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Ukraine Pounds Kursk with Drones, Killing One and Injuring Nine, Russia Says 

A Russian flag flies in front of a culture center damaged by a missile attack, what local authorities called a Ukrainian military strike, in the course of Russia-Ukraine conflict in the town of Rylsk in the Kursk region, Russia, March 19, 2025. (Reuters)
A Russian flag flies in front of a culture center damaged by a missile attack, what local authorities called a Ukrainian military strike, in the course of Russia-Ukraine conflict in the town of Rylsk in the Kursk region, Russia, March 19, 2025. (Reuters)
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Ukraine Pounds Kursk with Drones, Killing One and Injuring Nine, Russia Says 

A Russian flag flies in front of a culture center damaged by a missile attack, what local authorities called a Ukrainian military strike, in the course of Russia-Ukraine conflict in the town of Rylsk in the Kursk region, Russia, March 19, 2025. (Reuters)
A Russian flag flies in front of a culture center damaged by a missile attack, what local authorities called a Ukrainian military strike, in the course of Russia-Ukraine conflict in the town of Rylsk in the Kursk region, Russia, March 19, 2025. (Reuters)

Kyiv forces hit Russia's Kursk region that borders Ukraine with dozens of drones, killing an elderly woman, injuring nine people and sparking fires in several buildings in the region's administrative center, Russian authorities said on Tuesday.

The Russian defense ministry, which releases data only on how many drones its forces destroy not how many Ukraine launches, said 109 drones were downed over the Kursk region overnight.

"Kursk has been subjected to a massive enemy attack overnight," the Kursk region administration said in a post on Telegram messaging app.

"Unfortunately, an 85-year-old woman died."

A multi-storey apartment building was damaged as a result of the drone attack, with several flats catching fire, acting mayor of Kursk, Sergei Kotlyarov said on Telegram. Residents have been evacuated to a nearby school, he added.

The region's administration posted photos of a multi-storey apartment building with blown out windows and fire damage to the facade. Drones also hit an ambulance garage, damaging 11 cars, it said.

On Monday evening, three people were killed in the region as a result of a Ukrainian drone attack, officials said.

Reuters could not independently verify the reports. There was no immediate comment from Ukraine.

Both sides deny targeting civilians in the war, which Russia launched with a full-scale invasion on Ukraine more than three years ago. But thousands of civilians have died in the conflict, the vast majority of them Ukrainian.

Kursk and other Russian regions on the border with Ukraine have been subject to frequent air and land attack by Kyiv forces who say their goal is to undermine Moscow's overall war efforts.

Ukrainian troops last year staged a cross-border incursion into the Kursk region of which the city of Kursk is the administrative center. Ukrainian forces still remain in parts of the region, although Russian forces have recaptured much lost territory.

The attack follows a Russian missile and bomb attack on the Ukrainian city of Sumy over the weekend that killed 35 people and injured at least 119.

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More Than 83 Million People Internally Displaced Worldwide, Says Monitor 

A view shows makeshift shelters at the Internally Displaced People's (IDP) camp in Tinzaouaten, northern Mali November 7, 2024. (Reuters)
A view shows makeshift shelters at the Internally Displaced People's (IDP) camp in Tinzaouaten, northern Mali November 7, 2024. (Reuters)
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More Than 83 Million People Internally Displaced Worldwide, Says Monitor 

A view shows makeshift shelters at the Internally Displaced People's (IDP) camp in Tinzaouaten, northern Mali November 7, 2024. (Reuters)
A view shows makeshift shelters at the Internally Displaced People's (IDP) camp in Tinzaouaten, northern Mali November 7, 2024. (Reuters)

Raging conflicts, disasters and worsening climate change displaced tens of millions of people within their own countries last year, a new record, monitors said Tuesday.

An unprecedented 83.4 million internally displaced people (IDPs) were registered in 2024 -- equivalent to the entire population of Germany -- amid mass displacement from conflicts in places like Sudan and Gaza, as well as floods and giant cyclones.

That is more than double the number from just six years ago, the Internal Displacement Monitoring Center (IDMC) and the Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC) said in their annual joint report on internal displacement.

"Internal displacement is where conflict, poverty and climate collide, hitting the most vulnerable the hardest," IDMC chief Alexandra Bilak said in a statement.

The monitors highlighted that nearly 90 percent of the world's IDPs, or 73.5 million people, were displaced by conflict and violence -- an 80-percent increase since 2018.

Some 10 countries each counted more than three million IDPs from conflict and violence at the end of 2024, with civil war-ravaged Sudan alone home to a staggering 11.6 million IDPs -- the most ever recorded in a single country, the report showed.

Some two million people, nearly the entire population of the Gaza Strip, was also displaced at the end of last year, even before fresh mass displacements since Israel ended a two-month ceasefire on March 18, ramping up its bombardment of the Palestinian territory.

Worldwide, close to 10 million people were displaced within their countries at the end of last year, after being forced to flee by disasters -- more than double the number from five years ago, the monitors said.

A full 65.8 million new internal displacements were meanwhile reported in 2024, with some people forced to flee multiple times during the year, Tuesday's report showed.

Conflict was responsible for 20.1 million of those fresh displacements, while a record 45.8 million people fled their homes to escape disasters.

Faced with several major hurricanes like Helene and Milton, which prompted mass evacuations, the United States alone accounted for 11 million disaster-related displacements -- nearly a quarter of global total, the report said.

Weather-related events, many intensified by climate change, triggered 99.5 percent of all of last year's disaster displacements.

The number of countries reporting both conflict and disaster displacement had meanwhile tripled in 15 years, with more than three-quarters of people internally displaced by conflict living in countries that are very vulnerable to climate change.

Often, the drivers and impacts of displacement "are intertwined, making crises more complex and prolonging the plight of those displaced", the report said.

The stark numbers come as humanitarian organizations worldwide have been reeling since US President Donald Trump returned to office in January, immediately freezing most US foreign aid funding.

Many of the sweeping cuts are being felt by IDPs, who typically garner less attention than refugees, who have fled into other countries.

"This year's figures must act as a wake-up call for global solidarity," NRC chief Jan Egeland insisted in the statement.

"Every time humanitarian funding gets cut, another displaced person loses access to food, medicine, safety and hope," he warned.

The lack of progress towards reining in displacement globally, he said, "is both a policy failure and a moral stain on humanity".