Ukraine Says Blood Transfusion Center Hit in Russian Attacks; Crimea Bridges Hit

 This photograph shows remains of raillway station in Sosnove village, Donetsk region on August 5, 2023, amid Russian invasion in Ukraine. (AFP)
This photograph shows remains of raillway station in Sosnove village, Donetsk region on August 5, 2023, amid Russian invasion in Ukraine. (AFP)
TT

Ukraine Says Blood Transfusion Center Hit in Russian Attacks; Crimea Bridges Hit

 This photograph shows remains of raillway station in Sosnove village, Donetsk region on August 5, 2023, amid Russian invasion in Ukraine. (AFP)
This photograph shows remains of raillway station in Sosnove village, Donetsk region on August 5, 2023, amid Russian invasion in Ukraine. (AFP)

Ukraine said Russia bombed a blood transfusion center near the front line in a wave of air strikes overnight while Moscow reported that it had shot down a drone heading to the capital on Sunday in the third such attack in a week.

Both countries have stepped up attacks on each other's troops, weaponry and infrastructure supporting the war as Ukraine seeks to dislodge Russian forces who have dug in across southern and eastern Ukraine since their invasion last year.

The Moscow-appointed head of Crimea said the Chonhar bridge to the peninsula, which was annexed from Ukraine by Moscow in 2014, had been damaged by a missile strike. Another of the three road links between Crimea and Russian-occupied parts of mainland Ukraine, near the town of Henichesk, was shelled and a civilian driver wounded, a Moscow-appointed official said.

Traffic was halted on a third bridge, linking Russia to Crimea, after both sides said a Ukrainian naval drone full of explosives struck a Russian fuel tanker vessel overnight from Friday to Saturday, the second such attack in 24 hours.

The attacks are making it increasingly hard to get on and off the Black Sea peninsula, which is of military importance to Moscow as well as a popular tourist destination for Russians.

Inside Russia, Moscow's Vnukovo airport suspended flights on Sunday, citing unspecified reasons outside its control. Vnukovo imposed similar suspensions when Moscow was attacked by drones last week. Moscow mayor Sergei Sobyanin said a drone had been shot down on Sunday south of the capital.

At least 10 Russian missiles appear to have got through Ukraine's air defenses in the overnight attack, which Ukraine's air force said involved 70 air assault weapons including cruise and hypersonic missiles as well as Iranian-made drones.

Local media said a worker at a grain silo had been wounded and a rescuer died during a rescue operation.

The attacks followed what President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said was a bomb attack on a blood transfusion center in the town of Kupiansk, a railway hub around 16 km (10 miles) from the front in the eastern Kharkiv region.

"There are dead and wounded," he said on his Telegram channel, adding that rescue workers were extinguishing a fire at the scene and describing the strike as a "war crime".

He did not say how many casualties there were or whether they were military or civilian. Reuters could not immediately verify the report.

Russia denies deliberately targeting civilians or military hospitals in its full-scale invasion of Ukraine, which has killed thousands of people, uprooted millions and destroyed cities.

Russia's defense ministry said it had conducted successful strikes on Ukrainian air bases in the western Rivne and Khmelnytskyi regions and southern Zaporizhzhia region, without giving details.

Ukraine's air force said it destroyed 30 out of 40 cruise missiles and all 27 of the Shahed drones that Russia launched overnight. It also said Russia launched three Kinzhal hypersonic missiles, but did not disclose any further information on them.

It was not clear what happened to the 10 cruise missiles that were not shot down.

The deputy governor of the Khmelnytskyi region, Serhiy Tiurin, said a military airfield in Starokostiantyniv was among the targets. He said most of the missiles were shot down, but explosions had damaged several houses, a cultural institution and the bus station and a fire had broken out at a grain silo.

"Now, it is the Starokostiantyniv airfield that haunts the enemy," Ukrainian Air Force spokesman Yuriy Ihnat said.

Russia had targeted the airfield at the end of July.

