DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip (AP) — Israeli airstrikes have killed about a dozen people in Gaza over the past two days, local health officials said on Wednesday, part of a wider campaign of attacks on the territory by Israel despite a months-old ceasefire with Hamas.

Among the dead were a woman and six police officers killed in an airstrike on a police station in the densely populated Jabaliya refugee camp, in northern Gaza, on Tuesday, hospital officials said.

In another strike on Wednesday, three members of the same family were killed in central Gaza, while a man died on Tuesday in the bombing of a tent camp in Khan Younis in the south. Israeli forces also shot and killed a child on Tuesday in the Muwasi area, west of the southernmost city of Rafah, according to hospital officials.

The Israeli military did not immediately comment on the strikes in central and southern Gaza. In a statement addressing the attack in Jabaliya, it claimed that four of the slain police officers were Hamas militants, without providing evidence on how those killed were involved in planning or carrying out attacks.

One of the officers, Col. Mohamad Marwan Salem, was a senior police commander and head of the Jabaliya police station, the Hamas-run Interior Ministry said.

Hamas, which ruled Gaza for years, maintains an armed wing, as well as civilian police and security services that are overseen by its Interior Ministry. Throughout the war, Israel has targeted local police, including those guarding aid convoys.

Israel’s military has claimed it considers police stations legitimate targets if they’re “being used to advance military activities, or if those present are military operatives involved in advancing terrorist activities.”

It did not say what military activities it believed were taking place at the Jabaliya police station, nor did it provide evidence that attacks were being planned. Hamas says the police force is engaged in maintaining law and order in the territory.

The deaths were the latest among Palestinians in Gaza since a fragile ceasefire deal in October attempted to halt a two-year-long war between Israel and Hamas. While the heaviest fighting has subsided, Israeli forces have continued to carry out strikes and other military operations.

At least 1,123 people have been killed in Gaza since the ceasefire took effect, according to the territory’s Health Ministry. The ministry, which is part of the Hamas-led government, maintains detailed casualty records that are seen as generally reliable by U.N. agencies and independent experts. It does not give a breakdown of civilians and militants.

Militants have also carried out shooting attacks on troops, and Israel says its strikes are in response to that and other violations. Five Israeli soldiers have been killed since the ceasefire.

The war began after the Hamas-led attack on southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, which killed around 1,200 people and saw 251 taken hostage. Israel’s retaliatory offensive in Gaza has killed more than 73,264 Palestinians, including those killed since the ceasefire, Gaza’s Health Ministry said. — Magdy reported from Cairo. Sam Metz contributed reporting from Ramallah, West Bank.

MADRID (AP) — Five days after a fire ravaged a remote expat community in southern Spain, authorities late Tuesday identified all 13 fatalities using biological samples.

Meanwhile, French firefighters brought under control a forest fire in the historic and much-visited Fontainebleau area south of Paris as parts of the continent continued to face extremely hot temperatures.

All but one of the deceased in the Spanish wildfire, all of whom were adults, were foreign nationals. They include seven British citizens — including a 93 year-old woman who died in the hospital — three Belgian nationals, a French woman, an American and a Spanish national, judicial authorities said in a statement.

Of the 13 victims, eight were women and five were men.

Regional authorities initially believed 23 people were missing but they all have been accounted for since investigators identified all of the fire’s victims.

The Los Gallardos fire affected some 70 square kilometers (27 square miles) of forest and farmland. It was one of fire-prone Spain’s deadliest blazes in years.

Spain is experiencing extreme heat, which, combined with wind and little rainfall, is creating the ideal conditions for small wildfires to grow unchecked.

Europe is the world’s fastest-warming continent, with temperatures increasing twice as fast as the global average since the 1980s, according to the European Union’s Copernicus Climate Change Service.

Temperatures remained exceptionally high across France on Wednesday, with highs locally reaching 39 degrees Celsius (102 Fahrenheit).

The national weather agency Météo-France warned the combination of extreme heat and dry soil conditions continued to pose a significant wildfire risk across the country.

The blaze that swept through the historic Fontainebleau forest, south of Paris, and prompted the evacuation of several residential areas was brought under control, although firefighters continued to tackle small flare-ups in the affected areas, local authorities said.

