Missiles Hit Near Odesa in Ukraine as New Mariupol Evacuation Bid Planned

Ukraine estimates 20,000 people have been killed in the war so far. Genya SAVILOV AFP
Ukraine estimates 20,000 people have been killed in the war so far. Genya SAVILOV AFP
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Missiles Hit Near Odesa in Ukraine as New Mariupol Evacuation Bid Planned

Ukraine estimates 20,000 people have been killed in the war so far. Genya SAVILOV AFP
Ukraine estimates 20,000 people have been killed in the war so far. Genya SAVILOV AFP

Missiles struck near Ukraine's southern port of Odesa on Sunday with Russia saying it had destroyed an oil refinery used by the Ukrainian military, while attempts to evacuate people from the devastated city of Mariupol were due to continue.

There was little sign of a breakthrough in efforts to negotiate an end to the five-week war, although Russia's chief negotiator said talks were due to resume on Monday.

In Odesa, the city council said "critical infrastructure facilities" were hit by missiles. No casualties were reported.

Russia's defense ministry said strikes by its military destroyed an oil refinery and three fuel storage facilities near Odesa. It said the facilities were used to supply Ukrainian troops near the city of Mykolaiv.

Odesa, on the Black Sea, is the main base for Ukraine's navy. It has been targeted by Russian forces seeking a land corridor to Transdniestria, a Russian-speaking breakaway province of Moldova which hosts Russian troops.

"Smoke is visible in some areas of the city. All relevant systems and structures are working ... No casualties reported," Vladyslav Nazarov, an officer of Ukraine's South Operational Command, said on Telegram.

Dmytro Lunin, governor of the central Poltava region, said the Kremenchug oil refinery, 350 kilometers (220 miles) northeast of Odesa, had been destroyed in a separate rocket attack on Saturday.

Evacuation efforts in Mariupol and nearby Berdyansk, both also on Ukraine's southern shores, were due to continue with a convoy of buses being prepared for the operation with help from the Red Cross.

"Seven buses will try to get closer to Mariupol, accompanied by the International Committee of the Red Cross," Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk said in an online video posting.

The ICRC abandoned earlier attempts due to security concerns. Russia blamed the ICRC for the delays.

Mariupol is Russia's main target in Ukraine's southeastern region of Donbas, and tens of thousands of civilians there are trapped with scant access to food and water.

Peace talks

Russia's chief negotiator, Vladimir Medinsky, said a draft deal was not ready for any meeting between Russian President Vladimir Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy.

On Saturday, Ukrainian negotiator David Arakhamia raised hope for negotiations with Russia, saying enough progress had been made for direct talks between the two.

Medinsky said that while Ukraine was showing more realism by agreeing to be neutral, renouncing nuclear weapons, not joining a military bloc and refusing to host military bases, there had been no progress on other key Russia demands.

"I repeat again and again: Russia's position on Crimea and Donbas remains UNCHANGED," he said on Telegram, adding talks via video-conference would continue on Monday.

Russia annexed Crimea from Ukraine in 2014 and has recognized declarations of independence by the self-proclaimed republics of Luhansk and Donetsk in the Donbas area of eastern Ukraine which rose up against Kyiv's rule.

Bucha Destruction

Ukraine said on Saturday its forces had retaken all areas around Kyiv, claiming complete control of the capital region for the first time since Russia launched its invasion on Feb 24.

Russia has pulled back forces that had threatened Kyiv from the north to regroup for battles in eastern Ukraine.

There was no Russian comment on the claim that the Kyiv region was entirely in Ukrainian hands, which Reuters could not immediately verify.

The mayor of Bucha, a liberated town 37 km (23 miles) northwest of the capital, said 300 residents had been killed during a month-long occupation by the Russian army, and victims were seen in a mass grave and still lying on the streets.

"The bastards!" Vasily, a 66-year-old man said, weeping with rage as he looked at more than a dozen bodies in the road outside his house. "I'm sorry. The tank behind me was shooting. Dogs!"

The Kremlin and the Russian defense ministry in Moscow did not immediately reply to requests for comment when asked on Saturday about the bodies found in Bucha.

