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Drone Crashes in Failed Attack Southeast of Moscow, Regional Governor Says

Recruits carry their weapons during a military training at a shooting range in the Krasnodar region, southern Russia (AP)
Recruits carry their weapons during a military training at a shooting range in the Krasnodar region, southern Russia (AP)
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Drone Crashes in Failed Attack Southeast of Moscow, Regional Governor Says

Recruits carry their weapons during a military training at a shooting range in the Krasnodar region, southern Russia (AP)
Recruits carry their weapons during a military training at a shooting range in the Krasnodar region, southern Russia (AP)

A drone crashed near a natural gas distribution station southeast of Moscow on Tuesday in an apparent failed attack 110 km (68 miles) from the center of the Russian capital, the regional governor said.

Andrei Vorobyov reported the incident near the town of Kolomna shortly after the Defense Ministry accused Ukraine of attempting two drone strikes in southern Russia overnight, Reuters said.

Ukraine does not publicly claim responsibility for attacks inside Russia. If it was behind the Kolomna incident, it would be its closest attempted drone strike to the Russian capital since Russia invaded Ukraine just over a year ago.

Postings on Russian social media showed the grey metal wreckage of a drone lying in a snowdrift by the edge of a wood said to be near Kolomna. Reuters could not immediately verify the images.

Vorobyov said the drone appeared to have been intended to strike a "civil infrastructure facility" but there was no damage. He said the FSB security agency was dealing with the situation and there was no danger to residents.

Earlier, the Defense Ministry accused Ukraine of launching attack drones towards civil infrastructure targets in the southern regions of Krasnodar and Adygea.

It said its anti-drone defense systems had caused the drones to veer off course and miss their targets.

"Both drones lost control and deviated from their flight paths. One fell into a field, the other, deviating from its trajectory, did not harm the intended target," it said.

There was no immediate comment from Ukrainian authorities. Russian state news agencies had earlier reported a fire at an oil depot in the Krasnodar region, around 240 km (150 miles) southeast of the Crimean peninsula, after a drone was spotted flying overhead.

The main civilian airport of Russia's second city, St Petersburg, suspended all flights for an hour on Tuesday morning for what the Defense Ministry said were exercises involving fighter jets in Russia's western air space.

In early December, Russia said three military personnel had been killed in alleged Ukrainian drone attacks on two air bases hundreds of miles from the front lines in Ukraine.

On Dec. 26, it said it had shot down another Ukrainian drone close to one of the air bases - near the city of Saratov, where Russian strategic nuclear bombers are based - and that three more air force personnel had been killed.

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UN Says 14 Million Children Did Not Receive a Single Vaccine in 2024

A mother holds her baby receiving a new malaria vaccine as part of a trial at the Walter Reed Project Research Center in Kombewa in Western Kenya on Oct. 30, 2009. (AP)
A mother holds her baby receiving a new malaria vaccine as part of a trial at the Walter Reed Project Research Center in Kombewa in Western Kenya on Oct. 30, 2009. (AP)
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UN Says 14 Million Children Did Not Receive a Single Vaccine in 2024

A mother holds her baby receiving a new malaria vaccine as part of a trial at the Walter Reed Project Research Center in Kombewa in Western Kenya on Oct. 30, 2009. (AP)
A mother holds her baby receiving a new malaria vaccine as part of a trial at the Walter Reed Project Research Center in Kombewa in Western Kenya on Oct. 30, 2009. (AP)

More than 14 million children did not receive a single vaccine last year — about the same number as the year before — according to UN health officials. Nine countries accounted for more than half of those unprotected children.

In their annual estimate of global vaccine coverage, released Tuesday, the World Health Organization and UNICEF said about 89% of children under one year old got a first dose of the diphtheria, tetanus and whooping cough vaccine in 2024, the same as in 2023. About 85% completed the three-dose series, up from 84% in 2023.

Officials acknowledged, however, that the collapse of international aid this year will make it more difficult to reduce the number of unprotected children.

In January, US President Trump withdrew the country from the WHO, froze nearly all humanitarian aid and later moved to close the US AID Agency. And last month, Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said it was pulling the billions of dollars the US had previously pledged to the vaccines alliance Gavi, saying the group had “ignored the science.”

Kennedy, a longtime vaccine skeptic, has previously raised questions the diphtheria, tetanus and whooping cough vaccine, which has proven to be safe and effective after years of study and real-world use. Vaccines prevent 3.5 million to 5 million deaths a year, according to UN estimates.

“Drastic cuts in aid, coupled with misinformation about the safety of vaccines, threaten to unwind decades of progress,” said WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.

UN experts said that access to vaccines remained “deeply unequal” and that conflict and humanitarian crises quickly unraveled progress; Sudan had the lowest reported coverage against diphtheria, tetanus and whooping cough.

The data showed that nine countries accounted for 52% of all children who missed out on immunizations entirely: Nigeria, India, Sudan, Congo, Ethiopia, Indonesia, Yemen, Afghanistan and Angola.

WHO and UNICEF said that coverage against measles rose slightly, with 76% of children worldwide receiving both vaccine doses. But experts say measles vaccine rates need to reach 95% to prevent outbreaks of the extremely contagious disease. WHO noted that 60 countries reported big measles outbreaks last year.

The US is now having its worst measles outbreak in more than three decades, while the disease has also surged across Europe, with 125,000 cases in 2024 — twice as many as the previous year, according to WHO.

Last week, British authorities reported a child died of measles in a Liverpool hospital. Health officials said that despite years of efforts to raise awareness, only about 84% of children in the UK are protected.

“It is hugely concerning, but not at all surprising, that we are continuing to see outbreaks of measles,” said Helen Bradford, a professor of children’s health at University College London.

“The only way to stop measles spreading is with vaccination,” she said in a statement. “It is never too late to be vaccinated — even as an adult.”