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Ukraine Says It Defeated Russian Drone Attack on Kyiv 

People take cover inside a subway station during an air raid alert at night, amid Russia's attack on Ukraine, in Kyiv, Ukraine, December 19, 2023. (Reuters)
People take cover inside a subway station during an air raid alert at night, amid Russia's attack on Ukraine, in Kyiv, Ukraine, December 19, 2023. (Reuters)
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Ukraine Says It Defeated Russian Drone Attack on Kyiv 

People take cover inside a subway station during an air raid alert at night, amid Russia's attack on Ukraine, in Kyiv, Ukraine, December 19, 2023. (Reuters)
People take cover inside a subway station during an air raid alert at night, amid Russia's attack on Ukraine, in Kyiv, Ukraine, December 19, 2023. (Reuters)

Russia launched its fifth air attack this month targeting Kyiv and air defense systems destroyed all drones on approach to the capital, Ukrainian military officials said early on Wednesday.

Ukraine's Air Force said air defense systems destroyed 18 out of 19 attack drones launched at Kyiv, Odesa, Kherson and other regions of Ukraine. It was not immediately clear how many were destroyed over Kyiv.

"According to preliminary information, there were no casualties or destruction in the capital," Serhiy Popko, head of Kyiv's military administration, said on the Telegram messaging app.

The Ukrainian air force also said that Russia attacked the Kharkiv region in the east with two surface-to-air guided missiles. There were no casualties as a result of the assault, it added.

There was no immediate comment from Russia.

Russia started carrying out strikes on Ukraine's energy, military and transport infrastructure in regions far from the front line in October 2022, six months after Moscow troops failed to take over Kyiv and withdrew to Ukraine's east and south.

Most of southeastern Ukraine remained under air raid alerts at 2300 GMT, with Ukraine's air force saying that the Kharkiv, Dnipropetrovsk and Kirovohrad regions were under threat of Russian ballistic missile attacks.

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Netherlands to Limit Asylum Permits in Bid to Curb Migration

Dutch Prime Minister Dick Schoof arrives to address the 79th United Nations General Assembly at UN headquarters in New York, US, September 26, 2024. (Reuters)
Dutch Prime Minister Dick Schoof arrives to address the 79th United Nations General Assembly at UN headquarters in New York, US, September 26, 2024. (Reuters)
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Netherlands to Limit Asylum Permits in Bid to Curb Migration

Dutch Prime Minister Dick Schoof arrives to address the 79th United Nations General Assembly at UN headquarters in New York, US, September 26, 2024. (Reuters)
Dutch Prime Minister Dick Schoof arrives to address the 79th United Nations General Assembly at UN headquarters in New York, US, September 26, 2024. (Reuters)

The Netherlands will limit permits for asylum seekers to a maximum of three years and will introduce border controls next month, as part of a broader clampdown on asylum migration, Dutch Prime Minister Dick Schoof said on Friday.

The measure is part of a package of measures aimed at curbing asylum migration, an objective of the new right-wing government led by Geert Wilders' anti-Muslim party PVV.

As well as scrapping open-ended permits to stay once someone had been registered as an asylum seeker, the government will also scrap preferential housing for those asylum seekers permitted to stay, instead offering basic shared units, while limiting possibilities for them to reunite with their families.

After the three years expire, permits will be reassessed to see if someone should leave or be granted an extension.

Detention centers for refused or undocumented asylum seekers will be expanded, aimed at their swift return to their country of origin, Schoof said.

Following a similar move by neighboring Germany last month, the Netherlands will introduce targeted border controls from the end of November aimed at tackling illegal migration.

Schoof acknowledged he could not estimate what effect the measures would ultimately have, but stressed their need for the government's promised crackdown on migration.

"We'll have to see what it does, you can't express that in specific numbers. But this whole package will no doubt affect how many people will come to the Netherlands and the number that will leave," he told reporters.

Wilders' promises of being tough on asylum migration brought him a large win at the election last November, even though asylum applications per capita in the Netherlands are no higher than the EU average.

But after years of budget cuts, the country's only registration center for asylum seekers has been struggling to deal with the flow of migrants, forcing hundreds of refugees at times to sleep rough.

The Dutch association of city councils on Friday criticized the plans, telling the ANP news agency they would bring chaos and would be difficult to implement.