Russia Says It Downs Four Ukrainian Military Aircraft

 Ukrainian Army snipers practice shooting at a firing range near a front line, amid Russia's attack on Ukraine, in Donetsk region, Ukraine December 23, 2023. (Reuters)
Ukrainian Army snipers practice shooting at a firing range near a front line, amid Russia's attack on Ukraine, in Donetsk region, Ukraine December 23, 2023. (Reuters)
TT

Russia Says It Downs Four Ukrainian Military Aircraft

 Ukrainian Army snipers practice shooting at a firing range near a front line, amid Russia's attack on Ukraine, in Donetsk region, Ukraine December 23, 2023. (Reuters)
Ukrainian Army snipers practice shooting at a firing range near a front line, amid Russia's attack on Ukraine, in Donetsk region, Ukraine December 23, 2023. (Reuters)

Russia's defense ministry said on Sunday its air defense systems had shot down four Ukrainian military aircraft over the past 24 hours, just two days after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said Kyiv had downed three Russian fighter-bomber jets.

In its daily dispatch, the defense ministry said its air defense shot down three Su-27 fighter aircraft and one Su-24 tactical bomber in the Zaporizhzhia and Dnipropetrovsk regions of southeastern Ukraine.

The dispatch provided no further details.

On Friday, Zelenskiy said the country's forces shot down three Russian Su-34 fighter-bomber aircraft on the southern front, hailing it as a success in the 22-month-old conflict.

The commander of Ukraine's air force also said the planes had been downed.

Reuters was not immediately able to corroborate the battlefield reports from either side.



Gunmen Open Fire on a School Van in Pakistan's Punjab Province, Killing 2 Children

File photo: View of a damaged car after a suicide blast in Karachi, Pakistan April 19, 2024. REUTERA/Akhtar Soomro
File photo: View of a damaged car after a suicide blast in Karachi, Pakistan April 19, 2024. REUTERA/Akhtar Soomro
TT

Gunmen Open Fire on a School Van in Pakistan's Punjab Province, Killing 2 Children

File photo: View of a damaged car after a suicide blast in Karachi, Pakistan April 19, 2024. REUTERA/Akhtar Soomro
File photo: View of a damaged car after a suicide blast in Karachi, Pakistan April 19, 2024. REUTERA/Akhtar Soomro

Gunmen opened fire on a school van in Pakistan's eastern Punjab province Thursday, killing two children and wounding six other people, police and officials said.
Authorities said the driver, who was among the wounded, seemed to be the target of the attack, the Associated Press said.
“Our initial investigations indicate that the driver had an enmity with someone,” Mohammad Shakil, a local police official, said. He provided no further details.
Police were still investigating to determine who was behind the firing, and no one has claimed responsibility.
The dead and wounded were transported to a nearby hospital, said Ghias Gull, a district police chief in Attock, where the shooting occurred.
Pakistan's President Asif Ali Zardari and Interior Minister Mohsoin Naqvi denounced the attack and ordered the best possible medical treatment be provided to the wounded.
Attock is a district in Punjab province but is not far away from Pakistan's restive northwest.
Militant attacks have surged in Pakistan in recent years, mostly in the northwest bordering Afghanistan. In 2014, Pakistani militants in the worst assault on an army-run school in the northwestern city of Peshawar killed 147 people, including 132 children.