Ukraine uses US long-range missiles for first time as talks held over displaced children

A Ukrainian serviceman from Code 9.2 unit known by call sign Mamay catches a drone at the frontline, few kilometres from Bakhmut, Donetsk region, Ukraine, 24/04/24.
A Ukrainian serviceman from Code 9.2 unit known by call sign Mamay catches a drone at the frontline, few kilometres from Bakhmut, Donetsk region, Ukraine, 24/04/24. Copyright Alex Babenko/Copyright 2024 The AP. All rights reserved.
Copyright Alex Babenko/Copyright 2024 The AP. All rights reserved.
By Euronews with AP
Share this articleComments
Share this articleClose Button
Copy/paste the article video embed link below:Copy to clipboardCopied

Kyiv has been calling for the long-range system following mounting Russian attacks in the south and east.

ADVERTISEMENT

Russia and Ukraine have held the first face-to-face negotiations to exchange children displaced by the war.

Forty-eight children are set to be swapped under the deal agreed in Qatar, according to Moscow's children's rights commissioner Maria Lvova-Belova.

She added the parties had agreed 29 children would go to Ukraine and 19 to Russia.

Rostyslav was abducted near Kherson in Ukraine and managed to escape from Russian military training.

He told reporters the "scariest thing was when I was locked in an isolation cell. I wanted to escape from there, but I realised that the consequences would be terrible."

So far, Ukrainian authorities have established that nearly 20,000 children and young people have been abducted, and few of them have returned.

"My colleagues and I have been able to find 60 such places, using open sources and other means. And not only along the border with Ukraine but also in the easternmost parts of Russia," Vladyslav Havrylov, War Crimes Investigator for the PR Army, said.

Ukraine uses long-range missiles for first time

Ukraine for the first time has begun using long-range ballistic missiles provided secretly by the United States.

US officials said on Wednesday they were used to bomb a Russian military airfield in Crimea last week and Russian forces in another occupied area overnight.

Long sought by Ukrainian leaders, the new missiles give Ukraine nearly double the striking distance, up to 300 kilometres, it had with the mid-range version of the weapon given by the US last October. 

One of the officials said the US is providing more of these missiles in the new military aid package signed by President Joe Biden on Wednesday.

Russian attacks on military infrastructure

The Russian army launched a missile attack in Odesa on a storage facility for damaged vehicles on Wednesday morning. 

Overhead power lines were also damaged, and some houses in the Khadzhibey district of the city were left without electricity.

Defence Forces say Russia is 'trying to locate military infrastructure in the rear'.

Two Russian S-300 missiles also struck the Ukrainian city of Kharkiv early Wednesday, injuring six people, local authorities said.

Footage released by the Kharkiv Regional Military Administration showed buildings with broken windows and a large crater in the ground.

Share this articleComments

You might also like

Biden inks €89 billion war aid package to support Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan

Germany's Scholz urges Europe to do more for Ukraine as UK PM ups defence spending

Roughly €56 billion US military aid is planned to help Ukraine against Russia. How will it work?