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Mike Pence: Iranian Regime Has Never Been Weaker Than it is Today

Rajavi hosted Pence in Albania last year. Gent SHKULLAKU / AFP
Rajavi hosted Pence in Albania last year. Gent SHKULLAKU / AFP
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Mike Pence: Iranian Regime Has Never Been Weaker Than it is Today

Rajavi hosted Pence in Albania last year. Gent SHKULLAKU / AFP
Rajavi hosted Pence in Albania last year. Gent SHKULLAKU / AFP

Former US vice president Mike Pence has said the "Iranian regime has never been weaker than it is today" in the wake of the protest movement that erupted in September.

"This is not just another protest but the beginning of a revolution for freedom," Pence, vice president under Donald Trump who is now seeking to challenge his former boss for the Republican nomination, told a conference in Auvers-sur-Oise outside Paris.

"One of the biggest lies the ruling regime has sold to the world is that there is no alternative,” he added.

Saturday’s conference was organized by the People's Mujahedin (MEK) group outlawed by Tehran, as thousands of supporters of the group staged a rally in the center of the French capital that had initially been banned by the police.

"No oppressive regime can last forever," said Pence who addressed the meeting in person and last year met MEK's leader Maryam Rajavi at its headquarters in Albania.

"Appeasement towards the mullahs' regime may lead to more bloodshed among our people," Rajavi told the meeting, while adding it would "be futile in protecting" supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei "from his inevitable downfall."

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Russian Daytime Attack on Ukraine Kills at Least 20, Hits Children's Hospital in Kyiv

FILE - Ukrainian soldiers of the 71st Jaeger Brigade fire a M101 howitzer towards Russian positions at the frontline, near Avdiivka, Donetsk region, Ukraine, Friday, March 22, 2024. (AP Photo/Efrem Lukatsky, File)
FILE - Ukrainian soldiers of the 71st Jaeger Brigade fire a M101 howitzer towards Russian positions at the frontline, near Avdiivka, Donetsk region, Ukraine, Friday, March 22, 2024. (AP Photo/Efrem Lukatsky, File)
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Russian Daytime Attack on Ukraine Kills at Least 20, Hits Children's Hospital in Kyiv

FILE - Ukrainian soldiers of the 71st Jaeger Brigade fire a M101 howitzer towards Russian positions at the frontline, near Avdiivka, Donetsk region, Ukraine, Friday, March 22, 2024. (AP Photo/Efrem Lukatsky, File)
FILE - Ukrainian soldiers of the 71st Jaeger Brigade fire a M101 howitzer towards Russian positions at the frontline, near Avdiivka, Donetsk region, Ukraine, Friday, March 22, 2024. (AP Photo/Efrem Lukatsky, File)

Russia launched a barrage of missiles on Kyiv and other Ukrainian cities in a rare daytime attack on Monday, killing at least 20 people across the country and hitting a key children's hospital, officials said. 
President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said the Russian forces fired more than 40 missiles targeting different cities and damaging infrastructure, commercial and residential buildings in different Ukrainian cities. 
Kyiv city authorities said seven people were killed and at least 25 were wounded in the strike on the capital. 
In Kryviy Rih, the native city of Zelenskiy, 10 people were killed and 31 were injured, said Mayor Oleksandr Vilkul. Another three people died in Pokrovsk in eastern Ukraine when missiles hit an industrial facility, said Donestk regional governor. 
"All services are involved to save as many people as possible," Zelenskiy said on the Telegram messaging app. "And the whole world should use all its determination to finally put an end to the Russian strikes." 
Russia has repeatedly denied targeting civilians. 
The major attack on Ukraine came as Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban met Chinese President Xi Jinping to discuss a potential Ukraine peace deal, paying an unexpected visit to Beijing. 
Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko said the attack on the capital was one of the heaviest since the start of Russia's invasion in February 2022. He said the city's main children hospital was damaged in the strike. Windows were smashed and panels ripped off. Parents holding babies walked out into the street, dazed and sobbing. "We heard an explosion, then we were showered with debris,” Svitlaka Kravchenko, 33, told Reuters after she and her husband Viktor, went out from the shelter.
 Their two-month-old baby had been unharmed, but Svitlana had suffered cuts, and their car was totally buried under the rubble of the destroyed building across the courtyard from the main ward.
“It was scary. I couldn’t breathe, I was trying to cover (my baby). I was trying to cover him with this cloth so that he could breathe," she said. 
Local and regional authorities said industrial facilities, infrastructure and residential and commercial buildings were damaged in Kyi, Kryviy Rih, Dnipro, Pokrovsk, Kramatarosk and others.