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One person has died and 14 people left wounded after a Russian drone attack hit several high-rise apartment blocks in the Ukrainian port city of Odesa.
Footage showed emergency services battling fires at one apartment block as they rushed to rescue civilians. They reported at least 10 drone strikes overnight.
Odesa governor Oleh Kiper said there was damage to residential buildings, a higher education institution, a gas pipeline and private cars. Ukrainian state railways Ukrzaliznytsia reported that Odesa railway station was damaged during the attack, with power wires and rails damaged.
Ukraine’s air force said Russia fired a total of 86 drones at Ukraine in its latest aerial attack, 70 of which were either shot down or lost. Officials in Ukraine’s northeast city of Kharkiv also reported damage.
Ukrainian politicians urged Kyiv’s western supporters to put more pressure on Russia to agree to a ceasefire in light of the latest attacks.
“With no meaningful consequences, Russia feels free to escalate. Every delay, every diluted sanction, every excuse for inaction is taken in Moscow as permission,” economics minister Yulia Svyrydenko wrote on X, sharing footage of the attack in Odesa.
Moscow’s defence ministry, meanwhile, claimed that Ukraine fired 61 drones at targets across Russia.
Spain has rejected a Nato proposal to spend 5% of GDP on defense needs that’s due to be announced next week, calling it “unreasonable.”
In a letter sent Thursday to NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte, Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez said that Spain “cannot commit to a specific spending target in terms of GDP” at next week’s Nato summit in The Hague.
Most US allies at Nato are on track to endorse Donald Trump’s demand that they invest 5% of gross domestic product on their defense and military needs. In early June, Sweden and the Netherlands said that they aim to meet the new target.
Tom Watling20 June 2025 11:34
(REUTERS)
(REUTERS)
Tom Watling20 June 2025 11:00
Norway plans to raise its defence spending to 3.5% of the country’s GDP, and also aims to use an additional 1.5% for broader security related purposes, its prime minister said on Friday, in line with a planned common goal among Nato states.
Nato chief Mark Rutte has proposed that member nations should agree at a June 24-25 meeting in The Hague to aim for spending of a total of 5% of their gross domestic product on defence and broader security measures.
“We must do more to secure our country and contribute to our common security with our allies in Nato,” Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Stoere told a press conference on Friday.
The 3.5% spending includes Norway’s financial support to Ukraine’s military defence, he said.
Norway in 2024 spent an estimated 2.2% of GDP on defence, up from a low of 1.4% in 2022, the national statistics agency (SSB) said in April, and the government said in May it aims to spend 3.3% in 2025.
Tom Watling20 June 2025 10:31
North Korea is sending 5,000 military construction workers and 1,000 sappers to Russia’s Kursk oblast, where Moscow is repairing widespread damage from a Ukrainian incursion, according to a top Kremlin official.
Presidential security adviser Sergei Shoigu said the workers would help rebuild the strategic border region, which was invaded by the Ukrainian military last August and retaken by Russian forces earlier this year.
The dispatch of the workers was discussed in Mr Shoigu’s meeting with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, state media outlet KCNA reported on Wednesday.
Tom Watling20 June 2025 10:00
Earlier, we reported that six people had been wounded, including a 12-year-old, in the northeast Ukrainian region of Kharkiv.
Below, you can see some pictures of the aftermath of those attacks.
Rescuers work at the site of a drone strike on a residential building in Kharkiv, northeastern Ukraine (EPA)
Local people react at the site of a drone strike on a residential building in Kharkiv, northeastern Ukraine (EPA)
Ukrainian officials collect drone debris near the site of a drone strike on a residential building in Kharkiv, northeastern Ukraine (EPA)
Tom Watling20 June 2025 09:24
About once a month, French drone manufacturer Henri Seydoux makes what has become a necessary pilgrimage for many in his business — he goes to Ukraine.
Because for drone technology, there is no harder place to survive than the frontlines of the war against Russia’s invasion, where both sides are using unmanned aerial machines of all shapes and sizes to kill and to observe, reshaping modern warfare.
Tom Watling20 June 2025 09:00
While footage continues to come out from Ukraine’s port city of Odesa following a large Russian drone attack, we bring you news from Kharkiv, where there have been additional casualties.
The northeastern Ukrainian region, which borders Russia, is one of the most frequently bombed areas of the country. Its eponymously named capital is also home to some 1.3 million Ukrainians, making it the second largest city in the country behind Kyiv.
Local officials said Russia launched at least eight strikes overnight on the region, injuring three people, including a 12-year-old and 17-year-old girl, in the city. At least six apartment blocks were damaged.
Another three people were injured in villages outside the city but within the region.
Firefighters put out the fire following Russia’s massive air attack in Kharkiv, Ukraine (AP)
Images published by Kharkiv’s governor show an apartment block on fire following a Russian drone attack overnight (Oleh Synyehubov / Telegram )
Olena Zelenska, the wife of Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky, has accused Russia of “turning our nights into nightmares” with the latest aerial attacks.
Russia has ramped up its assaults on Ukraine in recent weeks, even as Vladimir Putin has repeated claims he is interested in ending the war.
Moscow says it is only striking military targets but footage last night showed civilians fleeing a residential apartment block after drones damaged the property and caused fires.
“Russia is deliberately turning each of our nights into a nightmare, trying to break our spirit. But Ukraine will persevere,” Ms Zelenska wrote on X.
“The future belongs to those who save, rebuild, and never give up.”
Tom Watling20 June 2025 08:19