Russia Launches Waves of Drone Attacks on Kyiv, Ukraine’s Military Says

 Ukrainian service personnel use searchlights as they search for drones in the sky over the city center during a Russian drone strike, amid Russia's attack on Ukraine, in Kyiv, Ukraine September 30, 2024. (Reuters)
Ukrainian service personnel use searchlights as they search for drones in the sky over the city center during a Russian drone strike, amid Russia's attack on Ukraine, in Kyiv, Ukraine September 30, 2024. (Reuters)
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Russia Launches Waves of Drone Attacks on Kyiv, Ukraine’s Military Says

 Ukrainian service personnel use searchlights as they search for drones in the sky over the city center during a Russian drone strike, amid Russia's attack on Ukraine, in Kyiv, Ukraine September 30, 2024. (Reuters)
Ukrainian service personnel use searchlights as they search for drones in the sky over the city center during a Russian drone strike, amid Russia's attack on Ukraine, in Kyiv, Ukraine September 30, 2024. (Reuters)

Russia launched several waves of drones targeting Kyiv early on Monday, with air defense units successfully defending the city during the attack which lasted over five hours, Ukraine's military said.

Reuters' witnesses heard numerous blasts in the Ukrainian capital in what sounded like air defense systems in operation and saw objects being hit in the air.

All the drones that Russia launched at Kyiv were either destroyed by defense systems or neutralized by electronic warfare, Serhiy Popko, the head of Kyiv's military administration said on the Telegram messaging app.

According to preliminary information, there were no casualties and no damage reported, he added. Kyiv mayor Vitali Klitschko said drone debris fell by a residential building with emergency services working on site.

The Ukrainian air force said on Monday that it shot down 67 out of 73 drones and one of three missiles launched by Russia during the attack.

Governor Ruslan Kravchenko reported no damage to critical or residential infrastructure in the region surrounding the capital. He said that the attack caused fires in five districts of the region, but there were no casualties.

Mykolaiv governor Vitaliy Kim said the attack caused a fire at a critical infrastructure facility in the southern region.

Russia has launched multiple air attacks on Kyiv and Ukraine throughout September, targeting Ukraine's energy, military and transport infrastructure in attacks which have killed dozens of civilians.

Russia denies targeting civilians in the full-scale invasion it called a "special operation" when it was launched in February 2022.



Hungary’s Orban Blames Immigration and EU for Deadly Attack in Germany

 Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban holds an international press conference in Budapest, Hungary, December 21, 2024. (Reuters)
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban holds an international press conference in Budapest, Hungary, December 21, 2024. (Reuters)
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Hungary’s Orban Blames Immigration and EU for Deadly Attack in Germany

 Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban holds an international press conference in Budapest, Hungary, December 21, 2024. (Reuters)
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban holds an international press conference in Budapest, Hungary, December 21, 2024. (Reuters)

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban on Saturday drew a direct link between immigration and an attack in Germany where a man drove into a Christmas market teeming with holiday shoppers, killing at least five people and injuring 200 others.

During a rare appearance before independent media in Budapest, Orban expressed his sympathy to the families of the victims of what he called the “terrorist act” on Friday night in the city of Magdeburg. But the long-serving Hungarian leader, one of the European Union's most vocal critics, also implied that the 27-nation bloc's migration policies were to blame.

German authorities said the suspect, a 50-year-old Saudi doctor, is under investigation. He has lived in Germany since 2006, practicing medicine and described himself as a former Muslim.

Orban claimed without evidence that such attacks only began to occur in Europe after 2015, when hundreds of thousands of migrants and refugees entered the EU after largely fleeing war and violence in the Middle East and Africa.

Europe has in fact seen numerous militant attacks going back decades including train bombings in Madrid, Spain, in 2004 and attacks on central London in 2005.

Still, the nationalist leader declared that “there is no doubt that there is a link” between migration and terrorism, and claimed that the EU leadership “wants Magdeburg to happen to Hungary too.”

Orban’s anti-immigrant government has taken a hard line on people entering Hungary since 2015, and has built fences protected by razor wire on Hungary's southern borders with Serbia and Croatia.

In June, the European Court of Justice ordered Hungary to pay a fine of 200 million euros ($216 million) for persistently breaking the bloc’s asylum rules, and an additional 1 million euros per day until it brings its policies into line with EU law.

Orban, a right-wing populist who is consistently at odds with the EU, has earlier vowed that Hungary would not change its migration and asylum policies regardless of any rulings from the EU's top court.

On Saturday, he promised that his government will fight back against what he called EU efforts to “impose” immigration policies on Hungary.