Russia Says It Downed 10 US-Supplied Missiles Over Crimea as Blinken Visits Kyiv 

A view shows cars damaged by shelling, what local authorities called a Ukrainian military strike, in the course of the Russia-Ukraine conflict in Belgorod, Russia, May 14, 2024. (Mayor of Belgorod City Valentin Demidov via Telegram/Handout via Reuters)
A view shows cars damaged by shelling, what local authorities called a Ukrainian military strike, in the course of the Russia-Ukraine conflict in Belgorod, Russia, May 14, 2024. (Mayor of Belgorod City Valentin Demidov via Telegram/Handout via Reuters)
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Russia Says It Downed 10 US-Supplied Missiles Over Crimea as Blinken Visits Kyiv 

A view shows cars damaged by shelling, what local authorities called a Ukrainian military strike, in the course of the Russia-Ukraine conflict in Belgorod, Russia, May 14, 2024. (Mayor of Belgorod City Valentin Demidov via Telegram/Handout via Reuters)
A view shows cars damaged by shelling, what local authorities called a Ukrainian military strike, in the course of the Russia-Ukraine conflict in Belgorod, Russia, May 14, 2024. (Mayor of Belgorod City Valentin Demidov via Telegram/Handout via Reuters)

Russia's Defense Ministry said that air defenses shot down 10 US-supplied Ukrainian missiles targeting the Crimean Peninsula early Wednesday, as US Secretary of State Antony Blinken spent a second day visiting Kyiv, and Ukraine's army battled to contain a front-line push by the Kremlin's forces. 

The ATACMS long-range ballistic missiles were destroyed over the Black Sea, the ministry said. The US included the Army Tactical Missile System, known as ATACMS, in a military aid package in March. 

The Ukrainian attack came as Russian troops pressed their offensive in northeast Ukraine's Kharkiv region that began last week, marking the most significant border incursion since the full-scale invasion began and forcing almost 8,000 local people to flee their homes. Together with Moscow's weekslong effort to build on its recent gains in the eastern Donetsk region, the more than two-year war has entered a critical stage for Ukraine's depleted army. 

Against that grim backdrop, with thousands of Ukrainian troops locked in fierce battles in towns and villages, Blinken on Tuesday pledged unceasing US support for the country, during and beyond the war. He also tried to lift spirits in Kyiv, performing on guitar with a band at a city bar and eating pizza at a veteran-run restaurant. 

Russia is opening new fronts in order to stretch Ukraine's army, which is short of ammunition and manpower, along the about 1,000-kilometer (620-mile) front line, hoping defenses will crumble. Russian artillery and sabotage raids have also been menacing Ukraine's northern Chernihiv and Sumy regions, 

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in his nightly video address Tuesday that the army has sent reinforcements to the Kharkiv and Donetsk regions. 

“It is too early to draw conclusions, but the situation is under control,” he said. Even so, Zelenskyy canceled a planned trip to Spain later this week, according to the Spanish government. It gave no reason for the cancellation. 

The pace of Russia's advance in the Kharkiv border region, where it launched an offensive late last week and has made significant progress, has slowed, the Institute for the Study of War said late Tuesday. The Washington-based think tank said Moscow's main aim there is to create a “buffer zone” that will prevent Ukrainian cross-border strikes on Russia's Belgorod region. 

Blinken on Wednesday visited a drone manufacturer on the outskirts of Kyiv and toured a grain transshipment facility where Ukrainian grain is loaded into containers for export by rail. 

Blinken praised the ingenuity of the process, which local companies adopted after traditional shipping routes were interrupted by Russia’s full-scale invasion, which began on Feb. 24, 2022. 

“Ukraine has had to adapt and adjust to this and it’s done so remarkably,” Blinken said. 

Meanwhile, Russian air defenses shot down several Ukrainian missiles over the Black Sea and near the Belbek air base, Sevastopol Gov. Mikhail Razvozhayev said. Sevastopol is where the Russian Black Sea Fleet is headquartered. 

The fragments of downed missiles fell into residential areas but caused no casualties, Razvozhayev said. 

Russian air defenses also shot down nine Ukrainian drones, two Vilha rockets, two anti-radar HARM missiles and two Hammer guided bombs over the Belgorod region early Wednesday, the Defense Ministry said. 

Two people were injured in the village of Dubovoye when a Ukranian rocket set their house ablaze, according to Belgorod Gov. Vyacheslav Gladkov. 