Moscow denies targeting civilians and rejects war crimes allegations.

Among those killed near Kyiv was Maksim Levin, a Ukrainian photographer and videographer who was working for a news website and was a long-time contributor to Reuters.

British Foreign Secretary Liz Truss said she was appalled by atrocities in Bucha and voiced support for the International Criminal Court's inquiry into potential war crimes.

Ukraine's emergencies service said more than 1,500 explosives had been found in one day during a search of the village of Dmytrivka, west of the capital.

Zelenskiy warned in a video address: "They are mining all this territory. Houses are mined, equipment is mined, even the bodies of dead people." He did not cite evidence.

Russia's defense ministry did not reply to a request for comment on the allegations about mines. Reuters could not independently verify them.

Since the launch of what Putin called a "special military operation" to demilitarize and "denazify" Ukraine, Russia has failed to capture a single major city and has instead laid siege to urban areas, uprooting a quarter of the country's population.

British military intelligence said Russian naval forces were maintaining a blockade along the Black Sea and the Sea of Azov, but the option of amphibious landings were becoming increasingly high-risk for Russia.

It said reported mines, the origin of which remained unclear and disputed, posed a serious risk to shipping in the Black Sea.



Nepal Army Trying to Save 100 People Trapped in Tunnel at Hydropower Project

An aerial view shows houses lying deluged in sludge after flash floods at Devighat, Bidur Municipality, along the confluence of the Trishuli and Tadi rivers in Nepal's Nuwakot district on August 27, 2026. (AFP)
An aerial view shows houses lying deluged in sludge after flash floods at Devighat, Bidur Municipality, along the confluence of the Trishuli and Tadi rivers in Nepal's Nuwakot district on August 27, 2026. (AFP)
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Nepal Army Trying to Save 100 People Trapped in Tunnel at Hydropower Project

An aerial view shows houses lying deluged in sludge after flash floods at Devighat, Bidur Municipality, along the confluence of the Trishuli and Tadi rivers in Nepal's Nuwakot district on August 27, 2026. (AFP)
An aerial view shows houses lying deluged in sludge after flash floods at Devighat, Bidur Municipality, along the confluence of the Trishuli and Tadi rivers in Nepal's Nuwakot district on August 27, 2026. (AFP)

Nepali army helicopter rescue teams were working on Friday to rescue around 100 people trapped inside a tunnel at a hydropower project swamped by a devastating flood two days earlier.

"Our focus is in search and rescue of people... some people are trapped in the tunnel of Trishuli 3A hydropower project," Nepal Army spokesman Raja Ram Basnet told AFP.

"Two helicopters have been dispatched but it is challenging because it is tough to even locate the entry points of the tunnel. Relief efforts are also underway to provide the rescued people what they need," he added.

The prime minister's office said in a statement that the army had been working in tough conditions.

"A Nepali Army team has successfully rescued 350 workers and locals who were trapped in the tunnel a while ago facing extremely risky and challenging conditions amid adverse weather and rapid floodwaters," the statement read.

"The army is still working to safely evacuate more than 100 people trapped in the same tunnel."

It did not give further details about the nationalities of those rescued or trapped.

The scale of destruction from devastating floods in Nepal's northern border region was becoming clearer on Friday, with roads, bridges and hydropower infrastructure destroyed and survivors describing scenes of extraordinary devastation.

Workers rescued from other dam projects along the Trishuli valley described a disaster that unfolded with terrifying speed.

"There were at least 400 workers at the site," Dev Shrestha, who was airlifted from the site where he was working, told AFP after his rescue. "More people died than were rescued."

Worker Buddha Tamang said he survived only because he was inside a tunnel at the dam where he worked when the flood struck -- but he had managed to get out and reach help.

"I survived as I was in the tunnel," said Tamang, who was airlifted on Thursday after being marooned for more than 24 hours.

"The senior officers working on the other side, they were all swept away."

Another worker, Arjun Kumar Tamang, spoke of "massive damage" at the hydropower site where he had been.

"I don't know how many people died but the force of the water swept everything away," he said.

The US Geological Survey (USGS) said the disaster on Wednesday was caused by a glacial collapse that triggered a vast flow of icy debris.