Pipeline leak

Poland halted oil flows through one part of the Druzhba pipeline carrying oil from Russia to Europe after detecting a leak, the latest hitch to energy flows since Russia invaded Ukraine. There was no indication of the cause and Germany said oil supplies were secure. Poland said it expected oil to flow again on Tuesday.

Ukraine is two months into a grueling counteroffensive to try to push out Russian forces occupying almost a fifth of its territory in the south and east.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said late last month that while Ukraine had recaptured half the territory that Russia had initially seized, the Ukrainian counteroffensive was in its early days and would take shape over "several months".

Another sea drone attack on Russia's navy base at Novorossiysk damaged a warship on Friday, the first time the Ukrainian navy had projected its power so far from its shores.

Former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev suggested Moscow would launch more strikes against Ukrainian ports in response to Kyiv's attacks on Russian ships in the Black Sea, and threatened to hand Ukraine "an ecological catastrophe".

Zelenskiy's aide Mykhailo Podoliak characterized the overnight Russian missile attacks as a response to Ukraine's overtures to Global South countries that have been reluctant to take sides in a conflict that has hurt the global economy.



Ukraine Says Russia Fired Hundreds of Drones, Missiles in ‘Massive’ Daytime Attack

 People relax at the Gryshko National Botanical Garden in Kyiv on April 1, 2026, amid the Russian invasion of Ukraine. (AFP)
People relax at the Gryshko National Botanical Garden in Kyiv on April 1, 2026, amid the Russian invasion of Ukraine. (AFP)
TT

Ukraine Says Russia Fired Hundreds of Drones, Missiles in ‘Massive’ Daytime Attack

 People relax at the Gryshko National Botanical Garden in Kyiv on April 1, 2026, amid the Russian invasion of Ukraine. (AFP)
People relax at the Gryshko National Botanical Garden in Kyiv on April 1, 2026, amid the Russian invasion of Ukraine. (AFP)

Kyiv and its surrounding region on Friday faced pummeling by Russian missiles and drones, officials said, the latest in an increasing number of daytime attacks on Ukraine.

"The Kyiv region is once again under a massive enemy missile and drone attack," said regional governor Mykola Kalashnyk.

One person died in the attacks, he added.

The barrage prompted emergency power outages in several regions, energy operator Ukrenergo announced.

Russia launched almost 500 drones and missiles over Ukraine, Foreign Minister Andriy Sybiga said.

"Terrorist Russia strikes in broad daylight deliberately -- to maximize civilian casualties and damage," Sybiga said.

"This is how Moscow responds to Ukraine's Easter ceasefire proposals -- with brutal attacks," he added.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Kyiv was ready for a truce over the Easter holidays, but the Kremlin said it had not received any proposals.

Ukraine accuses Russia of deliberately prolonging the war to capture more Ukrainian territory and says Moscow is not genuinely interested in peace.

Talks between the two warring parties, mediated by the United States, have been stalled by the war in the Middle East.

Zelensky said he had invited an American delegation to Kyiv to relaunch negotiations with Moscow.

"The American group can come to us and, after us, go to Moscow. If it does not work out with three parties, let's do it this way," Zelensky said, in remarks made public Friday.


Human Remains Found on Thai Ship Attacked in Hormuz Strait

A cargo ship in the Gulf, near the Strait of Hormuz, as seen from northern Ras al-Khaimah, near the border with Oman’s Musandam governance, amid the US-Israeli conflict with Iran, in United Arab Emirates, March 11, 2026. (Reuters)
A cargo ship in the Gulf, near the Strait of Hormuz, as seen from northern Ras al-Khaimah, near the border with Oman’s Musandam governance, amid the US-Israeli conflict with Iran, in United Arab Emirates, March 11, 2026. (Reuters)
TT

Human Remains Found on Thai Ship Attacked in Hormuz Strait

A cargo ship in the Gulf, near the Strait of Hormuz, as seen from northern Ras al-Khaimah, near the border with Oman’s Musandam governance, amid the US-Israeli conflict with Iran, in United Arab Emirates, March 11, 2026. (Reuters)
A cargo ship in the Gulf, near the Strait of Hormuz, as seen from northern Ras al-Khaimah, near the border with Oman’s Musandam governance, amid the US-Israeli conflict with Iran, in United Arab Emirates, March 11, 2026. (Reuters)

Human remains have been found aboard a cargo ship struck by Iran while transiting the Strait of Hormuz last month, the vessel's owner said Friday, after three crew members were reported missing following the attack.