The military said five other Ukrainian drones were downed over the Kursk region and three drones were shot down over the Bryansk region. 

The Defense Ministry also said that another Ukrainian drone was downed over the Tatarstan region. Tatarstan is located more than 1,000 kilometers (600 miles) east of the border with Ukraine. 

Vasily Golubev, the governor of the Rostov region, said two drones attacked a fuel depot. He said there were no casualties or fire. 

Ukraine has launched a steady series of drone attacks on oil refineries and fuel depots across Russia over the past months, causing significant damage. 



Bangladesh Protest Leaders Taken from Hospital by Police

People take part in a song march to protest against the indiscriminate killings and mass arrest in Dhaka on July 26, 2024. (AFP)
People take part in a song march to protest against the indiscriminate killings and mass arrest in Dhaka on July 26, 2024. (AFP)
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Bangladesh Protest Leaders Taken from Hospital by Police

People take part in a song march to protest against the indiscriminate killings and mass arrest in Dhaka on July 26, 2024. (AFP)
People take part in a song march to protest against the indiscriminate killings and mass arrest in Dhaka on July 26, 2024. (AFP)

Bangladeshi police detectives on Friday forced the discharge from hospital of three student protest leaders blamed for deadly unrest, taking them to an unknown location, staff told AFP.

Nahid Islam, Asif Mahmud and Abu Baker Majumder are all members of Students Against Discrimination, the group responsible for organizing this month's street rallies against civil service hiring rules.

At least 195 people were killed in the ensuing police crackdown and clashes, according to an AFP count of victims reported by police and hospitals, in some of the worst unrest of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina's tenure.

All three were patients at a hospital in the capital Dhaka, and at least two of them said their injuries were caused by torture in earlier police custody.

"They took them from us," Gonoshasthaya hospital supervisor Anwara Begum Lucky told AFP. "The men were from the Detective Branch."

She added that she had not wanted to discharge the student leaders but police had pressured the hospital chief to do so.

Islam's elder sister Fatema Tasnim told AFP from the hospital that six plainclothes detectives had taken all three men.

The trio's student group had suspended fresh protests at the start of this week, saying they had wanted the reform of government job quotas but not "at the expense of so much blood".

The pause was due to expire earlier on Friday but the group had given no indication of its future course of action.

Islam, 26, the chief coordinator of Students Against Discrimination, told AFP from his hospital bed on Monday that he feared for his life.

He said that two days beforehand, a group of people identifying themselves as police detectives blindfolded and handcuffed him and took him to an unknown location.

Islam added that he had come to his senses the following morning on a roadside in Dhaka.

Mahmud earlier told AFP that he had also been detained by police and beaten at the height of last week's unrest.

Three senior police officers in Dhaka all denied that the trio had been taken from the hospital and into custody on Friday.

- Garment tycoon arrested -

Police told AFP on Thursday that they had arrested at least 4,000 people since the unrest began last week, including 2,500 in Dhaka.

On Friday police said they had arrested David Hasanat, the founder and chief executive of one of Bangladesh's biggest garment factory enterprises.

His Viyellatex Group employs more than 15,000 people according to its website, and its annual turnover was estimated at $400 million by the Daily Star newspaper last year.

Dhaka Metropolitan Police inspector Abu Sayed Miah said Hasanat and several others were suspected of financing the "anarchy, arson and vandalism" of last week.

Bangladesh makes around $50 billion in annual export earnings from the textile trade, which services leading global brands including H&M, Gap and others.

Student protests began this month after the reintroduction in June of a scheme reserving more than half of government jobs for certain candidates.

With around 18 million young people in Bangladesh out of work, according to government figures, the move deeply upset graduates facing an acute jobs crisis.

Critics say the quota is used to stack public jobs with loyalists to Hasina's Awami League.

- 'Call to the nation' -

The Supreme Court cut the number of reserved jobs on Sunday but fell short of protesters' demands to scrap the quotas entirely.

Hasina has ruled Bangladesh since 2009 and won her fourth consecutive election in January after a vote without genuine opposition.

Her government is also accused by rights groups of misusing state institutions to entrench its hold on power and stamp out dissent, including the extrajudicial killing of opposition activists.

Hasina continued a tour of government buildings that had been ransacked by protesters, on Friday visiting state broadcaster Bangladesh Television, which was partly set ablaze last week.

"Find those who were involved in this," she said, according to state news agency BSS.

"Cooperate with us to ensure their punishment. I am making this call to the nation."