Russian Attack Kills Two, Injures 11 in Ukraine’s Sumy, Authorities Say 

Ukrainian servicemen ride atop a tank after returning from Russia, near the Russian-Ukrainian border in the Sumy region, Aug. 17, 2024. (AP)
Ukrainian servicemen ride atop a tank after returning from Russia, near the Russian-Ukrainian border in the Sumy region, Aug. 17, 2024. (AP)
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Russian Attack Kills Two, Injures 11 in Ukraine’s Sumy, Authorities Say 

Ukrainian servicemen ride atop a tank after returning from Russia, near the Russian-Ukrainian border in the Sumy region, Aug. 17, 2024. (AP)
Ukrainian servicemen ride atop a tank after returning from Russia, near the Russian-Ukrainian border in the Sumy region, Aug. 17, 2024. (AP)

A Russian attack overnight damaged a factory in Ukraine's northern city of Sumy, killed two women and injured at least 11 people, Ukrainian authorities said on Friday. 

Ukraine's Prosecutor General's office said the factory manufactured packaging for baby food, juices and household products. 

One injured person died later in hospital, regional prosecutors said on Telegram, and the body of another victim was retrieved from the rubble. 

The airstrike caused a fire, prompting authorities to tell residents to stay inside and close windows because of air pollution. 

The northern Sumy region borders Russia's region of Kursk where Ukraine has made a major cross-border incursion since Aug. 6 while Moscow's troops press towards the strategic hub of Pokrovsk in eastern Ukraine. 

Ukrainian border areas suffer from constant Russian attacks, and Kyiv said the Kursk operation was aimed at protecting its settlements. 

Separately, a drone attack hit an industrial facility in Poltava in central Ukraine without causing any casualties, regional governor Filip Pronin said. 

The Ukrainian air force said it shot down 12 out of 18 Russia-launched drones overnight over five regions. Four more drones fell over the Ukrainian territory. 

Russia also used an Iskander-M missile during the attack, the air force added. It did not give additional details. 

In the southern port city of Odesa, authorities reported an explosion on Thursday evening after a ballistic air alert without providing details. 

Russia denies deliberately targeting civilians but thousands have been killed and injured in its strikes during the war, which began when Russian troops invaded its neighbor in February 2022. 



IAEA: Iran's Uranium Enrichment Rolls On

FILE - The flag of the International Atomic Energy Agency flies in front of its headquarters during an IAEA Board of Governors meeting in Vienna, Austria, on Feb. 6, 2023.  (AP Photo/Heinz-Peter Bader, File)
FILE - The flag of the International Atomic Energy Agency flies in front of its headquarters during an IAEA Board of Governors meeting in Vienna, Austria, on Feb. 6, 2023. (AP Photo/Heinz-Peter Bader, File)
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IAEA: Iran's Uranium Enrichment Rolls On

FILE - The flag of the International Atomic Energy Agency flies in front of its headquarters during an IAEA Board of Governors meeting in Vienna, Austria, on Feb. 6, 2023.  (AP Photo/Heinz-Peter Bader, File)
FILE - The flag of the International Atomic Energy Agency flies in front of its headquarters during an IAEA Board of Governors meeting in Vienna, Austria, on Feb. 6, 2023. (AP Photo/Heinz-Peter Bader, File)

Iran's production of highly enriched uranium continues and it has not improved cooperation with the UN nuclear watchdog despite a resolution demanding this at the agency's last board meeting, watchdog reports seen by Reuters showed on Thursday.

Despite the resolution passed at the last quarterly meeting of the International Atomic Energy Agency's 35-nation Board of Governors in June, nuclear diplomacy has largely been on hold with the election last month of Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian and the US presidential election due in November.
"The (IAEA) Director General (Rafael Grossi) expresses the hope that his initial exchange with President Pezeshkian will be followed by an early visit to Iran and the establishment of a fluid, constructive dialogue that swiftly leads to concrete results," said one of the two confidential, quarterly IAEA reports sent to member states on Thursday.

There has been no progress in the past quarter on several long-standing issues that have soured relations between the IAEA and Tehran, including Iran's barring of IAEA inspectors specialized in enrichment and Iran's failure to explain uranium traces at undeclared sites, the reports showed.

At the same time, Iran has added cascades, or clusters, of centrifuges, machines that refine uranium, at its main enrichment sites in Natanz and Fordow.
It has installed eight more cascades of advanced IR-6 centrifuges at Fordow, a site dug into a mountain, bringing the total there to 10, although the new ones had not yet been brought online, meaning they are not yet enriching uranium hexafluoride (UF6) gas, one report showed. Iran's stock of uranium in UF6 form enriched to up to 60% purity, close to the roughly 90% of weapons grade, grew by an estimated 22.6 kg to 164.7 kg, one of the reports said.
According to an IAEA yardstick, that is 2 kg short of being enough, in theory, if enriched further, for four nuclear bombs. By the same measure Iran now has enough uranium enriched to up to 20% purity, if enriched further, for six bombs.