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.



German Chancellor Vows from Solingen to Prevent Another Stabbing Attack

North Rhine-Westphalia state premier Hendrik Wuest, Solingen mayor Tim Kurzbach and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz pay their respects at the site where three people were killed and several injured in a stabbing attack at a festival, in Solingen, Germany. (Reuters/Jana Rodenbusch)
North Rhine-Westphalia state premier Hendrik Wuest, Solingen mayor Tim Kurzbach and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz pay their respects at the site where three people were killed and several injured in a stabbing attack at a festival, in Solingen, Germany. (Reuters/Jana Rodenbusch)
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German Chancellor Vows from Solingen to Prevent Another Stabbing Attack

North Rhine-Westphalia state premier Hendrik Wuest, Solingen mayor Tim Kurzbach and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz pay their respects at the site where three people were killed and several injured in a stabbing attack at a festival, in Solingen, Germany. (Reuters/Jana Rodenbusch)
North Rhine-Westphalia state premier Hendrik Wuest, Solingen mayor Tim Kurzbach and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz pay their respects at the site where three people were killed and several injured in a stabbing attack at a festival, in Solingen, Germany. (Reuters/Jana Rodenbusch)

The German government is under pressure to draw lessons and act after a Syrian migrant from Deir Ezzor killed three people and injured eight others in a fatal knife attack in the city of Solingen, later claimed by ISIS.

During a visit to the city three days after the incident, Chancellor Olaf Scholz said the attack would not be repeated.

He said his government was looking at more ways to increase the rate of deportations and also promised tougher weapons and knife laws.

A joint working group from the federal government and local authorities will be established to discuss and determine steps to accelerate the deportation of refugees whose requests were rejected, he added.

“We will have to do everything we can to ensure that those who cannot and are not allowed to stay in Germany are repatriated and deported,” Scholz told reporters.

Authorities had planned to deport the suspect in Friday's attack to Bulgaria last year under European Union asylum rules, according to German media.

But officials say when they tried to deport him, they could not locate him and he remained in Germany.

After he disappeared for six months, which is the legal period for authorities to deport him, he returned and registered himself in Solingen and obtained the “right of temporary protection.”

The German opposition has been demanding an end to taking in refugees from Syria and Afghanistan and to deport migrants who have committed serious crimes.

Berlin has no diplomatic ties with the governments of both countries, which means it can't coordinate any deportations to them.

Leader of the conservative Christian Democratic Union (CDU), Friedrich Merz, called for an immediate halt to the admission of refugees from Syria and Afghanistan.

He said the Solingen attack should be a “turning point” in the policies of the socialist-led government, which also includes ministers from the Greens and Liberals.

Last June, a new citizenship law entered into force in Germany. It allowed the government to reduce the minimum period of German residence necessary for naturalization to five years (and even three years in exceptional circumstances), down from eight years.

It also allowed German citizens to hold multiple citizenships whereas currently, dual citizenship is possible only in rare circumstances.

General Secretary of the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD), Kevin Kühnert, said many of Merz's proposals stood in contrast to the country's constitution, known as the Basic Law, which upholds the individual's right to asylum, for example.

“The answer can't be that we now slam the door in the face of people who are themselves fleeing from extremists because they are being persecuted by them for their way of life,” Kühnert said.

He said as far as was known, Bulgaria had been prepared to accept the man.

“The federal states are responsible for deportations in Germany, which in this case would have been North Rhine Westphalia,” Kühnert said, referring to the western state where Solingen is located.

He called on state authorities to examine why no action had been taken in the man's case.

Amid this controversy, ISIS released a video on its Amaq news site showing a man covering his face with only his eyes visible. The man was filmed saying he is behind the stabbing in Solingen and that he was ready to carry out an operation in revenge for “Bosnia, Iraq and Palestine.”

It remains unclear whether the man himself carried out the attack in Germany.