World

KYIV — Ukraine said on Sunday it suffered several waves of aerial attacks overnight, which Moscow said targeted military airfields, a day after a strike on a Russian tanker on the Kerch Strait. 

The Ukrainian air force said Sunday it shot down 30 out of the 40 cruise missiles and all Shahed drones launched by Russia.

"In total, the enemy used 70 air attack weapons in several waves" in the night between Saturday and Sunday. 

It added that Russia launched three Kinzhal hypersonic missiles but did not say if they had been destroyed.

The Ukrainian armed force did not specify which sites were hit by the missiles that got through air defences. 

The Russian army however said it struck "Ukrainian armed forces airbases around the settlements of Starokostiantyniv in the Khmelnytskyi region and Dubno in the Rivne region".

Home to a major airbase, the western Khmelnytskyi region located hundreds of kilometres from the front lines of the fighting has been repeatedly targeted during the war. 

"Since yesterday evening, the Khmelnytskyi region has been attacked three times... most missiles were shot down" said local official Sergiy Tyurin.

Several buildings and the bus station were damaged, he said on Telegram.

He also posted pictures of a crumbling building engulfed in flames, saying a corn waste warehouse had caught fire. 

Meanwhile in the Rivne region that Russia said it hit, “only a few private households were damaged” according to regional head Vitaliy Koval.

‘All targets hit’ 

On Saturday Ukraine said Russian forces struck a blood transfusion centre in the Kharkiv region of northeast Ukraine.

“This war crime alone says everything about Russian aggression,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said.

The reported strike came shortly after Zelensky said Russian missiles had hit a facility of the Ukrainian aeronautics group Motor Sich, one of several companies requisitioned by the government since Moscow’s invasion.

On Sunday morning the Russian army said “all targets were hit” in the overnight strikes.

It said that separately Russian air defence forces shot down a drone approaching Moscow.

The Russian capital was almost never targeted since the beginning of the offensive in Ukraine, until a series of attacks in recent months.

The drone was downed without any casualties or damage, and restrictions on flights at Moscow’s Vnukovo Airport were quickly lifted.

There have been an increased number of drone attacks not only on regions bordering Ukraine, but also on Moscow.

A Ukrainian drone hit a Russian oil tanker south of the Kerch Strait in the night between Friday and Saturday.

On Sunday morning repair work was being carried out on the vessel that was still afloat, according to Russia’s Federal Agency for Sea and Inland Water Transport.

‘Different views’ 

Attacks have multiplied on both sides of the Black Sea since Russia exited a deal protecting grain exports there, brokered by the UN and Turkey.

Russia has hit port infrastructure on the Black Sea and the Danube, while Ukraine has targeted Russia’s Black Sea Fleet.

While combat continues, the likelihood of securing peace looks extremely thin.

Saudi Arabia nevertheless hosted talks on the Ukraine war Saturday in the latest flexing of its diplomatic muscles.

Organisers succeeded in bringing together representatives of the four members of the influential BRICS bloc besides Russia: Brazil, India, China and South Africa.

“We had an extremely honest, open conversation,” a statement on the Ukrainian presidency website said Sunday. 

It said the consultation was “very productive” despite “different views”.

The Ukrainian delegation headed by Andriy Yermak is due to hold more bilateral meetings Sunday.

ROME — At least 30 migrants are missing following two shipwrecks off the Italian island of Lampedusa, according to survivor testimony, the UN's migration agency said Sunday.

Around 28 people were reported lost at sea by survivors on one boat, while three were reported missing from the second, after both went down in stormy weather on Saturday, said the International Organisation for Migration (IOM).

Both were rickety iron boats believed to have set off from Sfax in Tunisia on Thursday.

Cultural mediators with the IOM believed there were "at least 30 people missing" after speaking to the survivors, press officer Flavio Di Giacomo told AFP.

An investigation into the shipwrecks has been opened in Agrigento, on the nearby Italian island of Sicily.