By Raphael Satter and Anton Zverev

July 15 (Reuters) – A computer expert facing U.S. hacking charges previously held a senior position at Moscow-based antivirus firm Kaspersky Lab, according to a person familiar with the matter and records reviewed by Reuters.

Denis Obrezko, who last week pleaded not guilty to computer crimes at a hearing in Boston, worked as a senior specialist for Kaspersky between 2017 and 2019, according to leaked salary documents and a former colleague. U.S. prosecutors have said that Obrezko spent the preceding five years working for Russia’s domestic intelligence service, known as the FSB.

Although the alleged hacking activity took place after he left Kaspersky, Obrezko’s background is likely to draw further attention to the company’s relationship with the Russian government. One of the world’s leading antivirus makers, Kaspersky was a significant presence in the United States before concerns over its ties to the Kremlin effectively froze it out of the American market.

In a statement, Kaspersky said, “An employee with the name specified worked at the company between 2017-2019, and we have no information on the individual’s current status. The offenses charged cannot be related to the individual’s role or responsibilities during the employment at Kaspersky.”

Obrezko’s lawyer, Max Nemtsev, said in ​an email that he was not in a position to comment on Obrezko’s employment history. The FSB could not be reached for comment. The Russian Embassy in Washington has not responded to repeated questions about Obrezko’s case. Russia generally denies responsibility for hacking campaigns.

TECHNICAL SCHOOL TIES TO HACKING

Reuters could not determine Obrezko’s exact responsibilities at Kaspersky during his employment there. An account on Russian social media network VKontakte that used one of his email addresses identifies him as a graduate of Moscow’s Bauman University, a technical school that a consortium of European journalists last year identified as a key training ground for Russian government hackers. His specialization was information security, according to the VKontakte account and to leaked resume data reviewed by Reuters.

Bauman University did not return a message seeking comment.

VOID BLIZZARD HACKING CAMPAIGN

Documents filed by U.S. prosecutors accuse Obrezko of participation in a newly discovered hacking group known as “Void Blizzard” or “Laundry Bear.” The group is alleged to have carried out the mass theft of emails and other communications from NATO-aligned European government agencies and at least 11 U.S. companies at the behest of the Russian government beginning in 2023.

A U.S. indictment filed last week attributes Void Blizzard to a Russian cybersecurity company called Yutek-NN, where Obrezko worked as deputy director from 2024 onward. The indictment made no mention of Obrezko’s previous connection to Kaspersky, which is reported here for the first time.

Yutek describes itself on its website as a multipurpose IT firm that uses “cutting-edge technology, innovative concepts, and creative design.” Russian corporate records show that the firm, which is based in the city of Nizhny Novgorod, is licensed by the FSB to develop, sell or acquire “special technical means for the covert acquisition of information.” 

Yutek did not return repeated messages seeking comment.

Stefan Soesanto, a lecturer at the Lucerne University of Applied Sciences and Arts in Switzerland, said the prosecution of Obrezko was “a vindication for all those that are already highly critical of Kaspersky.” 

Kaspersky has always said it maintains its independence from the Kremlin, but the U.S. Commerce Department banned its software in 2024 over security concerns and European authorities have warned against the company.

Soesanto said that the walls separating the cybersecurity industry from the intelligence community were porous, and that a revolving door between the two would not be unique to Kaspersky.

“It’s really similar to how the U.S. works. It’s just that the Russians don’t really indict American former spies,” he said.

(Reporting by Anton Zverev in London and Raphael Satter in Washington; Additional reporting by Nate Raymond in Boston and AJ Vicens in Detroit; Editing by Matthew Lewis)

SAO PAULO, July 15 (Reuters) – Rio de Janeiro prosecutors have charged 22 people with operating a sophisticated money-laundering network for Brazilian criminal groups, authorities said on Wednesday, as police carried out raids across the states of Rio de Janeiro and Sao Paulo.

The Organized Crime Special Action Group (GAECO) said the network had moved millions of reais through recently established shell companies, using techniques such as structured deposits and the recruitment of accountants to disguise the origin of illicit funds.

Local media, including CNN Brasil and news portal G1, reported that the group was suspected of laundering money for three different criminal gangs.