Climate change is causing glaciers to melt worldwide, increasing the risks of glacial lake floods and glacial collapses.

The destruction has severed vital links across a mountainous region where roads and bridges are often the only routes.

The damage also extended to Nepal's key hydropower sector, with several projects -- both operating and under construction -- hit hard.


Iran War Diplomacy Turns toward Reopening Strait of Hormuz

Vessels in the Strait of Hormuz are visible near the beach of Bandar Abbas, Iran, August 25, 2026. Majid Asgaripour/WANA (West Asia News Agency) via REUTERS
Vessels in the Strait of Hormuz are visible near the beach of Bandar Abbas, Iran, August 25, 2026. Majid Asgaripour/WANA (West Asia News Agency) via REUTERS
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Iran War Diplomacy Turns toward Reopening Strait of Hormuz

Vessels in the Strait of Hormuz are visible near the beach of Bandar Abbas, Iran, August 25, 2026. Majid Asgaripour/WANA (West Asia News Agency) via REUTERS
Vessels in the Strait of Hormuz are visible near the beach of Bandar Abbas, Iran, August 25, 2026. Majid Asgaripour/WANA (West Asia News Agency) via REUTERS

Iran war mediators have placed renewed emphasis on reopening the Strait of Hormuz, with Tehran agreeing to draw up a list of conditions to restore normal traffic after a Qatari emissary pressed the Iranians to respect freedom of navigation.

With the US having disengaged from talks in favor of an economic pressure campaign, the prime minister of Qatar met senior Iranian leaders in Tehran on Thursday, stressing the importance of returning to the pre-war status of open shipping through an international waterway, said Reuters.

Qatar and Pakistan helped broker a memorandum of understanding in June that led to a ceasefire and set terms for shipping in the Strait of ‌Hormuz, the narrow stretch ‌between Iran and Oman that before the war was the conduit for 20% of ‌the ⁠world's oil supply.

After ⁠the US and Israel launched the war six months ago, Iran threatened to strike any vessel transiting the strait without its authorization, driving down traffic and sending up the price of oil, providing Iran with leverage in the bargain.

In his mission to Tehran on Thursday, Qatari Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani said on X that he underscored to senior Iranian officials "the importance of respecting freedom of navigation in the Strait of Hormuz in accordance with international law."

Mohsen Rezaei, secretary of Iran's Supreme National Security Council, later said Iran was preparing a list of ⁠conditions for reopening the strait after mediators asked Tehran to set them out.

Speaking through an ‌interpreter in an Al Manar TV interview, Rezaei said Iran had ‌agreed with Oman on a shipping corridor through the strait, with parts of the route in Omani waters and parts in ‌Iranian waters. Ships would use a designated central channel if the US met Iran's conditions, he said.

In the ‌past Iran's conditions have included an end to the US blockade on Iranian ports, compensation and removal of sanctions. It remained unclear whether Iran intended to amend those demands in a way that might be acceptable to the Americans.

Tehran and Washington have exchanged little more than bellicose statements in recent weeks, leaving the diplomacy to third parties.

So far Iran has insisted on returning to ‌the June memorandum of understanding that established a ceasefire within a 60-day window for negotiations. But that deal quickly fell apart over differing interpretations of Iran's authority over ⁠shipping arrangements, and Trump declared ⁠the MOU was "over" three weeks after it was signed.

Iran's Revolutionary Guards said on Wednesday that Iran and Oman had agreed in principle on administering traffic in the strait and sharing revenues, but a senior Iranian source later said the two countries were still working on the details of an agreement.

Meanwhile, US military commanders say American forces have cleared sea mines from the strait that had been laid months ago by Iran's Revolutionary Guard Corps.

"Bottom line: today, international shipping lanes are open and momentum is building," Admiral Brad Cooper, commander of the US military's Central Command, said in a video message posted on social media.

US forces have in recent months helped 1,500 commercial vessels carrying nearly 750 million barrels of crude oil to transit the strait, Cooper said.

Trump has repeatedly said the strait was open, but many vessels have opted against sailing through it because of Iranian threats, and ship tracking services have estimated activity at roughly 5% to 15% of normal volumes.