Agrigento’s chief of police Emanuele Ricifari said the traffickers would have known rough seas were forecast.

“Whoever allowed them, or forced them, to leave with this sea is an unscrupulous criminal lunatic,” he told Italian media.

“Rough seas are forecast for the next few days. Let’s hope they stop. It’s sending them to slaughter with this sea,” he said.

As the stormy weather continued, firebrigade and alpine rescue teams were preparing Sunday to pull to safety some 20 migrants trapped on a rocky part of Lampedusa’s coastline.

The migrants have been there since late Friday, after their boat was tossed onto the rocks by strong winds.

They have been provided with food, water, clothes and emergency thermal blankets by the Red Cross, but the coastguard has been unable to rescue them by sea due to the high waves.

Should the winds not drop, rescuers will begin winching them up the 140 metre high cliff to safety, media reports said.

The Central Mediterranean crossing from North Africa to Europe is the world’s deadliest.

Over 1,800 people have died attempting it so far this year, Di Giacomo said — almost 900 more than last year.

“The truth is that figure is likely to be much higher. Lots of bodies are being found at sea, suggesting there are many shipwrecks we never hear about,” he said.

The number of bodies found has increased in particular on the so-called Tunisian route, which has become increasingly dangerous, Di Flavio said, because of the type of boats used.

Sub-Saharan migrants are being put out to sea by traffickers “in iron boats which cost less than the usual wooden ones, but are utterly unseaworthy, they easily break up and sink”, he said.

Migrants also often have the engines stolen from their boats at sea, so that traffickers can reuse them.

PINGYUAN, China — At least 23 people were injured and dozens of buildings collapsed, state media reported, after a shallow 5.4-magnitude earthquake struck eastern China in the early hours of Sunday.

The US Geological Survey (USGS) said the quake struck at 2:33 am (1833 GMT Saturday), 26 kilometres south of the city of Dezhou in Shandong province, at a depth of 10 kilometres.

It was the strongest to hit the province in more than a decade, state-run tabloid the Global Times said.

The quake was felt as far away as Beijing and Tianjin, as well as in Shanghai, about 800 kilometres from the epicentre.

Videos on social media showed shaking light fixtures, trembling ground and people evacuating their buildings, with one clip showing people walking past bricks scattered on the ground.

"The tremor was so strong... during the earthquake my head was shaking on the pillow, I thought I was having a nightmare," one person posted on social media platform Weibo from Shandong's neighbouring Hebei province.

USGS’s PAGER system, which provides preliminary assessments on the impact of earthquakes, issued a red alert, estimating extensive damage and some casualties were probable based on previous quake data.

By Sunday evening, the quake had caused 23 injuries in Pingyuan County, Dezhou City, “of which 10 people were hospitalised for minor injuries, and 13 people were slightly injured”, the city’s official Wechat account said, citing Earthquake Field Command.

An AFP team saw cracked walls and bricks strewn on the ground near the epicentre of the quake in the rural and sparsely populated county but the damage appeared relatively minor.

Locals helped with the cleanup operation in one village, with a group of four elderly women putting a low brick wall back together outside an overgrown yard.

Deng Hongqiang, 55, who lives outside the village but came back to prop up the wall on his uninhabited property, told AFP he had been jolted awake by the quake.

“At the time, all I knew was the ground was shaking... so I went outside,” he said.

There was “no way” to repair his old house in the area, he said. “We’ll have to demolish and rebuild.”

Nurses tended to some of the injured at the nearby First People’s Hospital. 

‘It’s scary’ 

China’s Ministry of Emergency Management has launched a level-four emergency response and sent a team to Shandong province to lead the rescue work, according to state news agency Xinhua. 

Footage from CCTV showed rescue personnel in red uniforms marching past first aid tents that had been set up on a school athletics field surrounded by seemingly undamaged buildings.

“Only specific old dirt buildings that were uninhabited have collapsed,” CCTV said, showing footage of piles of crumbled bricks between undamaged buildings and pieces of exterior wall stripped from a still-standing house.

