According to President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and regional officials, at least 22 people have died as a result of Russian airstrikes, including 16 inmates and a pregnant woman.
The attacks occurred on Tuesday night, one day after Donald Trump gave Russia a new “10 or 12 day” deadline to reach a peace agreement in its conflict with Ukraine or face harsh new sanctions, shortening his earlier this month’s 50-day deadline.
Ivan Fedorov, the head of Zaporizhia’s military administration, claimed on Tuesday that Russia had launched eight overnight airstrikes against his region, including one at a prison close to Zaporizhia.
“Overnight, Russia bombed a penal colony close to Zaporizhzhia, killing 16 people and injuring 35. The suffering of Christians continues. Another flagrant war crime, Fedorov declared on X in English.
Zelenskyy listed a pregnant woman as one of three victims killed in a Russian missile attack on the city of Kamianske in the Dnipropetrovsk that targeted a hospital, putting the death toll on Tuesday at 22.
President Trump made some very significant remarks yesterday about how the Russian government is wasting the world’s time by talking about peace and then murdering both. We all want lasting, dignified peace in Ukraine, throughout all of Europe, through the United States, and beyond. twitter.com/w1HjWbXFmw
According to Serhiy Lysak, head of the Dnipropetrovsk military administration, a person was killed and several others were hurt in the Synelnykove district as well.
A “75-year-old woman was killed” in a separate attack on the Odesa-area village of Velyka Mykhailivka on Monday night. A 68-year-old man was hurt. On Telegram, Lysak claimed that a private home had been damaged.
Russian President Vladimir Putin’s regime, which also makes threats against the United States through some of its mouthpieces, must be hit by economic and military blows that strip it of the ability to go to war, wrote Andriy Yermak, a senior aide to the Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy, on social media.
Russia’s air defense systems reported that 32 of the drones had been downed overnight, according to Ukraine’s Air Force, adding that its air defense systems had also detonated two missiles.
One person was killed in a number of Ukrainian drone attacks in the southern Rostov region of Russia, according to Russian authorities.
The Ministry of Defense in Russia reported that its defense units defused 74 drones overnight, including 22 over the Rostov region, despite only reporting how many of them were destroyed and not how many were launched.
On Ostrovsky Street, a car was damaged. Unfortunately, the driver who was driving it passed away,” Rostov region acting governor Yury Slyusar wrote in a post on Telegram.
He claimed that Salsk, Kamensk-Shakhtinsky, Volgodonsk, Bokovsky, Tarasovsky, and Slyusar were all targeted in the attack.
A freight train and passenger train were also damaged when drone debris fell on Salsk train station, according to Slyusar, and passengers had to be evacuated.
Russia’s Railways reported on Telegram that the power at the station was halted, causing the suspension of train traffic. There were no reported injuries.
Ukraine, which has frequently claimed that its attacks inside Russia are a response to Russian airstrikes, did not respond right away.
Both sides claim that their attacks were intended to kill civilians, but thousands of Ukrainians have died as a result of the conflict.
Since the start of the 2022 offensive, Kyiv has been attempting to stop Russia’s summer offensive, which has made new advances in regions on the eastern front line that have been largely spared.
In a summer festival that combines sacred ritual and seaside spectacle, hundreds of residents gathered at a beach in Yokosuka city’s Kurihama neighborhood over the weekend to pray for marine safety.
The audience erupted as a portable shrine called mikoshi, which was carried on bearers’ shoulders and was adorned with Shinto ornaments.
The mikoshi was paraded through neighborhood alleyways after it had departed from Sumiyoshi Shrine. The priests of the shrines paused to offer blessings and wish the well-being of those gathering outside their homes.
The priests chanted and danced as the procession approached the beach. The bearers’ sweaty faces were splattered with seawater as they entered the water, which was at its highest point.
The mikoshi was escorted onto a vessel for prayer for its safe passages before making a final stop at the nearby ferry terminal.
The Kurihama Neighbourhood Association’s head, Shuji Shimizu, said, “Everyone has been anticipating this day all year.” It celebrates our collective strength and unity, the author writes. Stay safe and enjoy every moment, everyone.
Ukraine, Kiev – Last week, hundreds of Ukrainians gathered in various cities to protest the government’s plan to obstruct anticorruption watchdogs’ independence.
A bill that would revoke the independence of key authorities, such as the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine (NABU) and the Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office (SAPO), was signed into law by President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on July 22.
The country’s renowned protests led to the president of Ukraine to introduce a new draft bill to reauthorize the NABU and SAPO, which have been established to investigate high-level corruption and are widely regarded as a sign of democratic reforms.
Why, then, did Zelenskyy attempt to enlarge anticorruption agencies, and will his actions undermine public confidence in the government, which is crucial in a Russian-Russian conflict?
In response to Russia’s ongoing conflict with Ukraine, Ukrainians protest near the presidential office in Kyiv.
Ukrainians are protesting, but why?
Following the vote on July 22 in the lower house of parliament, the Verkhovna Rada, the country’s parliament, to approve the bill giving the prosecutor general the authority to oversee the two anticorruption agencies, protests erupted nationwide.
