Russia, Ukraine Trade Major Attacks Ahead of Kremlin's WWII Celebrations

A site of a Russian air strike, amid Russia's attack on Ukraine, in Zaporizhzhia, Ukraine May 5, 2026. Press service of the State Emergency Service of Ukraine in Zaporizhzhia region/Handout via REUTERS
A site of a Russian air strike, amid Russia's attack on Ukraine, in Zaporizhzhia, Ukraine May 5, 2026. Press service of the State Emergency Service of Ukraine in Zaporizhzhia region/Handout via REUTERS
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Russia, Ukraine Trade Major Attacks Ahead of Kremlin's WWII Celebrations

A site of a Russian air strike, amid Russia's attack on Ukraine, in Zaporizhzhia, Ukraine May 5, 2026. Press service of the State Emergency Service of Ukraine in Zaporizhzhia region/Handout via REUTERS
A site of a Russian air strike, amid Russia's attack on Ukraine, in Zaporizhzhia, Ukraine May 5, 2026. Press service of the State Emergency Service of Ukraine in Zaporizhzhia region/Handout via REUTERS

Russia and Ukraine launched major attacks on each other on Friday, with a two-day unilateral ceasefire that Moscow had declared around its World War II commemorations appearing to be in tatters.

"On the Russian side, there was not even a token attempt to cease fire on the front," Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said, as Ukraine's air force reported downing 56 drones in the last hours.

"As we did over the past 24 hours, Ukraine will respond in kind today as well," Zelensky wrote on X.

Russia lobbed "more than 850 strikes with drones of various types" along with more than 140 strikes on Kyiv's frontline positions, Zelensky said.

Russia's defense ministry said it had downed 264 Ukrainian drones overnight, the first hours of the Kremlin's unilateral two-day ceasefire.

Ukraine had blasted Russia's temporary truce as a propaganda measure to protect the victory parade on May 9 -- one of the most important patriotic events for Russian leader Vladimir Putin.

Hours before Russia's ceasefire began, Zelensky warned allies of Russia against attending the parade.

"We have also received messages from some states close to Russia, saying that their representatives plan to be in Moscow... A strange desire... in these days. We do not recommend it," Zelensky said.

"They want from Ukraine a permit to hold their parade so that they can go out onto the square safely for one hour once a year, and then go on killing," the Ukrainian leader added.

Zelensky had earlier proposed a counter-truce from May 6 that has gone unheeded.

With Moscow doubling down on its attacks on Ukraine in the last days, Kyiv has struck back.

The Russian defense ministry had, in turn, urged residents and diplomats to leave Kyiv, threatening a potential retaliatory strike in case of a Ukrainian attack during its ceasefire.

"We remind the civilian population of Kyiv and staff at foreign diplomatic missions once again of the need to leave the city in good time," AFP quoted the defense ministry as saying in a statement.

Britain's foreign office said Moscow's threats were "unwarranted, irresponsible and completely unjustified", adding that any attack on a diplomatic mission would be a further escalation in the war.

German Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul told Bloomberg TV that Berlin will not pull its embassy staff out from Kyiv.

Zelensky will also stay "in Kyiv" over the weekend, a senior source close to the Ukrainian president told AFP on condition of anonymity.

During the truce, Russia's defense ministry said it would "completely" halt fire along the frontline and stop long-range strikes on military infrastructure.

If Ukraine did not follow suit, Moscow would respond "in kind", the ministry said.

Russia marks World War II Victory Day each year on May 9 with a massive military parade through Red Square.

Putin has made memory of the war a central narrative of his 25-year rule and invoked it to justify his invasion of Ukraine.

In recent weeks, Kyiv, which has expanded its drone capabilities, has stepped up strikes on Moscow and deep inside Russia, hitting targets hundreds of miles from Ukraine.

The attacks have created unease in Russia ahead of the parade, normally a grand show of force displaying tanks and missiles, which marks the Soviet victory over Nazi Germany.

Moscow has said it will omit military hardware from the procession for the first time in almost 20 years.