The UN's International Maritime Organization has reported 70 incidents in the Strait of Hormuz since the start of the war that have killed 19 seafarers.


Bosnian Serb War Criminal Ratko Mladic Dead

Bosnian Serb General Ratko Mladic leaves a meeting at the airport in Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina April 13, 1993. Picture taken April 13, 1993. (Reuters)
Bosnian Serb General Ratko Mladic leaves a meeting at the airport in Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina April 13, 1993. Picture taken April 13, 1993. (Reuters)
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Bosnian Serb War Criminal Ratko Mladic Dead

Bosnian Serb General Ratko Mladic leaves a meeting at the airport in Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina April 13, 1993. Picture taken April 13, 1993. (Reuters)
Bosnian Serb General Ratko Mladic leaves a meeting at the airport in Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina April 13, 1993. Picture taken April 13, 1993. (Reuters)

Ratko Mladic, the former Bosnian Serb military chief who was convicted of war crimes for his role in the 1995 Srebrenica massacre, died in hospital on Thursday, according to a United Nations international tribunal.

Mladic, who had suffered several strokes in recent months, was serving a life sentence in The Hague for genocide, war crimes, and crimes against humanity after overseeing the Srebrenica slaughter, Europe's worst act of bloodshed since World War II.

His conviction for the wartime killings as the former Yugoslavia descended into carnage after the fall of communism led the media to dub him the "Butcher of Bosnia".

The 1992-1995 war left around 100,000 people dead and 2.2 million displaced.

Mladic was the military face of a brutal trio, led on the political side by ex-Yugoslav president Slobodan Milosevic and former Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic.

Serbian state officials and Mladic's family had appealed for his release due to his failing health, but those calls were rejected by the Hague tribunal.

A representative of the Mothers of Srebrenica victims' association, reacting to the death of Mladic, told AFP that his name would always "symbolize genocide".

"That will never be erased from his name," said Sehida Abdurahmanovic, who believes her missing brother was among those killed in Srebrenica.

- Srebrenica -

In the war's most infamous atrocity, Serb forces under Mladic's command executed 8,000 Bosnian Muslim men and boys who had sought shelter in Srebrenica, which was meant to be a UN-protected enclave.

Their bodies were dumped in mass graves, many of which were dug back up and reburied in order to try to hide the evidence.

The few who escaped told harrowing stories of murder, torture and rape by the Bosnian Serb forces.

In November 1995, the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY) indicted Mladic, who was dismissed from his post but evaded capture for another 16 years.

At first, he led a life of luxury, pampered by the military in Serbia where some to this day see him as a hero.

But the pressure mounted on him after Milosevic fell from power in 2000. Mladic was finally arrested in May 2011 and transferred to The Hague.

He was convicted in 2017, with the life sentence upheld on appeal in 2021.

On the streets of Bosnia's capital Sarajevo, Hava Suljic told AFP she welcomed the news.

"I'm delighted to know there is one less war criminal walking around in this world," Suljic, a Bosnian Muslim from Srebrenica, said.

But reactions in the Serb entity of divided Bosnia were in stark contrast.

Former Bosnian Serb leader Milorad Dodik said Mladic's death had "hit hard" and that the Republika Srpska "will not forget his role", the Serb statelet's public broadcaster reported.

Locals who spoke with AFP in the Republika Srpska's capital, Banja Luka, labelled Mladic the "greatest".

"The greatest man has died, the greatest general of the Serbian people," pensioner Dragan Beric said.

- 'Epitome of evil' -

Mladic was also found guilty of orchestrating a wider campaign of ethnic cleansing to drive Muslims and Bosnians out of key areas to create a so-called Greater Serbia.

The tribunal said at the time the crimes committed were "amongst the most heinous known to humankind". Former UN rights chief Zeid Ra'ad al Hussein described him as "the epitome of evil".

But many Serbs continued to revere a military commander who painted himself as a "simple man" whom fate had chosen to protect his people.

His age has always been a matter of dispute. He claimed to have been born in March 1943, but the tribunal listed his birth year as 1942 -- local media widely reported that he'd died at the age of 84.