CBP), and Citizenship and Immigration Services director Joseph Edlow.
Scott hailed efforts on the southern US frontier, saying CBP “spent the last year rebuilding what was an intentionally broken border” and that “the United States... enjoys the most secure border in our nation’s history.”
The Trump administration officials faced a barrage of criticism and tough questions from Democratic lawmakers over the major crackdown on migrants in multiple US cities, which Republican representatives largely defended.
“This administration and the agencies represented before us have shown a complete and utter disregard for the law and the Constitution,” Democratic Representative Tim Kennedy said.
Representative Eli Crane, a Republican, pushed back on criticism of immigration enforcement, accusing Democrats of seeking to “demonize ICE and Homeland Security.”
‘Days, not weeks’
In Minneapolis, thousands of federal agents have in recent weeks conducted raids in what the administration claims are targeted operations against criminals.
Minnesota Governor Tim Walz said Tuesday that he expects the crackdown — which has seen detentions of broad categories of immigrants and sometimes citizens — to end soon.
“We’re very much in a ‘trust but verify’ mode. But it’s my expectation... that we are talking days, not weeks and months, of this occupation,” Walz said.
The operations have sparked mass protests in Minneapolis, and the fatal shootings of US citizens Renee Good and Alex Pretti less than three weeks apart last month led to a wave of outrage.
When Democratic Representative Eric Swalwell asked Tuesday if Lyons would apologize to Good and Pretti’s families over the Trump administration’s initial description of them as “domestic terrorists,” he declined, saying he would not comment on active investigations.
Opposition Democrats have been calling for sweeping reforms to ICE operations, including ending mobile patrols, prohibiting agents from concealing their faces, and requiring warrants.
Democratic leaders in Congress are also threatening to block the 2026 funding bill for DHS. The White House has indicated it is willing to negotiate, but its response has failed to satisfy opposition lawmakers so far.
“Republicans shared an outline of a counterproposal, which included neither details nor legislative text,” House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said in a statement.
They denounced the White House response as “incomplete and insufficient in terms of addressing the concerns Americans have about ICE’s lawless conduct,” and said they were awaiting further details.
If negotiations fail, DHS could face a funding shortfall starting Saturday. CBP and ICE operations could continue using funds approved by Congress last year, but other sub-agencies such as federal disaster organization FEMA could be affected.
Trump acknowledged in the wake of the Minneapolis killings that a “softer touch” may be needed on immigration, and his administration announced concessions including the withdrawal of hundreds of officers from the Midwestern city.
But the issue remains far from resolved, with Democrats demanding changes to the way the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) conducts its immigration sweeps and threatening to block its funding, while Trump’s administration vows to maintain its deportation efforts, with backing from Republican lawmakers.
“The president tasked us with mass deportation, and we are fulfilling that mandate,” Todd Lyons, the acting head of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), said in his opening remarks during the Tuesday hearing on DHS oversight.
He testified alongside Rodney Scott, the head of US Customs and Border Protection (CBP), and Citizenship and Immigration Services director Joseph Edlow.
Scott hailed efforts on the southern US frontier, saying CBP “spent the last year rebuilding what was an intentionally broken border” and that “the United States... enjoys the most secure border in our nation’s history.”
The Trump administration officials faced a barrage of criticism and tough questions from Democratic lawmakers over the major crackdown on migrants in multiple US cities, which Republican representatives largely defended.
“This administration and the agencies represented before us have shown a complete and utter disregard for the law and the Constitution,” Democratic Representative Tim Kennedy said.
Representative Eli Crane, a Republican, pushed back on criticism of immigration enforcement, accusing Democrats of seeking to “demonize ICE and Homeland Security.”
‘Days, not weeks’
In Minneapolis, thousands of federal agents have in recent weeks conducted raids in what the administration claims are targeted operations against criminals.
Minnesota Governor Tim Walz said Tuesday that he expects the crackdown — which has seen detentions of broad categories of immigrants and sometimes citizens — to end soon.
“We’re very much in a ‘trust but verify’ mode. But it’s my expectation... that we are talking days, not weeks and months, of this occupation,” Walz said.
The operations have sparked mass protests in Minneapolis, and the fatal shootings of US citizens Renee Good and Alex Pretti less than three weeks apart last month led to a wave of outrage.
When Democratic Representative Eric Swalwell asked Tuesday if Lyons would apologize to Good and Pretti’s families over the Trump administration’s initial description of them as “domestic terrorists,” he declined, saying he would not comment on active investigations.
Opposition Democrats have been calling for sweeping reforms to ICE operations, including ending mobile patrols, prohibiting agents from concealing their faces, and requiring warrants.
Democratic leaders in Congress are also threatening to block the 2026 funding bill for DHS. The White House has indicated it is willing to negotiate, but its response has failed to satisfy opposition lawmakers so far.
“Republicans shared an outline of a counterproposal, which included neither details nor legislative text,” House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said in a statement.
They denounced the White House response as “incomplete and insufficient in terms of addressing the concerns Americans have about ICE’s lawless conduct,” and said they were awaiting further details.
If negotiations fail, DHS could face a funding shortfall starting Saturday. CBP and ICE operations could continue using funds approved by Congress last year, but other sub-agencies such as federal disaster organization FEMA could be affected.
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