The president elects and approves the Verkhovna Rada, Zelenskyy’s Public Servant party, which is in control of the majority.
The two organizations, which were established in response to the pro-democracy Euromaidan protests in 2013 and 2014, were seen as a government effort to control them. Many consider it to be a fall from the years of reforms that came after Viktor Yanukovych was ousted in 2014.
The protesters carried banners with the slogan “Sham” on them! The new bill is praised by corruption supporters who say, “Don’t make a step back, there’s an abyss there.”
The rallies took place in both Kyiv and major cities like Lviv, which is known as Ukraine’s cultural capital, Odesa, which are both port cities.
Numerous senior officials and lawmakers, including those from Zelenskyy’s Public Servant party, have been the subject of investigation by NABU.
Oleksiy, who enlisted in the army in 2022, has a question about why he should continue fighting on the front lines of eastern Ukraine as officials practice corruption.
What’s the point of returning home if my family is encircled by corruption, the 42-year-old construction manager told Al Jazeera.
According to him, “Judges, officials, and even school teachers all say, “Give, give, give,” while requesting that his last name and details of his military service be kept confidential, in accordance with the wartime protocol.
Oleksiy, who is taking a break from his job to visit his two young children and ailing mother, participated in the largest anti-government demonstrations in Ukraine since Russia’s full-scale invasion in 2022.
Zelenskyy supported the bill, why?
The prosecutor general’s office could access their information, transfer cases, and close down investigations under the new law, which also included executive control over NABU and SAPO.
According to NABU, the bill “could ultimately undermine the Ukrainian anticorruption system.”
Human Rights Watch deputy director for Europe and Central Asia, Rachel Denber, said the new law “risikos weakening Ukraine’s democratic foundations and its integration with Europe in the future.” She demanded that the law be repealed.
Zelenskyy, a former comedian and political novice who came to power in 2019 on an anticorruption ticket, argued that NABU and SAPO must “get rid of Russian influence.”
His claim came after two NABU employees were detained and charged with the wrongdoing anti-corruption campaigner Vitaly Shabunin.
Nearly 60 anticorruption and nongovernmental organizations filed joint appeals in Shabunin’s defense after his supporters claimed he had “evaded military service.”
People protest in Kyiv against the implementation of the draft law, which regulates the activities of the National Anti-Corruption Bureau and the Special Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office, [Danylo Antoniuk/Anadolu].
There are two widely accepted theories as to why Zelenskyy introduced the bill, according to a political analyst in Kyiv.
One is that NABU’s head of the Penta think tank Volodymyr Fesenko claimed to have “closed in on Zelenskyy’s inner circle.”
In a deal that cost the government $ 24 million, NABU accused deputy prime minister Oleksiy Chernyshov, Zelenskyy’s closest ally and lifelong friend, of taking kickbacks worth $ 346, 000 from a real estate developer.
Zelenskyy’s press office didn’t respond to Al Jazeera’s texts and phone calls.
Or is it an attempt to control NABU’s actions to avoid stoking them with overt politicisation and to end domestic political hostilities in the conflict with Russia, Fesenko said.
However, I believe it has to do with the NABU’s activism on political issues that might have sparked suspicion in Zelenskyy’s inner circle. He claimed that Zelenskyy’s political attack was more a political attack than a fight against corruption.
According to an anticorruption expert, Zelenskyy’s standing among local political parties has declined as a result of the protests. According to Tetiana Shevchuk from the Kyiv-based Anti-Corruption Action Center, “there was a belief in his high and stable rating.”
She continued, noting that “he no longer can demand anything from the parliament.”
Zelenskyy fears NABU, which she claims is the only law enforcement agency that has the power to concentrate on him, because it won’t launch or end an investigation following a phone call from his administration.
Shevchuk remarked, “NABU is the only organization that doesn’t do that.”
According to Fesenko of the Penta think tank, the politicians “underestimated” the bill’s “negative consequences.” They “didn’t believe that the general public would respond so harshly.”
The top anti-corruption investigator in the country has praised Zelenskyy’s decision to submit the new bill.
However, NABU director Semen Kryvonos predicted that corrupt individuals would launch a “dirty information campaign” against anti-graft organizations.
Meanwhile, protest leaders promise to hold rallies only tentatively until later this week if the bill is passed.
Attempts have been made to eradicate endemic corruption since the 2014 pro-democracy revolution or Revolution of Dignity.
There are many administrative procedures that are less time-, money-, and nerve-intensive.
However, corruption continues to permeate the justice system. In Transparency International’s corruption index, Ukraine is ranked 105 out of 180.
A corrupt judge may revoke his work, according to a criminal investigator who spent months compiling a number of lawsuits against a fraudster who duped several lawmakers.
Under the condition of anonymity, the investigator stated, “We can’t guarantee any judge’s honesty.”
Meanwhile, corruption has increased as a result of Europe’s worst armed conflict since World War II.