Asked about the reports, the Public Prosecutor’s Office said the probe was continuing under seal with the aim of identifying other suspects.

Prosecutors said the suspects included Lebanese nationals.

(Reporting by Isabel Teles; Editing by Kevin Liffey)

By Maayan Lubell

ISRAEL-LEBANON BORDER, July 15 (Reuters) – Israeli leaders describe the territory now occupied in Lebanon as a war gain, but some military veterans see the so-called “buffer zone” as a deadly replay of a doomed strategy they experienced first-hand.

Gil Shely recalls being told daily by his commanders in the late 1980s, in what was known then as the southern Lebanon “security strip”, that he was protecting Israel’s north.  

“Looking back, it was all fairy tales,” he said.

Israel withdrew from that strip in 2000. Its troops are now back, occupying a swath of southern Lebanon about 10 km (six miles) deep. The aim, Israel says, is to protect its border towns from Hezbollah, the powerful Iran-backed Lebanese militia.

The new zone was announced in late March while Israel and Hezbollah were engaged in intense battle as the Iran war raged. It followed similar belts created in Gaza and Syria, reflecting Israel’s strategic shift after the Hamas-led attack on southern Israel on October 7, 2023. 

For Shely, it was a moment of dread.        

“When I hear news that a soldier has been killed there, I am crushed. My heart screams out for the unnecessary sacrifice,” said Shely, 56, whose youngest son is soon to enlist in Israel’s conscript military.

Israel has lost dozens of soldiers since March, when Hezbollah launched missiles at Israel, prompting an Israeli offensive that displaced a million people and killed thousands in Lebanon, including hundreds of civilians. 

Hezbollah does not disclose fatality figures.       

Veterans looking back three and four decades describe a grinding routine in southern Lebanon — clearing explosives, staging ambushes and clashing with fighters who used Israel’s occupation to hone guerrilla tactics.    

“I lost many friends in Lebanon,” said Erez, 51, who served there in the 1990s and asked to be identified only by his forename for privacy reasons. His son is now deployed in the new buffer zone. “We hoped we would never have to go back.” 

NETANYAHU SAYS BUFFER KEEPS HEZBOLLAH FROM BORDER

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, facing an October election and struggling in opinion polls, listed the buffer zone as a big achievement when visiting troops on June 30. 

“These security zones are a paradigm shift. It means we no longer allow an army of terrorists to have a foothold on our border. And we destroy, above ground and underground, anything that served as a means of attacking us,” he said.

The zone is mostly empty of Lebanese civilians who fled villages that are now all but destroyed. 

From the Israeli side of the border, military vehicles can be seen patrolling through piles of rubble and blown-out houses that line the roads. Sounds of detonations are sometimes heard as smoke rises up from the hills. 

Israeli towns and villages, hit by Hezbollah missiles and drones, are in direct sight.   

A volunteer in Israel’s reserve forces was back this month after serving as a young conscript not long before the 2000 withdrawal. 

He said the amount of weapons and the breadth of Hezbollah’s groundwork since then is alarming, but that ultimately, military action alone cannot guarantee security.

“What’s the purpose? What are you doing it for? You’re fighting, risking yourself, it’s not clear, they don’t make it clear to the soldiers. It’s vague and frustrating,” said the reservist, speaking on condition of anonymity.    

“WE WANT PEACE”     

Israel’s 2000 withdrawal was preceded by a public campaign that intensified as casualties mounted. Its leading voices were mothers of fallen and serving soldiers, who formed the Four Mothers — Leave Lebanon in Peace movement. 

“Then — our children, and now our grandchildren,” said Rachel Madpis Ben-Dor, a Four Mothers founder and chairperson. “We are making the same mistake now.”  

A resident of the north, she said soldiers can protect her town from the border, adding: “We don’t want to see villages wiped out. We want peace with Lebanon and we need the world’s support.”     

But Israel cannot afford to be naive, said politician Benny Gantz, a former defence chief who as a brigadier-general in 2000 closed the border-fence gate behind Israel’s withdrawing troops.  

His son was recently on the front line in Lebanon, he said. 

“We have no choice but to create a buffer,” Gantz said. “We can’t look at reality as we want to see it. We have to look at reality as it is and try to shape it. It will have to be a combination of military, security and diplomacy.”  