The number of foreign guests has also shrunk -- only the leaders of Belarus, Malaysia and Laos will attend, alongside leaders of two Russia-backed Georgian breakaway republics not recognized by the UN, according to the Kremlin.

Moscow has also started intermittent city-wide internet shutdowns lasting until Saturday.

Talks on ending what has spiraled into Europe's worst conflict since World War II have shown little progress and have been sidelined by the Iran conflict.

Moscow is demanding that Ukraine withdraw from four regions it claims as its own -- terms seen as unacceptable to Kyiv.



Australia Spy Chief Warns of Iran Terror Threat

Police officers gather at the scene of a shooting incident at Bondi Beach, Sydney, Australia, December 14, 2025. (Reuters)
Police officers gather at the scene of a shooting incident at Bondi Beach, Sydney, Australia, December 14, 2025. (Reuters)
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Australia Spy Chief Warns of Iran Terror Threat

Police officers gather at the scene of a shooting incident at Bondi Beach, Sydney, Australia, December 14, 2025. (Reuters)
Police officers gather at the scene of a shooting incident at Bondi Beach, Sydney, Australia, December 14, 2025. (Reuters)

An Australian citizen living in Iran who was a senior member of its Revolutionary Guards orchestrated a major antisemitic firebomb attack in Sydney, Australia's spy chief said Wednesday.

Giving an annual threat assessment, Mike Burgess, director-general of the Australian Security Intelligence Organization (ASIO), said he was also concerned that an Iranian group active in Europe could conduct further attacks or an assassination in Australia.

ASIO has come under scrutiny after 15 people were killed in an antisemitic mass shooting at Bondi Beach in December, with an independent inquiry into antisemitism noting a drop in the share of funding for counter-terrorism investigations.

In his Canberra speech, Burgess defended the agency as it faced "concurrent, cascading, and compounding threats", and revealed details of investigations into two antisemitic firebombings traced to Iran.

An Iran-based Australian citizen orchestrated the 2024 firebombing of a Bondi restaurant, Lewis' Continental Kitchen, in the first major antisemitic attack in Australia, he said.

"This person is a senior agent of the IRGC Quds Force, running its networks around the world," he said, referring to the Guards' foreign operations branch.

A former Australian resident living in Iraq but working for Iran had directed another major firebomb attack, on the Adass Israel Synagogue in Melbourne, he said. Australia expelled Iran's ambassador last year over the attack.

- State hackers -

An Australian crime figure was arrested in January after pressure from Australian and Iraqi police.

"Iran recruited him through a complex web of Iraqi-based militia groups. Valuing his high wealth and criminal connections, the IRGC protected him and supported his illegal enterprises," Burgess said.

Iran continued to view Australia as a target, and could "conduct or inspire acts of arson, vandalism or even assassinations on Australian soil".

The Bondi Beach attack, allegedly by father-and-son killers, was shocking but not surprising in the context of a deteriorating global and domestic security environment, he said.

There were "misunderstandings" about how ASIO allocates resources, he added.

The number of officers working on counter-terrorism doubled between 2005 and 2025 and the agency was using new tools including artificial intelligence.

ASIO had foiled 31 major terrorism plots since 2014, and its cases had become more complex as people became radicalized in online chat rooms not prayer halls, within weeks, and at a younger age.

Burgess said state hackers had penetrated a critical infrastructure network, and outlined how a particular nation had sought to coerce eight people, including five Australians, to return to their place of birth to silence them.

Foreign spies were seeking to recruit Australians to reveal official secrets about AUKUS, the country's security partnership with Britain and the United States.

"What's more important: the liberty and agency of an individual, countering antisemitism, the availability of critical infrastructure or defending AUKUS? I don't believe we can prioritize the major threats -- you must deal with all of them," he said.