Some officers extort bribes from service members for allowing them to leave or visit a hospital, and they also steal foreign aid, such as clothes and shoes that end up on store shelves rather than the front lines, from employees.
According to serviceman Oleksiy, who participated in the protests, “if someone reports such an officer, they may end up in a suicide squad on zero position.” These positions are most likely to be attacked by enemy drones.
Protesters in Kyiv are holding signs opposing the new law that strips the NABU and SAPO anticorruption bodies of their independence. The Ukrainian government pledged to revise the bill in response to widespread protests and EU pressure [Tetiana Dzhafarova/AFP]
Officers charged with carrying out the conscription campaign are accused of accepting bribes to mug people out of the country. Conscription officers have been detained, and some have cash holdings worth millions of dollars, euros, or even gold bullion.
After scandals involving exorbitant prices for military products like ammunition, food, medical supplies, and winter clothing, Defense Minister Oleksii Reznikov was fired in 2023.
Rustem Umerov’s replacement, according to NABU, is the subject of an investigation into alleged power abuse.
Will foreign aid be impacted by the restrictions on anticorruption organizations?
Due to the new law, the European Union announced on Sunday that it would freeze $1.7 billion, or a third of its most recent aid package for Ukraine.
However, Lt. Gen Ihor Romanenko, former deputy head of Ukraine’s general staff of armed forces, believes that military aid from the EU and the US is unlikely to be cut.
However, the demonstrations reveal a shocking contrast between the corrupt officials who continue to thrive on corruption and the hundreds of thousands of front-line service members who dodge the draft.
After Donald Trump’s request to make a stopover in the United States, Taiwanese President William Lai Ching-te has reportedly canceled a trip to three allies in Central and South America.
Lai planned to travel to Paraguay, Guatemala, and Belize in the first and final leg of the trip, according to the Financial Times, with stops planned in Dallas and New York on the way.
According to the newspaper, US officials called off the Taiwanese leader’s trip after three people with information contacted the matter, citing US officials who were reportedly opposed to his arrival in New York.
Lai’s office had never officially stated his trip to Latin America, but it claimed on Monday that the president had canceled all international travel to concentrate on US-US tariff negotiations and a cleanup operation following a typhoon in southern Taiwan.
Taiwan’s president is not authorized to travel to the United States, which disapproves its government. However, Taiwanese leaders have frequently contacted senior administration figures outside of Washington, DC via “transit stops” in the US.
While Joe Biden was the US president at the time, Tsai Ing-wen traveled to New York and Los Angeles using a transit stop in 2023.
Following Tsai’s US stop-off, Beijing, which claims democratic Taiwan as a part of its territory, conducted military exercises in the Taiwan Strait to express its anger.
Trump reportedly opted to block Lai’s stopover in response to reports that the US president is considering a trip to China himself, even though he said he doesn’t want a “summit” with Xi Jinping, his Chinese counterpart.
“The Fake News is reporting that I’m scheduled to attend a “Summit” with Chinese President Xi. I’m not looking for anything, which is incorrect. Trump wrote on Truth Social late on Monday night that he might travel to China, but that invitation only came from President Xi, who has been extended.
Trump may be planning a trip to China during the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in South Korea, which will take place on October 31 and November 1.
The outcome of US-China’s ongoing trade talks to end Trump’s tariff war, which was launched earlier this year, will determine whether the meeting will occur.
Donald Trump, the president of the United States, has denied calling a summit with Xi Jinping, while denying that his counterpart would be able to travel to China.
“The Fake News is reporting that I’m scheduled to attend a “Summit” with Chinese President Xi. I’m not looking for anything, so this is incorrect. Trump stated in a statement on Monday on his Truth Social platform.
“I may travel to China, but President Xi’s invitation has been accepted. Otherwise, no interest! I appreciate you paying attention to this issue.
Trump’s comments come after the Reuters news agency reported last week that the US president and his advisers had discussed a potential summit while traveling to Asia.
Unnamed individuals who are familiar with the plans were cited in the report’s claim that Trump and Xi might possibly meet on the day of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit taking place in South Korea from October 30 to November 1.
Trump and Xi last spoke in person in Osaka, Japan, on the occasion of the G20 summit in 2019.
Negotiations are being held between the US and China to lower trade tensions that have risen since Trump announced his on-again, off-again tariffs on Chinese exports.
To kick off two days of talks aimed at a trade deal before the end of a 90-day tariff truce that ends on August 12, US Secretary of State Scott Bessent and Chinese Vice Premier He Lifeng met in Stockholm, Sweden.
The administration’s “very good position with China now” and “90-day increment” were Bessent’s claims in a Bloomberg Television interview last week were true.
According to Shincheonji Church of Jesus, a South Korea-based religious group, over 4,000 members of the church who recovered from COVID-19 are willing to donate plasma for developing a new treatment.
Mr. Man Hee Lee, founder of the Shincheonji Church, said that members of the church are advised to donate plasma voluntarily. “As Jesus sacrificed himself with his blood for life, we hope that the blood of people can bring positive effects on overcoming the current situation,” said Mr. Lee.
