Ukrainian Drone Hits Upscale Moscow Highrise in Rare Attack

Debris dangles from a damaged apartment building on Mosfilmovskaya street after a Ukrainian drone attack in Moscow, Monday, May 4, 2026. (AP)
Debris dangles from a damaged apartment building on Mosfilmovskaya street after a Ukrainian drone attack in Moscow, Monday, May 4, 2026. (AP)
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Ukrainian Drone Hits Upscale Moscow Highrise in Rare Attack

Debris dangles from a damaged apartment building on Mosfilmovskaya street after a Ukrainian drone attack in Moscow, Monday, May 4, 2026. (AP)
Debris dangles from a damaged apartment building on Mosfilmovskaya street after a Ukrainian drone attack in Moscow, Monday, May 4, 2026. (AP)

A Ukrainian drone hit a residential high-rise building in an upscale Moscow neighborhood overnight into Monday, the Russian capital's mayor Sergei Sobyanin said.

The rare attack on heavily protected Moscow comes just days before Russia's grand annual May 9th parade, which this year will be held without military hardware amid a heightened threat from Ukrainian strikes.

"A drone crashed into a building in the area of the Mosfilmovskaya (street). There are no casualties," Sobyanin said, referring to an expensive district next to the Moscow film studio and some 10 kilometers (6 miles) from the Kremlin.

He added that the two drones that targeted Moscow have been repelled by the air defense forces.

Russian state broadcaster Rossiya-1 published a video showing collapsed walls and broken doors inside a damaged apartment.

Ukraine has fired drones into Russia throughout Moscow's more than four-year offensive, which has killed thousands and displaced millions.

Kyiv has in the past weeks stepped up its strikes targeting Russian oil infrastructure hubs: refineries, ports and depots.

But Ukrainian drones rarely reach Moscow, which is heavily guarded by numerous air defense systems.

Talks to end the war between the neighbors have gone nowhere.

Moscow is gearing up to hold its May 9th parade, which marks the victory over Nazi Germany. It has become a central event under President Vladimir Putin's long rule.

- Drone attacks -

Ukraine said Sunday it had hit several Russian ships -- a cruise missile carrier and three shadow fleet tankers -- as both sides fired hundreds of drones in a spree that killed at least eight people.

The two neighbors have been firing waves of explosive-packed drones at each other daily throughout the four-year war, as talks to end the conflict have gone nowhere.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Sunday vowed to step up retaliatory strikes on Russian energy sites if Moscow did not halt its invasion.

"Russia can end its war at any moment. Prolonging the war will only expand the scale of our defensive operations," he said on social media.

The Ukrainian leader said his troops had struck a vessel equipped with cruise missiles at the port of Primorsk, in Russia's northwestern Leningrad region.

The region's oil export terminals have been hit several times in recent weeks, triggering massive fires that billow plumes of toxic black smoke into the atmosphere.

Kyiv says the strikes have knocked out billions of dollars' worth of Russia's vital export earnings.

Zelensky said Sunday three of Russia's so-called shadow tankers -- ageing vessels that ferry its sanctioned oil around the world -- were struck, one at Primorsk and two off the southern Black Sea port of Novorossiysk.

He posted night-vision footage of a naval drone approaching one tanker at Novorossiysk.

The Russian governor of the Leningrad region had earlier confirmed a fire at the port after Ukrainian attacks.

The extent of the damage was not immediately clear and Russian officials gave no details.

- 600 drones -

On the Russian side of the front line, two people were killed in the Belgorod border region, one near Moscow and a teenager in Russian-occupied southern Ukraine in separate attacks overnight and throughout Sunday.

In Ukraine, two were killed in the coastal Odesa region, one in the frontline Kherson region and another in an attack on the industrial city of Dnipro.

Photos from Dnipro showed the roof of a five-storey apartment block destroyed, wooden beams exposed and debris scattered into partially collapsed top-floor apartments.

Russia fired 268 drones and one ballistic missile in the overnight barrage, Kyiv's air force said.

Ukraine's army launched 334 drones at Russia, Moscow's defense ministry said.

Kyiv calls its attacks on Russia fair retaliation for Russia's nightly barrages of its cities.

Both sides deny targeting civilians.

Tens of thousands have been killed -- the vast majority in Ukraine -- since Russia invaded in February 2022.

In April, Russia fired a record number of long-range attack drones at Ukraine -- an average of more than 200 a day -- according to AFP analysis of data from Kyiv's air force.



Iran Executes 3 Men over Involvement in Anti-govt Protests

FILED - 17 April 2026, Iran, Tehran: FILE PHOTO - An Iranian woman takes part in a rally under the motto "Sacrificed Girls" to pay tribute to women killed during the war. Photo: Stringer/dpa
FILED - 17 April 2026, Iran, Tehran: FILE PHOTO - An Iranian woman takes part in a rally under the motto "Sacrificed Girls" to pay tribute to women killed during the war. Photo: Stringer/dpa
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Iran Executes 3 Men over Involvement in Anti-govt Protests

FILED - 17 April 2026, Iran, Tehran: FILE PHOTO - An Iranian woman takes part in a rally under the motto "Sacrificed Girls" to pay tribute to women killed during the war. Photo: Stringer/dpa
FILED - 17 April 2026, Iran, Tehran: FILE PHOTO - An Iranian woman takes part in a rally under the motto "Sacrificed Girls" to pay tribute to women killed during the war. Photo: Stringer/dpa

Iran executed three men after they were convicted of involvement in anti-government protests that rocked the country in December and January, authorities said Monday.