“Some yard perimeter walls have collapsed and been damaged,” the broadcaster said.

Water and communications infrastructure were functioning normally in the area but hundreds of train services were suspended on Sunday morning, according to CCTV.

“I can’t say anything except that it’s scary,” another Weibo user said.

Earthquakes are not uncommon in China but it is rare for them to hit the eastern part of the country, where most of the population and big cities are located.

An official from the Shandong Seismological Bureau said the possibility of a larger earthquake was “very small”, according to local media.

ROME  — Migrants are being systematically turned away by France at the border with Italy with "acts of violence, degrading and inhumane treatment", the Doctors Without Borders (MSF) charity said Friday.

People spoken to by an MSF team between February and June in the Italian city of Ventimiglia on the border, reported recurrent procedural violations by French officials, and indifference from Italian ones.

"The systematic pushback of individuals at the French-Italian border is often accompanied by acts of violence, degrading or inhumane treatment as well as arbitrary detention," MSF said in its report.

The situation was also dire on the Italian side of the border, it said.

"Access to essential services is extremely limited for those returned at the French border and those transiting through Ventimiglia," MSF said, due to the closure by Italy of the only emergency reception centre in the area.

Migrants are "forced to sleep on the streets, in abandoned buildings or under (the) bridge, thus exposed to danger, health and weather hazards and without access to sanitary facilities, clean water or adequate shelter", it said.

MSF said the majority of the migrants were "in situations of extreme vulnerability", and many had undergone "very traumatic" journeys from Africa to Europe.

Most of the people the team treated came from Cameroon, Guinea and the Ivory Coast, and the top three medical issues were dermatological, muscoloskeletal and neurological disorders.

Nearly 92,000 migrants have arrived in Italy since the start of the year, more than double compared to the same period in 2022, according to the Italian interior ministry.

A large number only intend to transit through Italy for France or countries in northern Europe.

NIAMEY — Pressure on the leaders of a coup in Niger mounted Saturday on the eve of a west African bloc's deadline for the military to relinquish control or face possible armed intervention.

Former colonial power France, with which the junta broke military ties shortly after taking power, said it would "firmly" back whatever course of action the ECOWAS bloc took after the expiration of the Sunday deadline. 

Military chiefs from the grouping said they had agreed a plan for a possible intervention to respond to the crisis, the latest of several coups to hit Africa's Sahel region since 2020.

"All the elements that will go into any eventual intervention have been worked out," ECOWAS Commissioner Abdel Fatau Musah said after the talks finished.

These included "the resources needed, and including the how and when we are going to deploy the force", he added.

"We want diplomacy to work, and we want this message clearly transmitted to them [the junta]that we are giving them every opportunity to reverse what they have done," Musah said.

Paris said "the future of Niger and the stability of the entire region are at stake" as tension ratchet up over the future of one of the world's poorest countries.

Niger played a key part in Western strategies to combat an insurgency that has plagued the Sahel since 2012, with France and the United States stationing around 1,500 and 1,000 troops in the country, respectively.

Anti-French sentiment in the region is on the rise, while Russian activity, often through the Wagner mercenary group, has grown. Russia has warned against armed intervention from outside.

Meeting force with force 

The junta has warned it would meet force with force. 

Mali and Burkina Faso, where military juntas have taken power since 2020, have warned any regional intervention would be tantamount to a “declaration of war” against them.

President Mohamed Bazoum, 63, has been held by the coup plotters with his family in his official Niamey residence since July 26.

In a column in The Washington Post on Thursday,his first lengthy statement since his detention, he said a successful putsch would “have devastating consequences for our country, our region and the entire world”.

Bazoum, who in 2021 won an election that ushered in Niger’s first-ever transfer of power from one civilian government to another, urged “the US government and the entire international community to help us restore our constitutional order”.

Nigeria has cut electricity supplies to its neighbour Niger raising fears for the humanitarian situation in the country, while Niamey has closed the vast Sahel country’s borders, complicating food deliveries.

