The mayor, Vitaly Klitschko, said four of the injured had been hospitalised and residential buildings in several districts were damaged. \u201cThe western part of the capital is without electricity. Power workers will be working to restore supply.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/li>\n
Volodymyr Zelenskyy\u2019s powerful chief of staff and closest ally, Andriy Yermak, has resigned after Ukraine\u2019s anti-corruption agencies conducted searches at his apartment <\/strong>on Friday, reports Dan Sabbagh<\/a>. The abrupt departure of the aide, who had been leading the latest round of delicate peace negotiations with the US, was announced by the Ukrainian president in a late-afternoon social media video. Zelenskyy praised Yermak but made clear that \u201cthere should be no reason to be distracted by anything other than the defence of Ukraine\u201d at a time when Kyiv was dependent on retaining US support in the face of Russian territorial demands. Yermak had submitted his resignation, the president said. The search for a successor would begin on Saturday and the powerful office of the president of Ukraine, which Yermak led, would be \u201creorganised\u201d as part of the process.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n Ukrainian negotiators will visit the US this weekend for talks on Washington\u2019s plan to end the Ukraine war, a senior official said<\/strong>. The talks may take place in Florida, the source said, speaking anonymously, adding that Yermak was meant to take part in the talks before his dismissal.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n Ukrainian forces are defending their positions and hunting down sabotage groups in the north-eastern city of Kupiansk despite Moscow\u2019s statements that its troops are fully in control of it, Ukraine\u2019s top commander said<\/strong>. \u201cOur soldiers continue to conduct both defensive and search and strike actions,\u201d Oleksandr Syrskyi wrote on Telegram on Friday after visiting the area in Kharkiv region. \u201cThese actions take place daily as part of comprehensive measures to stabilise the situation in Kupiansk.\u201d Syrskyi said Ukrainian forces were \u201cholding designated lines and intensifying fire pressure to block the enemy\u2019s supply routes\u201d.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n A daughter of the former South African president Jacob Zuma has resigned as an MP after being accused of tricking 17 South African men into fighting for Russia in Ukraine<\/strong> by telling them they were travelling to Russia to train as bodyguards for the Zumas\u2019 uMkhonto weSizwe (MK) party. Rachel Savage reports<\/a> that Duduzile Zuma-Sambudla, 43, volunteered to resign and step back from public roles while cooperating with a police investigation and working to bring the men home, the MK chair said at a press conference<\/a> in Durban.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n Human Rights Watch will not stop investigating Russia or the actions of its military in Ukraine, despite Moscow declaring it an \u201cundesirable\u201d organisation<\/strong> earlier on Friday, the New York-based group said. It told Agence France-Presse it was \u201cnot surprised\u201d by the designation \u2013 which effectively criminalises it in Russia and anyone who works with them \u2013 and vowed to continue its work remotely. Human Rights Watch has not had a physical presence in Russia since authorities closed its Moscow offices in 2022.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n Blasts rocked two tankers from Russia\u2019s shadow fleet in the Black Sea near Turkey\u2019s Bosphorus strait<\/strong> on Friday, causing fires on the vessels, and rescue operations were launched for those onboard, Turkish authorities and sources said. The Kairos suffered an explosion and caught fire while en route from Egypt to Russia, Turkey\u2019s transport ministry said, while the country\u2019s Maritime Affairs Directorate said the Virat was reportedly struck about 35 nautical miles offshore. Both tankers are on a list of ships subject to sanctions on Russia over its 2022 invasion of Ukraine, according to LSEG data.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The mayor, Vitaly Klitschko, said four of the injured had been hospitalised and residential buildings in several districts…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":601288,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[12,26],"class_list":{"0":"post-601287","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world","8":"tag-news","9":"tag-world"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115633045158583401","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/601287","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=601287"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/601287\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/601288"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=601287"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=601287"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=601287"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}