عربي English Türkçe اردو فارسى
Logo
Latest News
World

Ukrainian Official Denies Russian Troops Take Border Village in Northeast 

A Ukrainian soldier guards his position while trucks with killed Russian soldiers driving to Russian territory, during repatriation in Sumy region, Ukraine, Friday, May 31, 2024. (AP) 
A Ukrainian soldier guards his position while trucks with killed Russian soldiers driving to Russian territory, during repatriation in Sumy region, Ukraine, Friday, May 31, 2024. (AP) 
TT
TT

Ukrainian Official Denies Russian Troops Take Border Village in Northeast 

A Ukrainian soldier guards his position while trucks with killed Russian soldiers driving to Russian territory, during repatriation in Sumy region, Ukraine, Friday, May 31, 2024. (AP) 
A Ukrainian soldier guards his position while trucks with killed Russian soldiers driving to Russian territory, during repatriation in Sumy region, Ukraine, Friday, May 31, 2024. (AP) 

A local Ukrainian official on Monday denied a claim by the leader of Russia's Chechnya region that Russian forces led by a Chechen-based special forces unit had seized control of a border village in northeast Ukraine.

Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov said on Sunday the Akhmat-Chechnya unit spearheaded Russian troops in taking control of Ryzhivka in Sumy region.

The "large-scale planned advance" inflicted "significant losses on the Ukrainian side, which was forced to retreat," Kadyrov said.

However, Yuriy Zarko, a local official in Sumy, denied the presence of Russian troops in Ryzhivka on Monday in a comment to Ukrainian media outlet Suspilne.

Andriy Kovalenko, head of the Ukrainian government's Centre for Countering Disinformation, said on Telegram that Russian forces had tried to test Ukraine's defenses on the Ryzhivka front. Ukrainian forces are in control of the situation but the threat of Russian actions in the border area remains, he added.

Russia's Defense Ministry issued no statement on the action.

Ukraine's military has warned in recent weeks of a buildup of Russian forces around Sumy region in preparation for military action. A big Russian push in the northern region would stretch Ukraine's troops and open a new front in the war.

In May, Kadyrov said during a meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin that tens of thousands of his soldiers were prepared to fight for Russia in Ukraine and that some 43,500 troops had already served in Moscow's war against Ukraine.

Most Viewed

 
 
World

Attempts to Cross the English Channel on Small Boats Leave 4 Migrants, Including a Child, Dead

Pas-de-Calais prefect Jacques Billant (L) holds a press conference in Boulogne-sur-Mer on October 5, 2024, following the death of four migrants who attempt to cross the English Channel. (AFP)
Pas-de-Calais prefect Jacques Billant (L) holds a press conference in Boulogne-sur-Mer on October 5, 2024, following the death of four migrants who attempt to cross the English Channel. (AFP)
TT
TT

Attempts to Cross the English Channel on Small Boats Leave 4 Migrants, Including a Child, Dead

Pas-de-Calais prefect Jacques Billant (L) holds a press conference in Boulogne-sur-Mer on October 5, 2024, following the death of four migrants who attempt to cross the English Channel. (AFP)
Pas-de-Calais prefect Jacques Billant (L) holds a press conference in Boulogne-sur-Mer on October 5, 2024, following the death of four migrants who attempt to cross the English Channel. (AFP)

French authorities said four migrants, including a 2-year-old child, died Saturday in two separate incidents as they attempted to cross the English Channel toward Britain.

France's Interior Minister Bruno Retailleau deplored a “terrible tragedy" on X, saying that the child “was trampled to death in a boat."

“The smugglers have the blood of these people on their hands,” Retailleau added, saying his newly-appointed government is to “intensify the fight against these mafias who make money from these deadly crossings.”

Saturday’s deaths come as a series of shipwrecks made 2024 the deadliest in recent years on the English Channel. Last month, 12 people died after a boat carrying migrants ripped apart in the English Channel. About two weeks later, eight migrants died in a similar crossing attempt.

In a news conference, the prefect of the Pas-de-Calais, Jacques Billant, said rescuers found the 2-year-old child dead onboard a migrant boat that had called for assistance Saturday morning.

Fourteen other migrants picked up on board the rescue boat were brought back to France to be interviewed by the border police and a 17-year-old was brought to a hospital in the port city of Boulogne-sur-Mer as he suffered from burns to his legs, Billant said.

Other people on the migrant boat who refused to be rescued continued their journey toward Britain, he said.

“To make money and with no regard for human life, networks of smugglers put people at ever greater risk,” including families with children, “literally leading them to accident and death,” Billant said.

Boulogne-sur-Mer prosecutor Guirec Le Bras, said the child, who appears to have been crushed in a jostling on the boat, was born in Germany from a 24-year-old Somalian mother.

In a separate incident, Billant, the prefect, said rescuers found three migrants dead and saved several others as they fell off a small boat overloaded with 83 passengers amid “panic and stampede."

Those dead “were probably crushed" and “have choked ... and drowned in the 40 centimeters (16 inches) of water at the bottom of the inflatable boat,” he said.

They were two men and a woman, the three of them aged about 30, he said.

Migrants that rescuers took care of Saturday came from Eritrea, Vietnam, Afghanistan, Iran, Ethiopia, Libya, Syria, Egypt, Kuwait and Iraq, Billant listed.

The prosecutor said investigations have been open on both incidents.

Europe’s increasingly strict asylum rules, growing xenophobia and hostile treatment of migrants have been pushing them north.

Before Saturday's events, French authorities said at least 46 migrants had died while trying to cross to the UK this year.