Foreign News
European leaders outraged after Russian strikes kill 23 and damage EU’s HQ
The head of the European Union’s executive Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, has spoken of her outrage at Russia’s deadliest onslaught on Kyiv since July – which also damaged the EU’s delegation office in the Ukrainian capital.
At least 23 people, including four children, were killed and dozens more wounded in the bombardment, Ukrainian officials said.
A five-storey residential building was destroyed, and the EU mission and nearby British Council were damaged.
In a strongly worded statement, von der Leyen said that Russian missiles struck in close proximity to the diplomatic mission: “Two missiles hit in a distance of 50m (165ft) of the delegation within 20 seconds.”
Ukrainian forces said Russia had fired almost 600 drones and more than 30 ballistic and cruise missiles – the biggest attack on the capital this month.
Many of those killed were in the five-storey residential building in the south-eastern Darnytskyi district on Kyiv’s left bank.
A missile tore through the block of flats at about 03:00, causing it to collapse.
Diggers removed rubble, and rescue workers clambered on top of smouldering parts of the building looking for survivors.
Officials said three of the children killed were aged two, 14 and 17. Several other youngsters were wounded.
The overnight attacks followed a US-led diplomatic offensive aimed at bringing an end to the war and infuriated the UK as well as the EU.
UK Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer accused Russia’s Vladimir Putin of “sabotaging hopes of peace”, while EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas said they showed “a deliberate choice to escalate and mock peace efforts”.
Moscow had chosen “ballistics instead of the negotiating table”, said Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, who reiterated the need for “new, tough sanctions” on Russia.
Although the Kremlin said Russia was “still interested” in negotiations, von der Leyen said the strikes were “another grim reminder” that Russia would “stop at nothing to terrorise Ukraine”, killing men, women and children and even targeting the EU.
The US special envoy on Ukraine, Keith Kellogg, said Russia’s “egregious attacks” on residential areas threatened the peace that President Donald Trump was pursuing.
German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said Russia had “shown its true face again”, and the fact that the EU delegation had come under fire was an indication of the Kremlin’s increasing brazenness.
An EU spokeswoman said no diplomatic mission should ever be targeted and the Russian charge d’affaires in Brussels was being summoned in response to the attack.
Russia’s ambassador to the UK, Andrei Kelin, was summoned to the foreign office.
Zelensky said the attack on Ukraine’s cities and communities was a clear response from the Kremlin to everyone who had called for weeks and months “for a ceasefire and for real diplomacy”.
The wave of missiles came after more than 100,000 Ukrainian homes were left without power by Russian drone attacks on energy infrastructure on Wednesday. Another 60,000 consumers were left without power in the central Vinnytsia region in the latest attacks, officials said.
Russian forces also struck a Ukrainian naval vessel, killing one member of the crew and wounding several others. The Russian defence ministry claimed it had used an unmanned speedboat to target the reconnaissance ship Simferopol in the mouth of the River Danube, although Ukraine’s military gave no details of where the attack took place.
European Council President Antonio Costa said he was horrified by the latest Russian attacks on Kyiv.
The British Council, which fosters cultural relations with other countries and is housed in the same block as the EU’s mission, said its office was severely damaged and would be closed to visitors until further notice.
Ursula von der Leyen said the EU was preparing a 19th package of sanctions on Russia and announced she would visit seven EU member states who shared a border with Russia and its ally Belarus over the next few days.
The Commission said she would travel to Latvia and Finland on Friday before going on to Estonia, Poland, Bulgaria, Lithuania and Romania.
President Trump had hoped to organise a summit involving Zelensky and Russia’s Vladimir Putin to bring an end to the war, but those efforts have since stalled. He first met Putin in Alaska before holding talks with Zelensky and European leaders in Washington.
Ukraine’s president has backed the move, but the Kremlin has played down any chance of a Putin-Zelensky summit.
Despite the latest setback, US officials will hold talks with a Ukrainian delegation in New York on Friday. Zelensky said they would discuss “military, political and economic components of security guarantees” for Ukraine.
Ukraine is working with its European allies on guarantees aimed at preventing any future Russian attack in the event of a peace deal. Zelensky had talks in Kyiv this week with the head of Britain’s armed forces, Adm Sir Tony Radakin.
Russia says it will not accept European troops on the ground and says discussing them without Moscow’s involvement is a “road to nowhere”.
[BBC]
Along Beirut’s downtown waterfront, Alaa is looking for somewhere to rest his head.
The Syrian refugee, originally from the occupied Golan Heights, is now homeless. He explained that he had already spent the day wandering around the Lebanese capital trying to find shelter.
He used to live in Dahiyeh – the southern suburbs of Beirut that have been pummelled by Israeli attacks, which have now killed MORE THAN 1,000 across Lebanon.
Now, he’s just looking for somewhere he can be safe. And in that context, Eid al-Fitr, the Muslim festival that began on Friday, is far from his mind.
When asked if he had any plans for Eid, he replied in the negative. Instead, his focus was on getting a tent.
“I got rejected from staying in a school, then I went to sleep on the corniche,” Alaa said. “Then people from the municipality told me to come here to downtown Beirut’s waterfront.”
Alaa wasn’t able to find a tent and is sleeping in the open air for now. But others in the area have, transforming a downtown more famous for its expensive restaurants and bars into a tent city for those displaced by the fighting. Across Lebanon, more than a million people have been displaced.
Lebanese are uncertain when this war will end, particularly as they have barely recovered from the conflict with Israel that ran between October 2023 and November 2024.
It makes celebrations difficult – a common theme across the countries affected by the current conflict.