Washington said it has suspended some aid programmes but pledged that “life-saving humanitarian and food assistance will continue”.

LISBON — Tens of thousands of people gathered at riverside park near Lisbon on Saturday ahead of a vigil held by Pope Francis as part of a major Catholic youth festival.

Pilgrims protected themselves from the blazing sun with umbrellas or makeshift tents made from sheets at the Parque Tejo on the outskirts of the Portuguese capital.

Portugal's state weather office has put Lisbon on alert for scorching temperatures, with the mercury grazing 36oC on Saturday.

Worshippers sang, danced and played cards to pass the time until the start of the start of he vigil at 8:15pm (19:15 GMT).

Church organisers expect one million faithful will attend the event at the park, which was built for the occasion on a former landfill site, but which has little shade.

The vigil is part of World Youth Day festivities, which is actually a week of religious, cultural and festive events held every three years in a different city.

Earlier Saturday, the 86-year-old Pope visited the shrine of Fatima, a globally revered site north of Lisbon devoted to the Virgin Mary, where he was welcomed by some 200,000 people.

Worshippers waved and called out "Viva!" as the 86-year-old Pontiff, wearing a white cassock, slowly drove past on his Popemobile.

He paused several times to have babies brought to him and kissed them on the head.

'Everyone can enter' 

The Pope then recited the rosary with sick youths, people with disabilities and prisoners at the chapel built on the spot where the Virgin Mary is said to have appeared to three shepherd children in 1917.

In an address to the crowd estimated by local authorities at around 200,000 people, he reinforced calls made many times during his trip to Portugal for an inclusive church.

"This little chapel where we find ourselves, is like a beautiful image of the church, welcoming, without doors," he said in improvised remarks.

"The church does not have doors, so that everyone can enter," he added to applause from the crowd.

It is the second day running that the pope, has not followed his prepared remarks.

Vatican spokesman Matteo Bruni told reporters the Pope had improvised one of his speeches on Friday due to "discomfort of vision", but that in Fatima it had been "a choice".

The Pope solemnly prayed in silence for several minutes before a statue of the Virgin Mary in the chapel.

In a text published later on Twitter, which is being rebranded as “X”, the pontiff said he had prayed for the "church and the world, especially for countries at war".

Fatima draws millions of pilgrims from around the globe

Many pilgrims walk to the town and some complete the final stretch on their knees to demonstrate their devotion.

Susana Marino, a 48-year-old Portuguese psychologist, said she had come to Fatima because "it really will be the last chance we have to see the Pope".

The Pontiff is in increasingly fragile health and now uses a wheelchair or walking stick to get around.

He arrived in Portugal on Wednesday for World Youth Day, a six-day international Catholic jamboree.

The leader of the world's 1.3 billion Roman Catholics will deliver a final open-air mass on Sunday morning at the Parque Tejo before returning to Rome.

World Youth Day, created in 1986 by John Paul II, is the largest Catholic gathering in the world and features a wide range of events, including concerts and prayer sessions.

This edition, initially scheduled for August 2022 but postponed because of the pandemic, will be the fourth for Francis after Rio de Janeiro in 2013, Krakow in 2016 and Panama in 2019.

MOSCOW/ KYIV — Russia on Saturday said it captured a settlement in northeastern Ukraine, where Kyiv has reported increased attacks.

"In the area of Kupiansk, as a result of the competent and professional actions of the military units of the Western command, the settlement of Novoselivske was liberated," the Russian defence ministry said on Telegram.

It added "offensive operations on a broad front... improved the situation" of Russian forces. 

On Friday the Ukrainian army said it was confronted with a growing number of attacks in the east.

"The number of enemy attacks has increased. Heavy fighting is taking place," army spokeswoman Ganna Malyar said on Telegram. 

Malyar said Russian troops were aiming to draw Ukrainian resources to that area, as Ukraine is pursuing its counteroffensive in the south.