France Announces First Ebola Case

Healthcare workers carry on a stretcher a patient suffering from the Ebola virus disease from an ambulance at the Ebola Treatment Center (ETC) in Bunia, Ituri, in the east of the Democratic Republic of Congo on June 23, 2026. (Photo by Benediction MURHABAZI / AFP)
Healthcare workers carry on a stretcher a patient suffering from the Ebola virus disease from an ambulance at the Ebola Treatment Center (ETC) in Bunia, Ituri, in the east of the Democratic Republic of Congo on June 23, 2026. (Photo by Benediction MURHABAZI / AFP)
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France Announces First Ebola Case

Healthcare workers carry on a stretcher a patient suffering from the Ebola virus disease from an ambulance at the Ebola Treatment Center (ETC) in Bunia, Ituri, in the east of the Democratic Republic of Congo on June 23, 2026. (Photo by Benediction MURHABAZI / AFP)
Healthcare workers carry on a stretcher a patient suffering from the Ebola virus disease from an ambulance at the Ebola Treatment Center (ETC) in Bunia, Ituri, in the east of the Democratic Republic of Congo on June 23, 2026. (Photo by Benediction MURHABAZI / AFP)

France on Wednesday announced its first confirmed case of Ebola identified on its territory, a doctor who had returned from the Democratic Republic of Congo.

The health ministry "confirms today the identification of a first positive case of Ebola virus disease on national territory,” it said. Contacted by AFP, the ministry specified that the case was identified in mainland France.

The ⁠patient is being isolated and authorities are contact tracing, the ministry said ⁠in a statement, adding that the risk for the general European population was low.

Congo's Ebola outbreak, which has infected more than 1,000 people and killed 267, has ⁠had ⁠the largest number of confirmed cases within the first month of any episode of the disease, the World Health Organization has said.


Ukrainian Strike Cuts Power to Crimean City to Isolate the Russian-Held Peninsula

A satellite image shows smoke rising by the Crimea Bridge, amid the Russia-Ukraine conflict, Crimea, June 22, 2026.(Vantor/Handout via Reuters)
A satellite image shows smoke rising by the Crimea Bridge, amid the Russia-Ukraine conflict, Crimea, June 22, 2026.(Vantor/Handout via Reuters)
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Ukrainian Strike Cuts Power to Crimean City to Isolate the Russian-Held Peninsula

A satellite image shows smoke rising by the Crimea Bridge, amid the Russia-Ukraine conflict, Crimea, June 22, 2026.(Vantor/Handout via Reuters)
A satellite image shows smoke rising by the Crimea Bridge, amid the Russia-Ukraine conflict, Crimea, June 22, 2026.(Vantor/Handout via Reuters)

Ukrainian strikes on Crimea triggered power outages in its largest city, Sevastopol, both sides reported Wednesday, as Kyiv intensifies its attempts to cut off the peninsula, which Moscow annexed in 2014.

Crimea has been forced to suspend fuel sales to the public as Ukraine's army targets Russian logistics to the region and has hit a series of oil refineries and depots across southern Russia that provide supplies.

Sevastopol's Moscow-installed governor Mikhail Razvozhayev urged residents to help vulnerable neighbors and reserve phones for emergency communication to save battery and avoid overloading the grid.

"The enemy is once again striking treacherously, attempting to deprive us of normal living conditions and sow panic," he posted.

He said some areas of the city -- where temperatures are approaching 30C -- would be without power until at least Wednesday evening.

Separate Ukrainian drone attacks killed two people in Russia's Nizhny Novgorod region, hundreds of kilometers from the front line, and one in the border region of Belgorod, the local governors reported.

And a Russian drone attack killed a 56-year-old woman in the Ukrainian border region of Kharkiv, authorities said.

Russia's defense ministry said the country's forces had destroyed more than 300 drones from Ukraine overnight, with the warring neighbors having stepped up strikes in recent weeks.

Kyiv's air force said Wednesday that Moscow launched 101 drones at Ukraine overnight, of which 95 were destroyed.

US-led talks on ending Europe's deadliest conflict since World War II have remained effectively frozen, with Washington's attention diverted towards the Middle East since launching strikes on Iran in late February.