In Iran, now in its third week of US-Israeli attacks – with no sign of an immediate end and an economic crisis that preceded the conflict, people are struggling to afford any of the items typically bought during the holiday season.
And it is potentially dangerous for people to shop at places like Tehran’s grand bazaar, which has been damaged by the bombing.
The religious element of Eid adds an extra sensitivity for antigovernment Iranians, some of whom now see any sign of religiosity as support for the Islamic Republic. The fact that Nowruz – the Persian New Year – falls on Friday this year means that some in the antigovernment camp will be focused on that celebration instead, and eschewing any events to mark Eid.
[Aljazeera]
King Charles has hosted a spectacular state banquet for the president and first lady of Nigeria, praising the strengths of Nigeria’s partnership with the UK.
After greeting the 160 guests in the Yoruba language, the King spoke of the “living bridge” of the Nigerian community in the UK, in a speech in St George’s Hall at Windsor Castle.
Famous figures at the banquet included England rugby union captain, Maro Itoje, Olympic athlete Christine Ohuruogu and poet Sir Ben Okri, alongside senior royals including Queen Camilla and the Prince and Princess of Wales.
There were special adaptations for Muslims, with the banquet taking place in the fasting month of Ramadan.
A prayer room was set aside in Windsor Castle and the usual lunch hosted by the King on such state visits did not take place.
It’s become a tradition to invent a cocktail for state visits – and in this case the “crimson bloom” was made from non-alcoholic ingredients, combining the Nigerian drink Zobo with English rose soda and hibiscus and ginger syrup.
There were also alcoholic drinks available for guests in St George’s Hall, including fine red and white wines, port and whisky.
The King’s speech reflected on the importance of religious tolerance, in which “people of different faiths can, do, and must live alongside one another in peace”.
He also told President Bola Ahmed Tinubu and First Lady Oluremi Tinubu of the importance of partners such as Nigeria and the UK standing together in difficult times “when rain clouds gather”.
As well as diplomatic ties, King Charles spoke of “Afrobeats filling our concert halls and Nollywood captivating our screens”.
There was also a reflection by the King on the “painful marks” of a shared history, in a reference to colonialism.
“I do not seek to offer words that dissolve the past, for no words can,” said the King, but he hoped for a more optimistic future “worthy of those who bore the pains of the past”.
The banquet, on an elaborately decorated table filled with spring flowers, saw a meat-free menu.
It included:
- Soft boiled quail egg tartlet with watercress and kale and a basil sabayon
- Fillet of turbot, lobster mousse wrapped in spinach, beurre blanc sauce, sprouting broccoli with hollandaise sauce, fricassee of peas and broad beans, Jersey Royal potatoes
- Iced blackcurrant souffle with red fruit coulis
The two-day state visit began on Wednesday morning with a ceremonial welcome at Windsor.
In warm spring sunshine, the president and first lady – wearing traditional robes – were given the ceremonial grandeur of a royal welcome.
There was a carriage procession, bringing the Nigerian visitors into the quadrangle inside Windsor Castle, where a military band, with careful symmetry, paraded on the chequerboard lawn.
There was a gun salute, national anthems were played, guards were inspected and the Household Cavalry kicked up dust as they paraded inside the castle, in front of a viewing stand for the King and Queen and their visitors.
Official gifts were exchanged. The president and Mrs Tinubu were given hand-crafted pottery, a silver photo frame containing a picture of the King and Queen and a silver and enamel bowl.
In return, the King and Queen were given a traditional Yoruba statuette and a jewellery box featuring the faces of important Nigerian women.
President Tinubu is a Muslim and his wife is a Christian and the couple attended an interfaith event at Windsor Castle, designed to build bridges between religions.
It’s at a time of tensions within Nigeria, with a series of suspected suicide bombings this week in the north-eastern state of Borno, in which at least 23 people were killed and 108 injured in attacks blamed on hard-line Islamist militants from the Boko Haram group.
This is Nigeria’s first state visit to the UK for 37 years and such visits are a way of building relationships with international partners.
The Nigeria visit will see a strengthening of business links, including financial services. And there are personal and family connections, with more than 270,000 Nigerian-born people living in the UK.
“This state visit is about turning a historic relationship into a modern economic partnership – transforming trust into opportunity,” said Nigeria’s government spokesman Mohammed Idris.
“Nigeria’s economic reforms are unlocking the potential of Africa’s largest consumer market. The United Kingdom is a natural partner in what comes next.”
Iran’s intelligence minister Esmail Khatib has been killed, the country’s president has confirmed.
Masoud Pezeshkian said the “cowardly assassination” had left Iran “in deep mourning”, after Israel said on Wednesday it had killed Khatib in an air strike.
It comes a day after Israel announced it had killed Iran’s top security official, Ali Larijani, and head of the paramilitary Basij force, Gholamreza Soleimani, in strikes.
Since the assassination of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei on the first day of the war on 28 February, multiple senior Iranian officials and commanders have been killed in efforts by Israel and the US to weaken the regime’s leadership.
In a post on X, Pezeshkian extended his condolences to the Iranian people over the officials’ deaths, adding he was “certain their path will continue more steadfastly than before”.
Speaking to the BBC, a woman from Tehran said the “killing of Khatib might help the people since he was among the leadership”.
“It might be that when people come out after a call to protest, the likelihood of them being killed is lower now,” she said. “Even though they all have replacements, these were the main figures.”
Earlier on Wednesday, Israel’s defence minister Israel Katz announced that Khatib had been “eliminated” in an Israeli strike on Tehran.
“Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and I have authorised the IDF to eliminate any senior Iranian official for whom the intelligence and operational circle has been closed, without the need for additional approval,” he said.
[BBC]
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