US-Israeli strikes on Iran late February prompted Tehran to respond by effectively closing the Strait of Hormuz, a crucial artery for global oil supplies.

The Thai-flagged Mayuree Naree was struck in March while travelling through the strait after departing Khalifa port in the United Arab Emirates.

"Certain human remains were found within the affected area of the vessel," a statement from transport company Precious Shipping said Friday, adding it could not yet confirm the identities or the number of individuals.

Twenty Thai crew members returned home in mid-March, while three of their colleagues were missing and presumed trapped in the damaged engine compartment.

A search was carried out under "challenging conditions" as the vessel's engine room had been flooded and damaged by fire, the company said.

Thailand's foreign ministry said it was "saddened" by the development and that families of the missing crew had been informed.

Iran's Revolutionary Guards said in March they had struck the Mayuree Naree, as well as a Liberia-flagged vessel, in the strait because the ships had ignored "warnings".


Iran’s Former Top Diplomat Urges Deal with US to End War

 A newly constructed bridge struck by US airstrikes Thursday is seen in Karaj, west of Tehran, Iran, Friday, April 3, 2026. (AP)
A newly constructed bridge struck by US airstrikes Thursday is seen in Karaj, west of Tehran, Iran, Friday, April 3, 2026. (AP)
TT

Iran’s Former Top Diplomat Urges Deal with US to End War

 A newly constructed bridge struck by US airstrikes Thursday is seen in Karaj, west of Tehran, Iran, Friday, April 3, 2026. (AP)
A newly constructed bridge struck by US airstrikes Thursday is seen in Karaj, west of Tehran, Iran, Friday, April 3, 2026. (AP)

Iran should make a deal with the United States to end the war by offering to curb its nuclear program and reopen the Strait of Hormuz in exchange for sanctions relief, a former Iranian foreign minister said.

Mohammad Javad Zarif, who served as foreign minister from 2013-2021, claimed in an op-ed for American journal Foreign Affairs that Tehran had the "upper hand" in the conflict against the US and Israel, but argued Iran needed to stop the war to prevent the loss of more civilian lives and damage to infrastructure.

"Iran should use its upper hand not to keep fighting but to declare victory and make a deal that both ends this conflict and prevents the next one," Zarif said in the piece published late Thursday.

"It should offer to place limits on its nuclear program and to reopen the Strait of Hormuz in exchange for an end to all sanctions -- a deal Washington wouldn't take before but might accept now," he added.

Iran should also be prepared to accept a mutual "nonaggression pact" with the United States, as well as economic relations, he said. Tehran and Washington have had no diplomatic ties since shortly after the 1979 revolution.

Zarif, one of the architects of the now moribund 2015 deal over the Iranian nuclear program, is seen as a relative moderate within the regime’s elite, but has no official post in the current government.

However, this is one of the first times during this conflict that a high-profile figure in Iran has called for a deal and an end to the war, with top military and political officials urging daily for fighting to continue until the US is defeated.

US President Donald Trump has evoked ongoing talks with Tehran without giving details but also threatened to send the country "back to the stone ages" if it fails to agree terms.

"As an Iranian, outraged by Donald Trump's reckless aggression and crude insults, yet proud of our armed forces and resilient people, I am torn about publishing this peace-plan in Foreign Affairs," Zarif wrote in English on X Friday.

"Yet I'm convinced that war must end on terms consistent with Iran's national interests," he added.

Zarif in the Foreign Affairs piece warned that "although continuing to fight the United States and Israel might be psychologically satisfying, it will lead only to the further destruction of civilian lives and infrastructure".