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Ukraine Probes Incident that Killed 3 Pilots, Russia Attacks with Cruise Missiles

This handout photograph released by the Office of the Prosecutor General of Ukraine on August 26, 2023, shows wreckage of planes in the Zhytomyr region. (Photo by Handout / Office of the Prosecutor General of Ukraine / AFP)
This handout photograph released by the Office of the Prosecutor General of Ukraine on August 26, 2023, shows wreckage of planes in the Zhytomyr region. (Photo by Handout / Office of the Prosecutor General of Ukraine / AFP)
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Ukraine Probes Incident that Killed 3 Pilots, Russia Attacks with Cruise Missiles

This handout photograph released by the Office of the Prosecutor General of Ukraine on August 26, 2023, shows wreckage of planes in the Zhytomyr region. (Photo by Handout / Office of the Prosecutor General of Ukraine / AFP)
This handout photograph released by the Office of the Prosecutor General of Ukraine on August 26, 2023, shows wreckage of planes in the Zhytomyr region. (Photo by Handout / Office of the Prosecutor General of Ukraine / AFP)

Ukrainian authorities have launched an investigation after a midair collision between two warplanes in the west of the country killed three pilots.

Ukraine's air force spokesman Yuri Ihnat told Ukrainian television on Sunday it wasn't immediately clear how long the probe would take.

According to the air force's Telegram page, two L-39 training military aircraft collided on Friday during a combat mission over Ukraine's western Zhytomyr region. Three pilots were killed, including Andriy Pilshchykov, a well-known pilot with the nickname “Juice” who was an outspoken advocate for Ukraine getting F-16 fighter jets.

President Volodymyr Zelensky in his nightly address on Saturday paid tribute to Pilshchykov, describing him as a “Ukrainian officer, one of those who helped our country a lot.”

Ukraine's Vasilkiv tactical aviation brigade on Sunday identified the other two pilots killed in the collision as Viacheslav Minka and Serhiy Prokazin.

Russian forces, in the meantime, targeted central and northern regions of Ukraine with cruise missiles overnight. Ukraine's air force on Sunday reported air defenses successfully intercepted four of them. In the Kyiv region surrounding the Ukrainian capital, the falling debris damaged a dozen private homes and wounded two people, Ukraine's Interior Ministry said.

In Russia, the Defense Ministry reported bringing down two drones over the Bryansk and Kursk regions that border Ukraine. The drones, the ministry said, were launched by “the Kyiv regime” in “yet another attempt at terrorist attacks” on Russian soil.

Kursk Gov. Roman Starovoit, however, reported that a drone slammed into a multistory residential building in the region's namesake capital. It wasn't immediately clear if it crashed after being shot down by air defenses, like the Defense Ministry reported, or was targeting the building. Starovoit said no one was hurt, but a number of windows were shattered.

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Rescuers Dig for Survivors of Vanuatu Earthquake

A handout photo made available by the Vanuatu Police Force shows rescue teams conducting search and rescue operations following an earthquake in Port Vila, Vanuatu, 17 December 2024 (issued 18 December 2024). EPA/Vanuatu Police Force
A handout photo made available by the Vanuatu Police Force shows rescue teams conducting search and rescue operations following an earthquake in Port Vila, Vanuatu, 17 December 2024 (issued 18 December 2024). EPA/Vanuatu Police Force
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Rescuers Dig for Survivors of Vanuatu Earthquake

A handout photo made available by the Vanuatu Police Force shows rescue teams conducting search and rescue operations following an earthquake in Port Vila, Vanuatu, 17 December 2024 (issued 18 December 2024). EPA/Vanuatu Police Force
A handout photo made available by the Vanuatu Police Force shows rescue teams conducting search and rescue operations following an earthquake in Port Vila, Vanuatu, 17 December 2024 (issued 18 December 2024). EPA/Vanuatu Police Force

Vanuatu's capital was without water on Wednesday, a day after reservoirs were destroyed by a violent magnitude 7.3 earthquake that wrought havoc on the South Pacific island nation, with the number of people killed and injured expected to rise.
The government's disaster management office said early Wednesday that 14 deaths were confirmed, but hours later said nine had been verified by the main hospital. The number was “expected to increase" as people remained trapped in fallen buildings, a spokesperson said. About 200 have been treated for injuries, The Associated Press reported.
Frantic rescue efforts that began at flattened buildings after the quake hit early Tuesday afternoon continued 30 hours later, with dozens working in dust and heat with little water to seek those yelling for help inside. A few more survivors were extracted from the rubble of downtown buildings in Port Vila, also the country's largest city, while others remained trapped and some were found dead.
A near-total telecommunications collapse meant people struggled to confirm their relatives' safety. Some providers began to reestablish phone service but connections were patchy.
Internet service had not been restored because the submarine cable supplying it was damaged, the operator said.
The earthquake hit at a depth of 57 kilometers (35 miles) and was centered 30 kilometers (19 miles) west of the capital of Vanuatu, a group of 80 islands home to about 330,000 people. A tsunami warning was called off less than two hours after the quake, but dozens of large aftershocks continued to rattle the country.
The Asia-Pacific head of the International Federation of Red Cross, Katie Greenwood, speaking to The Associated Press from Fiji, said it was not clear how many people were still missing or killed.
“We have anecdotal information coming from people at the search and rescue site that are fairly confident that unfortunately those numbers will rise,” she said.
The capital’s main medical facility, Vila Central Hospital, was badly damaged and patients were moved to a military camp. Clement Chipokolo, Vanuatu country director at the Christian relief agency World Vision, said health care services, already strained before the quake, were overwhelmed.
No water in Port Vila While power was out in swathes of Port Vila, the biggest fear among aid agencies was the lack of water. Two large reservoirs serving the capital were totally decimated, the National Disaster Management Office said.
Resident Milroy Cainton said people were joining large queues to buy water in stores, but could only purchase two or four bottles at a time. “People are not really concerned about electricity, they're just concerned about water,” he said.
UNICEF was recording a rise in diarrhea among children, a sign that they had begun to drink tainted water, said the chief of the Vanuatu office, Eric Durpaire. Officials told residents of areas where water had been restored to boil it.