AFP

Russian officials have recently visited Iran twice to assess combat drones, US National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan said Saturday, as Moscow looks to bolster its arsenal for the war in Ukraine.

Iran’s military hosted two showcases for Russian delegations at the Kashan airfield, on June 8 and again on July 5, Sullivan said in a statement.

Satellite imagery released by the White House shows Shahed-191 and Shahed-129 drones at or flying near the site.

The White House said earlier this week that it believes Moscow is looking to acquire hundreds of the drones, or unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) — and that Tehran is set to train Russian forces to use them as soon as this month.

“We assess an official Russian delegation recently received a showcase of Iranian attack-capable UAVs,” Sullivan said Saturday.

“We are releasing these images captured in June showing Iranian UAVs that the Russian government delegation saw that day. This suggests ongoing Russian interest in acquiring Iranian attack-capable UAVs.

“To our knowledge, this is the first time a Russian delegation has visited this airfield for such a showcase,” Sullivan added.

John Kirby, a spokesman for the national security council, told CNN this week that the drones can be used both for reconnaissance and to deliver munitions.

“It was important to make it clear to the world that we know that Russia needs these additional capabilities,” Kirby said Tuesday. “They are expanding their resources at an accelerated rate.”

The United States and allies have recently provided longer-range precision weapons to Ukrainian forces, like the Himars precision-guided missiles, boosting their capability to strike Russian targets and repel Moscow’s intensifying attacks in the east.

Iran said Tuesday that “no special development” had taken place in technological cooperation with Russia following the invasion of Ukraine in February.

Drones have played a crucial role on both sides of the war in Ukraine, for everything from firing missiles from a distance, to dropping small bombs on targets, to conducting reconnaissance.

Ukraine’s forces have had particular success in using Turkish-made Bayraktar armed combat UAVs, and the United States and other allies have supplied Kyiv with many types of smaller drones.

Ukraine’s atomic energy agency accused Russia of using Europe’s largest nuclear power plant to store weapons and shell the surrounding regions of Nikopol and Dnipro that were hit on Saturday.

Petro Kotin, president of Ukrainian nuclear agency Energoatom, called the situation at the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant “extremely tense” with up to 500 Russian soldiers controlling the plant.

The plant in southeast Ukraine has been under Russian control since the early weeks of Moscow’s invasion, though it is still operated by Ukrainian staff.

“The occupiers bring their machinery there, including missile systems, from which they already shell the other side of the river Dnipro and the territory of Nikopol,” he said in a Ukrainian television interview broadcast on Friday.

On Saturday, Russian missiles struck residential buildings in the city of Nikopol, killing two people, Dnipro regional governor Valentin Reznichenko said.

In the northeast region around Ukraine’s second city of Kharkiv, governor Oleg Synegubov said an overnight Russian missile attack killed three people in the town of Chuguiv.

In the central Ukrainian city of Vinnytsia, officials said the death toll rose to 24 from Russian strikes after a woman died of her injuries in hospital on Saturday. Ukraine says three children are among the dead.

“Sixty-eight people continue treatment, including four children. Four people are still missing,” said Vinnytsia district chief Sergiy Borzov. 

– Outpouring for four-year-old –

President Volodymyr Zelensky accused the Russians of aiming to “cause maximum damage to Ukrainian cities”. 

“I’m urging you, once again: please don’t ignore the air raid signals now,” he said in his daily address on Friday.

Russia claimed the strikes in Vinnytsia — hundreds of kilometres away from frontline fighting — had killed Ukrainian military officials and foreign arms suppliers.

But Ukraine said the dead included four-year-old Liza Dmitrieva, who had Down’s syndrome and whose death spurred an outpouring after footage of her final moments alive went viral on social media.

Officials initially believed Liza’s mother was also killed, but have since confirmed she is in a “critical” condition after surgery.

The missile strikes on Vinnytsia were the latest attacks to carry a heavy civilian toll and came less than a week after strikes on Chasiv Yar in the Donetsk region left nearly 50 dead.

