Russian Attacks on Ukraine Kill Six in Second Day of Major Strikes, Kyiv Says

This handout photograph taken and released by the Ukrainian Emergency Service on August 26, 2024 shows rescuers working to extinguish a fire following a missile attack at an undisclosed location in Odesa region of Ukraine. (Photo by Handout / UKRAINIAN EMERGENCY SERVICE / AFP)
This handout photograph taken and released by the Ukrainian Emergency Service on August 26, 2024 shows rescuers working to extinguish a fire following a missile attack at an undisclosed location in Odesa region of Ukraine. (Photo by Handout / UKRAINIAN EMERGENCY SERVICE / AFP)
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Russian Attacks on Ukraine Kill Six in Second Day of Major Strikes, Kyiv Says

This handout photograph taken and released by the Ukrainian Emergency Service on August 26, 2024 shows rescuers working to extinguish a fire following a missile attack at an undisclosed location in Odesa region of Ukraine. (Photo by Handout / UKRAINIAN EMERGENCY SERVICE / AFP)
This handout photograph taken and released by the Ukrainian Emergency Service on August 26, 2024 shows rescuers working to extinguish a fire following a missile attack at an undisclosed location in Odesa region of Ukraine. (Photo by Handout / UKRAINIAN EMERGENCY SERVICE / AFP)

Russia launched missile and drone attacks targeting scores of Ukrainian regions and killing at least six people, officials said on Tuesday, a day after Moscow's biggest air attack of the war on its neighbor.

Three people were killed when a hotel was "wiped out" by a missile in the central city of Kryvyi Rih, regional officials said. Five people were injured and one person was still missing after the strike, Serhiy Lysak, governor of the Dnipropetrovsk region that includes Kryvyi Rih, said on Telegram.

Separately, three people were killed in drone attacks on the southeastern Ukrainian city of Zaporizhzhia.

Three people were also injured in the Zaporizhzhia region and four were hurt in a missile strike on the northeastern region of Kharkiv overnight, local authorities said.  

President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Tuesday that Ukraine would retaliate against Russia for its attacks.

He asked allies to consider joint air defense operations and provide long-range capabilities after Russia pummeled Ukrainian energy infrastructure with more than 200 missiles and drones on Monday.

During Tuesday's attack, Ukraine downed five out of 10 incoming missiles and 60 out of 81 drones, the air force said.

The Ukrainian air force lost track of 10 more drones that have likely come down somewhere on its territory, it said. One more crossed into Belarusian territory.  

The Russian defense ministry said its forces had carried out a high-precision weapon strike on Ukraine overnight, the Interfax news agency reported.  

Moscow denies targeting civilians since launching a full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, although thousands have been killed.  

Several Russian military bloggers said Moscow's attacks were an "act of retaliation" for Ukraine's surprise incursion into Russia's western Kursk region - the first such action since World War Two.

In the capital Kyiv, the military administration said air defenses had shot down all incoming targets aimed at the city. There were no casualties and two small fires caused by debris were put out by the emergency services, local authorities said.



Nearly 200 Killed in Terrorist Attack in Burkina Faso

Staff are seen at the hospital of Kaya which received more than 300 wounded. (State television)
Staff are seen at the hospital of Kaya which received more than 300 wounded. (State television)
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Nearly 200 Killed in Terrorist Attack in Burkina Faso

Staff are seen at the hospital of Kaya which received more than 300 wounded. (State television)
Staff are seen at the hospital of Kaya which received more than 300 wounded. (State television)

The Burkina Faso government said it will respond firmly to a terrorist attack that killed at least 200 people, mostly civilians, in the Barsalogho region, where terrorist groups affiliated with Al-Qaeda and ISIS are active.

The attack, which is the deadliest in the country this year, was carried out by dozens of heavily armed terrorists who entered the village in the early hours of Saturday morning.

For more than seven hours, they clashed with a unit of the army supported by local militia.

At least 200 people were killed, with another 300 wounded, according to an unofficial tally.

Local witnesses said every family lost at least one relative in the assault.

The assailants also targeted security forces, killing community leaders, numerous civilians, and several members of the security forces who responded to the attack.

The victims were buried in mass graves not far from the village.

Most of the injured were taken to a hospital in Kaya, the regional capital, about 45 kilometers from the site of the attack.

In light of the popular shock caused by the terrorist attack, the government sent on Sunday a ministerial delegation to the hospital, including Health Minister Robert Kargougou, Security Minister Mahamadou Sana, and government spokesman Jean-Emmanuel Ouedraogo.

Ouedraogo, denouncing the attack on national television, described it as a “cowardly and barbaric attack” carried out by “hordes of criminals” who targeted “women, children, the elderly, men, indiscriminately.”

Security Minister Sana assured the public that the Burkinabe armed forces will give “an answer so that the enemy knows that we will never again accept similar barbarism on our territory.”

No one has yet claimed responsibility for the attack. However, evidence show the attack was carried by the Group for Support of Islam and Muslims (JNIM), Al-Qaeda’s branch for West Africa.

According to a local resident, the victims were mainly “young civilians, who came out in large numbers to help the soldiers dig trenches around the town, to protect themselves from possible attacks by armed terrorist groups.”

A security source said that “the response of the soldiers” and auxiliary troops “made it possible to neutralize several terrorists and avoid a greater tragedy.”

Extremists affiliated with Al-Qaeda and ISIS have waged a grinding insurgency since 2015 in Burkina Faso that has killed more than 20,000 people, including 4,000 in 2024, ACLED figures show.

The attacks have also displaced two million people.