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Cyprus Holds Military Drill with France, Italy and Greece to Bolster Security in East Mediterranean

Cyprus President Nikos Christodoulides shake hands with Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis outside the Presidential Palace in Nicosia, Cyprus, September 4, 2023. (Reuters)
Cyprus President Nikos Christodoulides shake hands with Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis outside the Presidential Palace in Nicosia, Cyprus, September 4, 2023. (Reuters)
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Cyprus Holds Military Drill with France, Italy and Greece to Bolster Security in East Mediterranean

Cyprus President Nikos Christodoulides shake hands with Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis outside the Presidential Palace in Nicosia, Cyprus, September 4, 2023. (Reuters)
Cyprus President Nikos Christodoulides shake hands with Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis outside the Presidential Palace in Nicosia, Cyprus, September 4, 2023. (Reuters)

The Cypriot president said Thursday that joint military maneuvers with three other European Union member states underway in the Eastern Mediterranean underscore the bloc's readiness to ensure security and stability in the region.

President Nikos Christodoulides said the drill with France, Italy and Greece is of “particular geostrategic significance” for the 27-member bloc and others, including the United States.

Christodoulides said his government is putting a “special emphasis” on upgrading the island’s military installations in order to take full advantage of its geographical location at the southeasternmost corner of Europe and close to the Middle East and Africa.

He spoke ahead of a visit to the French frigate Chevalier Paul, which is taking part in the drill, and stressed that the show of strength is not turned against any other country — a veiled allusion to Türkiye, with which Cyprus shares a violent past, including a 1974 Turkish invasion brought on by a coup aimed at forming a union with Greece.

Since then, the island has been divided along ethnic lines, with the breakaway Turkish Cypriot north separated from the Greek Cypriot south where the internationally recognized government is seated.

NATO-member Türkiye does not recognize Cyprus as a state, and claims much of the island’s offshore exclusive economic zone where several significant natural gas deposits have been discovered.

The five-day drill, which kicked off on Monday and is code-named EUNOMIA 4-2023, involves naval and air forces, including French Rafale jet fighters and Airbus A400M Atlas transport aircraft, according to a Cyprus Defense Ministry statement.

The exercise also includes for the first time this year civilian evacuation drills in the event of a regional emergency.

Britain used Cyprus as a waypoint to evacuate hundreds of its citizens from Sudan when fighting erupted there between Sudanese military and a rival, paramilitary force in mid-April. As chaos and violence engulfed the African country, many foreign countries rushed to evacuate their citizens from Sudan through complex airlifts and land

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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.