“I have no words to describe the horror I experienced today,” said Anastasiya, after rockets fell near her home in Kramatorsk, a major city and an administrative centre of the Donbas, on Friday.

“It’s good that it fell outside and did not fly into the house. That was lucky.”

– ‘Clearing’ Donbas town –

Moscow invaded Ukraine on February 24 and the conflict has killed thousands of people, destroyed cities and forced millions to flee their homes.

The heaviest fighting has recently focused on the industrial Donbas region in the east, where grinding trench battles and artillery duels are morphing into a war of attrition.

Britain said Friday that the Kremlin “must bear the full responsibility” for the death of a British captive in east Ukraine.

“I am shocked to hear reports of the death of British aid worker Paul Urey while in the custody of a Russian proxy in Ukraine,” Foreign Secretary Liz Truss said. 

Moscow-backed separatists said Friday they were closing in on their next target, Siversk, after wresting control of sister cities Lysychansk and Severodonetsk about 30 kilometres (18 miles) to its east.

And Donetsk separatist official Daniil Versonov said rebel fighters were “clearing” eastern districts of Siversk in small groups.

Ukraine has repeatedly urged allies to supply it with advanced, long-range precision artillery systems that would allow it to target Russian forces deeper inside Ukrainian-held territory.

Defence Minister Oleksiy Reznikov said Friday that Ukraine had taken delivery of its first batch of sophisticated M270 rocket systems, adding to a growing arsenal of Western-supplied artillery Kyiv says is changing dynamics on the battlefield.

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Russia is using Europe’s largest nuclear power plant as a base to store weapons including “missile systems” and shell the surrounding areas in Ukraine, an official with Kyiv’s nuclear agency said Friday, while nearly the entire country was placed on air raid alert.  

The president of Ukrainian nuclear agency Energoatom said the situation at the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant was “extremely tense”, with up to 500 Russian soldiers controlling the plant. 

“The occupiers bring their machinery there, including missile systems, from which they already shell the other side of the river Dnipro and the territory of Nikopol,” Petro Kotin said in a televised interview, referring to the city across the water.

The plant in southwestern Ukraine has been under Russian control since the early weeks of Moscow’s invasion, though it is still being operated by Ukrainian staff.

The most recent attack in the Dnipro region left three dead and 15 wounded after Russian “missiles hit an industrial enterprise and lively street nearby”, regional governor Valentin Reznichenko said on Telegram.

The threat of air raids across most of Ukraine was also raised after strikes were reported in areas far from the front lines, with President Volodymyr Zelensky saying the Russian objective was to “cause maximum damage to Ukrainian cities”. 

“I’m urging you, once again: please don’t ignore the air raid signals now,” he said in his daily televised address.

Zelensky spoke after devastating Russian strikes in the central Ukrainian city of Vinnytsia killed nearly two dozen people, including three children, with rescue workers clearing debris throughout the day to locate survivors. 

Four people were still missing and over 200 wounded, Zelensky said. 

“Both at the national level and the international level, we will do everything to hold absolutely all Russian murderers responsible for what they have done,” he said.

– Outpouring for slain toddler –

Russia claimed the strikes in Vinnytsia — hundreds of kilometres away from frontline fighting — had killed Ukrainian military officials and foreign arms suppliers.

But among those killed was four-year-old Liza Dmitrieva, who had Down’s syndrome and whose death spurred an outpouring after footage of her final moments alive went viral on social media.

Officials initially believed Liza’s mother had also been killed, but announced Friday she was alive and in “critical” condition after surgery.

First Lady Olena Zelenska said early Friday she was “horrified” by Liza’s death and images of her overturned stroller released by local authorities.

The missile strikes on Vinnytsia are the latest attacks to carry a heavy civilian toll and come less than a week after strikes on Chasiv Yar in the Donetsk region left nearly 50 dead.

