Ukraine receives first F-16 fighter jets in landmark moment for its air force – live

A mother and her daughter were killed by Russian shelling that hit the town of Nikopol in Ukraine‘s eastern Dnipropetrovsk region, its governor said on Thursday.

“These are the tragic consequences of shelling by the Russians. They hit the city with a dozen shells,” Serhiy Lysak said on the Telegram messaging app.

He said private houses, a fire station, a college, a school and buses were damaged, without specifying the location of the artillery fire.

Reuters could not independently verify the report.

Nikopol is located on the right bank of the Dnipro River, whose left bank was occupied by Russian forces at the very start of their full-scale invasion in February 2022. Front lines in the region have been static for many months.

Before the war, Nikopol had 105,000 inhabitants and was the fourth most populous town in the region.

Russia‘s foreign ministry denounced on Thursday Moldova’s decision to expel a Russian diplomat as an “unfriendly step” and vowed to retaliate.

The foreign ministry also said the move by Moldova, a tiny ex-Soviet republic sandwiched between Ukraine and NATO member Romania, as a further example of the country’s “aggressive anti-Russian course”.

Moldova said on Thursday it had expelled a Russian diplomat and called in Moscow’s ambassador to issue a formal protest, after detaining two Moldovan officials on treason and conspiracy allegations earlier this week.

The exercises – which involve Russian forces spread across thousands of miles – come a day after annual navy day celebrations were held in Russia, with president Vladimir Putin addressing a parade in the former imperial capital of St Petersburg.

Ukrainian forces shot down all 89 Shahed drones launched by Russia in a nighttime attack on the country, Ukraine’s air force said Wednesday, in what was one of the largest drone barrages this year.

No damage or injuries were immediately reported in the bombardment, which mostly targeted the region of Kyiv, the capital.

Russia used the same number of Shahed drones in a Jan. 1 attack, an air force statement said.

Indonesia’s President-elect Prabowo Subianto said his upcoming administration would maintain ties with “great friend” Russia after meeting President Vladimir Putin, adding that he hoped for stronger cooperation on defence, energy and education.

Prabowo, who is currently defence minister, is set to take over the presidency from Joko Widodo in October. He is currently on a trip to Moscow and met Putin on Wednesday.

“We consider Russia as a great friend,” he said in a statement from the defence ministry.

“I would like to continue to maintain and enhance this relationship. In our history we remember Russia has always helped us in many aspects when we were in difficulties.”

Prabowo also expressed his intent to continue a partnership in defence and nuclear energy, and to send Indonesian students to Russia to study medicine.

In war-torn Ukraine, he is Alya Shabaanovich Gali, a popular doctor with a line of patients waiting to see him. To his family thousands of kilometers away in the Gaza Strip, he is Alaa Shabaan Abu Ghali, the one who left.

For the past 30 years, these identities rarely had cause to merge: Gali moved away amid instability in Gaza, settled into his new home in Kyiv, adopted a different name to better suit the local tongue, and married a Ukranian woman. Through calls, he kept up with his mother and siblings in Gaza’s southernmost city, Rafah. But mostly, their lives played out in parallel.

The Kremlin said on Thursday that Russian forces were prepared to shoot down Ukraine‘s first batch of F-16 jets and the weapons will not be a “panacea” for Kyiv’s army.

Lithuanian and U.S. officials confirmed on Wednesday that Ukraine had received the first order of long-awaited jets, which are equipped with a 20mm cannon and can carry bombs, rockets and missiles.

Moldova said on Thursday it had expelled a Russian diplomat and called in Russia‘s ambassador to issue a formal protest, after detaining two Moldovan officials on treason and conspiracy allegations earlier this week.

The two people were detained on suspicion of providing information to the Russian embassy’s deputy defence attache, a Moldovan security source told Reuters, the latest setback to the countries’ deteriorating bilateral relations.

The foreign ministry said in a statement that “information and evidence were obtained that attest to the conduct on the territory of the Republic of Moldova (by a Russian diplomat) of activities incompatible with (their) diplomatic status.”

Russia‘s ambassador to Chisinau, Oleg Vasnetsov, told reporters that Moscow viewed the expulsion of its diplomats as “unfriendly” and that Russia would deliver a response to Thursday’s move by Moldova.

Moscow has criticised the new treason and conspiracy case announced by Moldova on Wednesday, describing it as a “yet another manifestation of anti-Russian sentiments that are artificially fostered in Moldova”.

Relations between Russia and the small former Soviet republic, which lies between Ukraine and NATO member Romania, have soured sharply as Chisinau has steered a pro-European course and accused Moscow of trying to destabilise it.

The American-made F-16 is an iconic fighter jet that’s been the front-line combat plane of choice for the NATO alliance and numerous air forces across the world for 50 years.

Western countries have pledged F-16s to Kyiv, and some have arrived in Ukraine, officials in Washington confirmed. The fighter jets are expected to start flying sorties in Ukrainian skies soon and will be a much-needed boost to the country’s current fleet of Soviet-era jets to counter Russia’s invasion.

Taiwan’s president Lai Ching-te has warned that a Chinese invasion of the self-governed island would have worse global impacts than either Vladimir Putin’s war on Ukraine or the Covid pandemic.

Mr Lai was speaking on Tuesday during the largest-ever gathering of foreign lawmakers and dignitaries in Taipei, at a summit chaired by the Inter-Parliamentary Alliance on China.

The coalition, with hundreds of members from parliaments in more than 35 countries, is focused on monitoring Beijing’s threats to democracy and human rights.