Arrests and executions in Iran, particularly linked to the protests that began in December over living costs, have been on the rise since the start of the regional war triggered by a US-Israeli attack on February 28.

"Mehdi Rassouli and Mohammad Reza Miri, Mossad agents involved in the January riots in Mashhad (northeast), responsible for widespread violence and the death of a member of the security forces, were hanged," said the Iranian judiciary's Mizan Online website, referring to the Israeli spy agency.

The court accused the two men of "using Molotov cocktails and bladed weapons, inciting and encouraging others to kill, and directly participating in the murder of a security officer".

"Ebrahim Dolatabadi, one of the main instigators of the riots in Mashhad that claimed the lives of several members of the security forces, was also hanged," Mizan added.

The sentences were carried out after the Supreme Court confirmed the verdict for all three men, AFP quoted Mizan as saying.

According to Iranian authorities, the wave of protests that peaked in January began peacefully before descending into "riots fomented by foreign powers".

The government has acknowledged more than 3,000 deaths in the protests but blames the violence on "terrorist acts" orchestrated by the United States and Israel.

On Sunday, a man was executed for his role in a murder committed during another round of protests that rocked Iran in 2022-2023 following the death of Mahsa Amini, a young Iranian Kurdish woman.


Indonesia, Japan Discuss Defense Ties After Tokyo Unlocks Arms Exports

 Indonesia's Defense Minister Sjafrie Sjamsoeddin (R), Japan's Defense Minister Shinjiro Koizumi (C), and a female military police officer pose for a photo at the Defense Ministry office in Jakarta on May 4, 2026. (AFP)
Indonesia's Defense Minister Sjafrie Sjamsoeddin (R), Japan's Defense Minister Shinjiro Koizumi (C), and a female military police officer pose for a photo at the Defense Ministry office in Jakarta on May 4, 2026. (AFP)
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Indonesia, Japan Discuss Defense Ties After Tokyo Unlocks Arms Exports

 Indonesia's Defense Minister Sjafrie Sjamsoeddin (R), Japan's Defense Minister Shinjiro Koizumi (C), and a female military police officer pose for a photo at the Defense Ministry office in Jakarta on May 4, 2026. (AFP)
Indonesia's Defense Minister Sjafrie Sjamsoeddin (R), Japan's Defense Minister Shinjiro Koizumi (C), and a female military police officer pose for a photo at the Defense Ministry office in Jakarta on May 4, 2026. (AFP)

The defense ministers of Indonesia and Japan met in Jakarta Monday to sign a defense cooperation agreement, underlining the need to safeguard regional peace and stability in the face of global tumult.

Indonesia's Defense Minister Sjafrie Sjamsoeddin said he would ink an agreement with his Japanese counterpart Shinjiro Koizumi, although details of the pact were not shared publicly and there was no official confirmation that they had signed it.

Japan's defense ministry has said Koizumi would seek to bolster exchanges in the areas of "defense equipment and technology".

Tokyo eased a decades-old curb on arms exports last month, allowing firms to sell lethal weapons to any of the 17 countries with which Japan has defense agreements.

Indonesia's President Prabowo Subianto, a former general, has been pushing to modernize the country's ageing military assets since taking office in 2024.

After Indonesia, Koizumi is bound for the Philippines, where Japanese forces are taking part in a joint military exercise also including the United States.

On Monday, Koizumi said defense cooperation with Indonesia would make a "contribution to peace and stability... for the region as a whole" amid "an increasingly complex and tense international situation".

He also told reporters he would discuss maritime security and joint drills with Sjafrie.

Indonesia last month concluded a defense cooperation pact with the United States, agreed to increase security ties with France, and inked an oil deal with Russia.

Jakarta, while defending a non-aligned diplomatic posture it calls "free and active", last year joined the BRICS bloc of emerging economies that includes Russia and US rival China.

Prabowo has also signed a trade deal with US President Donald Trump and joined his so-called "Board of Peace".

Last week, Jakarta said it was still considering a US request for blanket overflight clearance which, if approved, analysts say could be seen as an alignment with Washington over Beijing.

Indonesia is strategically located on the Malacca Strait -- the world's busiest chokepoint for oil and petroleum liquids, according to the US Energy Information Administration.

The vast majority of China-bound oil travels through the strait.


Austria Expels 3 Russian Diplomats Over Signals Spying

Security personnel stand guard in a courthouse in Wiener Neustadt, Austria, April 28, 2026.REUTERS/Leonhard Foeger
Security personnel stand guard in a courthouse in Wiener Neustadt, Austria, April 28, 2026.REUTERS/Leonhard Foeger
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Austria Expels 3 Russian Diplomats Over Signals Spying

Security personnel stand guard in a courthouse in Wiener Neustadt, Austria, April 28, 2026.REUTERS/Leonhard Foeger
Security personnel stand guard in a courthouse in Wiener Neustadt, Austria, April 28, 2026.REUTERS/Leonhard Foeger

Austria declared three Russian diplomats persona non grata over an "antenna forest" on the rooves of diplomatic buildings that could be ⁠used for spying, the ⁠government said on Monday.

"It is unacceptable that diplomatic ⁠immunity be used to commit espionage," Foreign Minister Beate Meinl-Reisinger said in a statement confirming that the three diplomats had already left the ⁠country.

⁠It brings to 14 the number of Russian diplomats Austria has expelled since 2020.