A strike on Friday hit the central square in Kramatorsk, a major city and an administrative centre of the Donbas. Authorities said no one was hurt since it happened during curfew.

“I have no words to describe the horror I experienced today,” said Anastasiya, after rockets fell near her residential building. 

“It’s good that it fell outside and did not fly into the house. That was lucky.”

Moscow launched its invasion on February 24 and the conflict has killed thousands of people, destroyed cities and forced millions to flee their homes.

The heaviest fighting recently in Ukraine has focused on the industrial Donbas region in the east, where grinding trench battles and artillery duels are morphing into a war of attrition.

– ‘Clearing’ Donbas town –

The United Kingdom said Friday that the Kremlin “must bear the full responsibility” for the death of a British captive in east Ukraine.

“I am shocked to hear reports of the death of British aid worker Paul Urey while in the custody of a Russian proxy in Ukraine,” Foreign Secretary Liz Truss said. 

Moscow-backed separatists said Friday they were closing in on their next target, Siversk, after wresting control of sister cities Lysychansk and Severodonetsk — about 30 kilometres (18 miles) to its east — two weeks ago.

And Donetsk separatist official Daniil Versonov said rebel fighters were “clearing” eastern districts of Siversk in small groups.

Ukraine has repeatedly urged allies to supply it with advanced, long-range precision artillery systems that would allow it to target Russian forces deeper inside Ukrainian-held territory.

Defence Minister Oleksiy Reznikov said Friday that Ukraine had taken delivery of its first batch of sophisticated M270 rocket systems, adding to a growing arsenal of Western-supplied artillery Kyiv says is changing dynamics on the battlefield.

In his address, Zelensky said the United States would include additional aid for his country in a new budget bill, including the development of Ukraine’s air capabilities to “significantly strengthen our defence potential”.

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The US House committee investigating the January 6 assault on the Capitol said late Friday night it had subpoenaed the Secret Service over questions surrounding missing text messages from the days surrounding the riot last year.

The inspector general of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), Joseph Cuffari, told Congress earlier this week that his office has had difficulties obtaining records of text messages from the Secret Service, the law enforcement agency that protects the president, from January 5 and 6, 2021. 

Representative Bennie Thompson, chairman of the January 6 committee, informed the agency’s director James Murray in a letter Friday of the subpoena compelling the Secret Service to hand over the missing texts by Tuesday. 

“The Select Committee seeks the relevant text messages, as well as any after action reports that have been issued in any and all divisions of the USSS pertaining or relating in any way to the events of January 6, 2021,” the letter, posted to the committee’s website, said.

The messages could be important in the House of Representatives and Justice Department investigations into whether Donald Trump and his close advisors encouraged the deadly insurrection by the former president’s supporters, which aimed to prevent the certification of his Democratic rival Joe Biden as the winner of the November 2020 election.

Secret Service agents were with Trump during the day of the uprising, and were also with vice president Mike Pence, who went into hiding at the Capitol after pro-Trump rioters called for him to be hanged.

On June 29 a former White House staffer told the House January 6 investigation that Trump had attempted to force the Secret Service to take him to the Capitol to join his supporters on that day. 

According to Secret Service spokesman Anthony Guglielmi, agents’ phones were wiped as part of a planned replacement program that began before the DHS Office of the Inspector General (OIG) first asked for the data, six weeks after the insurrection.

“The Secret Service notified DHS OIG of the loss of certain phones’ data, but confirmed to OIG that none of the texts it was seeking had been lost in the migration,” he said in a statement.

The Secret Service has been criticized for not adequately anticipating the threat of the violent action by armed Trump supporters on January 6.

Trump had made a senior Secret Service official at the time, Tony Ornato, his personal deputy chief of staff.

Ornato has denied the account given to the January 6 committee by former Trump aide Cassidy Hutchinson that Trump tried to force the Secret Service to drive him to the Capitol as his supporters massed at the building, the seat of the US legislature.

But other then White House officials have backed Hutchinson’s story.