Father, 4-year-old Son Die in Russian Air Attack on Kyiv Region

Rescuers work at a site where residential buildings were damaged during a Russian military strike in a location given as Brovary, Kyiv region, Ukraine in this screengrab from handout video released August 11, 2024. State Emergency Service of Ukraine/Handout via REUTERS
Rescuers work at a site where residential buildings were damaged during a Russian military strike in a location given as Brovary, Kyiv region, Ukraine in this screengrab from handout video released August 11, 2024. State Emergency Service of Ukraine/Handout via REUTERS
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Father, 4-year-old Son Die in Russian Air Attack on Kyiv Region

Rescuers work at a site where residential buildings were damaged during a Russian military strike in a location given as Brovary, Kyiv region, Ukraine in this screengrab from handout video released August 11, 2024. State Emergency Service of Ukraine/Handout via REUTERS
Rescuers work at a site where residential buildings were damaged during a Russian military strike in a location given as Brovary, Kyiv region, Ukraine in this screengrab from handout video released August 11, 2024. State Emergency Service of Ukraine/Handout via REUTERS

A 4-year-old boy and his 35-year-old father died when debris from a downed Russian weapon fell on the house they were living in near the capital Kyiv, Ukrainian officials said on Sunday.
A 13-year-old child was among the injured in the attack in the Brovary district, in the Kyiv region just northeast of the capital's metropolitan area, Ukraine's emergency services said on the Telegram messaging app.

Meanwhile, Russia's defense ministry said on Sunday Russian air defense units destroyed 14 Ukraine-launched drones and four Tochka-U tactical ballistic missiles over the Kursk region bordering Ukraine.

Sixteen drones were downed over the Voronezh region, several hundred kilometers south of Moscow, and three drones over the border Belgorod region, it said. One drone each was destroyed over the Bryansk and Orlov regions, the ministry said on the Telegram messaging app.

President Volodymyr Zelenskiy acknowledged for the first time on Saturday that Ukrainian forces were fighting in the surprise offensive in Kursk, as the border region's authorities rushed to evacuate civilians from areas at risk.

Moscow's forces are in their sixth day of intense battles against Kyiv's largest incursion into Russian territory since the start of the war, which left southwestern parts of Russia vulnerable before reinforcement started arriving.

In a sign of the gravity of the situation, Russia imposed a sweeping security regime in three border regions on Saturday, while Belarus, a staunch ally of Moscow, sent more troops to its border with Ukraine, accusing Kyiv of violating its air space.

In his nightly video address, Zelenskiy said he had discussed the operation with top Ukrainian commander Oleksandr Syrskyi, vowing to restore justice after Russia launched a full-scale aggression on its smaller neighbour in February 2022.
"Today, I received several reports from commander-in-chief Syrskyi regarding the front lines and our actions to push the war onto the aggressor's territory," he said.
"Ukraine is proving that it can indeed restore justice and ensure the necessary pressure on the aggressor."
Russian President Vladimir Putin cast the Ukrainian attack - which military analysts say caught the Kremlin off-guard - as a major provocation.

Russia's top general, Valery Gerasimov, said on Wednesday the attacks had been halted, but Russia has thus far failed to push the Ukrainian forces back over the border.
Russian military bloggers say the situation had stabilized after Russia's reinforcements, though they said Ukraine was swiftly building up forces.

Early on Sunday, Kursk officials said that 13 people were injured in the city after debris from a destroyed Ukraine-launched missile fell onto a nine-story residential building.
Alexei Smirnov, Kursk's acting governor, ordered local authorities to speed up the evacuation of civilians in areas at risk. On Saturday, Russia's TASS state news agency reported that more than 76,000 people had been evacuated.



Pentagon Chief Says Trump Still Aiming for Deal with Iran 

US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth attends a hearing of the House Committee on Armed Services to discuss the Department of Defense Fiscal Year 2026 Budget Request at the US Capitol, Washington, DC, USA, 12 June 2025. (EPA)
US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth attends a hearing of the House Committee on Armed Services to discuss the Department of Defense Fiscal Year 2026 Budget Request at the US Capitol, Washington, DC, USA, 12 June 2025. (EPA)
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Pentagon Chief Says Trump Still Aiming for Deal with Iran 

US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth attends a hearing of the House Committee on Armed Services to discuss the Department of Defense Fiscal Year 2026 Budget Request at the US Capitol, Washington, DC, USA, 12 June 2025. (EPA)
US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth attends a hearing of the House Committee on Armed Services to discuss the Department of Defense Fiscal Year 2026 Budget Request at the US Capitol, Washington, DC, USA, 12 June 2025. (EPA)

US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth told Fox News on Monday that President Donald Trump was still aiming for a nuclear deal with Iran even as hostilities have escalated between US ally Israel and Tehran, while a White House aide said separately that Washington was not attacking Iran.

"Of course," Hegseth said on Fox News' "Jesse Watters Primetime" show when asked if Trump was still aiming for a nuclear deal with Iran.

"We are postured defensively in the region to be strong in pursuit of a peace deal. And we certainly hope that's what happens here," Hegseth said.

In a social media post on Monday, Trump said "Everyone should immediately evacuate Tehran," citing what he said was the country's rejection of a deal to curb nuclear weapons development.

Israel attacked Iran on Friday and since then the two Middle Eastern rivals have exchanged blows, with Iranian officials reporting over 220 deaths, mostly civilians, in five days while Israel said 24 civilians had been killed. Israel says it aims to eliminate what it calls threats posed by Iran's nuclear and ballistic missile programs.

Iran denies seeking nuclear weapons and has pointed to its right to nuclear technology for peaceful purposes, including enrichment, as a party to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.

Israel, which is not a party to the NPT, is the only country in the region widely believed to have nuclear weapons. Israel does not deny or confirm that.

The air war between Iran and Israel has raised further alarms in a region that had already been on edge since the start of Israel's military assault on Gaza in October 2023.

Washington has thus far maintained it is not involved in Israeli attacks on Iran and warned Tehran not to attack US interests or personnel in the region.

"We're vigilant, we're prepared, and we have messaged ... consistently from the beginning that we're in the region to defend our people and our assets," Hegseth said on Fox News.

White House aide Alex Pfeiffer took to social media platform X to deny online claims that the US was attacking Iran.

"This is not true. American forces are maintaining their defensive posture, and that has not changed," Pfeiffer said.