"In the Kupiansk sector, the enemy has set itself the goal of regaining the territories lost last fall," Malyar said. 

Late summer and autumn 2022, Ukraine retook swathes of territory around southern Kherson and north-eastern Kharkiv in rapid counteroffensives.

Ukraine began another push in June but is now contending with well-entrenched Russian defensive positions built over several months.

Late July, Russia said it seized the village of Sergiivka in the eastern Donetsk region.

Meanwhile, a Russian tanker was damaged in a Ukrainian drone attack in the Kerch Strait, briefly halting traffic on the strategic bridge linking Crimea to Russia on Saturday, a day after one of Moscow’s warships was hit in the Black Sea.

The Russian tanker SIG was hit around 11:20pm (2020 GMT) Friday south of the Kerch Strait, Russia’s Federal Agency for Sea and Inland Water Transport said.

The SIG suffered a hole at the waterline in the area of the engine room, “presumably as a result of an attack by a marine drone”, the agency said on Telegram. “The ship is afloat.”

An oil boom had been placed around the vessel and preparations were under way to patch the damage, it said.

The Marine Traffic vessel-tracking website showed the SIG stationary and attended by tugs just south of the strait.

The oil and chemical tanker is under US sanctions for supplying jet fuel to Russian forces in Syria. Russia’s state RIA Novosti news agency said there were no casualties in the attack, citing the Maritime Rescue Coordination Centre of Novorossiysk.

Traffic on the bridge across the Kerch Strait linking the Moscow-annexed Crimean Peninsula to Russia’s mainland was halted for around three hours and resumed early Saturday, according to the Russian highways information centre’s Telegram channel.

The latest attack in the Black Sea came a day after Ukraine said it had carried out a seaborne-drone strike on a Russian navy ship at Novorossiysk naval base in southern Russia.

In a video of the purported attack on the warship obtained by AFP, a naval drone is seen speeding towards the darkened silhouette of a military vessel before the connection abruptly cuts off.

A Ukrainian attack targeting the Olenegrorsky Gornyak landing ship was “successful”, a Ukrainian security source told AFP Friday.

“The goal was to show that Ukraine can attack any Russian warship in that zone,” the source added.

Russia said it had repelled an attempted attack on the naval base by the Ukrainian armed forces “with the use of two unmanned sea boats”.

Russia’s Black Sea Fleet has been targeted since the beginning of Moscow’s military campaign in Ukraine more than a year ago, but attacks have increased in recent weeks.

“Another Russian ship is on the edge of its fall,” the Ukrainian foreign ministry said on social media, alongside a video of a military vessel listing heavily to one side. 

“The presence of the Russian fleet in the Black Sea... will be put to an end,” Ukrainian presidential aide Mykhailo Podolyak said.

“Ukraine will ensure freedom and security in the Black Sea for world trade.”

The port of Novorossiysk also hosts the terminus of a pipeline that carries most Kazakh oil exports through Russia.

The fuel artery’s operator Caspian Pipeline Consortium said it was continuing to ship oil to moored tankers at the terminal, Russian state media reported Friday.

Crimea attack 

Crimea, annexed by Russia in 2014, has been targeted by Kyiv throughout Moscow’s Ukraine offensive but has seen more intense attacks in recent weeks.

Ukrainian drone strikes on Crimea in July blew up an ammunition depot and damaged the strategic bridge across the Kerch Strait.

The Russian defence ministry on Friday said it had downed 13 drones over the Crimean Peninsula, without recording casualties or damage.

Earlier this week, Russia’s defence ministry said it foiled a Ukrainian drone attack targeting patrol boats in the Black Sea.

Also announced Friday was Russian Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu’s visit to a combat zone in Ukraine to inspect a command post and meet senior military officers.

Shoigu got an update on the situation on the front and “thanked commanders and soldiers... for successful offensive operations” in Lyman in eastern Ukraine, the army said, without mentioning when the visit took place.