Israel and Lebanon are holding U.S.-backed talks in Rome this week, based on an initial framework agreement that aims to see Hezbollah disarmed, a demand rejected by the group, and an eventual peace accord reached. 

“If the agreement is truly implemented then we can go home, I hope those days will come,” Gantz said. 

(Reporting by Maayan Lubell and Rami Amichay; Editing by Rami Ayyub and Timothy Heritage)

By Olivia Le Poidevin

GENEVA, July 15 (Reuters) – The United Nations human rights office on Wednesday called on states, businesses and parties linked to Sudan’s globally-relevant gum arabic industry to uphold international law, warning that profits from the sector are helping sustain the country’s civil war.

The conflict between Sudan’s army and ​the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), now in its fourth year, has displaced millions and devastated much of ​the country.  

Sudan produces around 80% of the world’s gum arabic, a natural substance harvested from acacia trees and widely used to mix, stabilise and thicken ingredients in mass-market products including soft drinks, pharmaceuticals and cosmetics.

In a report, the U.N. said significant amounts of the commodity had been taken from areas controlled by the RSF and smuggled into neighbouring transit countries, from which they are exported as locally produced items – making it hard to track. 

Some gum arabic has also been taken from areas controlled by the Sudanese Armed Forces and transported to Port Sudan for export, it added.

The report also warned that companies in the sector could be exposed to conflict-related human rights risks.

Part of Sudan’s gum arabic production comes from areas affected by the fighting and the U.N. human rights office found that people working in the trade have faced threats to their safety, and suffered large-scale looting, including by parties to the conflict.

U.N. human rights chief Volker Turk urged companies to ensure that they are not contributing to adverse human rights impacts or to sustaining the conflict.

“Companies cannot continue business as usual when sourcing from conflict-affected value chains,” Turk said, urging strong due diligence of where their ingredients are being sourced.  

The report highlighted an example in May 2025 when the Gum Arabic Exchange and its warehouses, and parts of the wider market in El-Nuhud were reportedly looted by the RSF, affecting local livelihoods. 

(Reporting by Olivia Le Poidevin, editing by Andrei Khalip)

RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) — When a Brazilian police officer killed Ana Paula Oliveira’s 19-year-old son in a Rio de Janeiro favela in 2014, the mother of two didn’t think she would survive the grief.

Founding a group with other grieving mothers — attending judicial hearings, protests and commemorative events together and providing essential psychological support to one another — saved her life, Oliveira says.

“Without any doubt, if I had been alone I wouldn’t have made it here, 12 years later,” she said, at a recent event at her son’s old school marking the anniversary of his death. “We need one another to cry together, to smile together and to fight together.”

Oliveira and other Brazilian mothers turn to activism to ensure that their sons are remembered as more than a statistic. Now, they are demanding a nationwide policy to support relatives of victims of state violence and are seeking public funding to finance their activities.

The nonprofit Crossfire Institute said 460 people died during police operations in Rio last year, the highest number since 2016 and a 52% increase from the previous year.

Much like the Mothers of Plaza de Mayo, a human rights organization created by women whose children were kidnapped by the military dictatorship that ruled Argentina from 1976 to 1983, Oliveira and her group draw attention to the pain generated by police killings and seek judicial accountability — sometimes successfully.

Last year, they traveled to the capital Brasilia and met with the judiciary, legislative and executive branches to present their project, developed with the support of Raave, a network of organizations supporting people affected by police killings in Rio.

“Raave is negotiating with the federal government to implement a pilot project … developed by the mothers, so that we can provide care and guarantee the rights of this population,” said Guilherme Pimental, a coordinator for Raave.

As in other Latin American countries, including Peru and Colombia, crime is a key issue for voters in Brazil’s elections in October.

Supporters and allies of presidential hopeful Sen. Flávio Bolsonaro, son of former President Jair Bolsonaro, argue that police must be given full support in their fight against heavily armed gangs in favelas, or impoverished sprawling urban communities.

But grieving mothers and nonprofits contend that Brazil’s police too often use excessive force, sometimes ending in death.

Oliveira’s son Johnatha was shot in the back as he passed through a street in Manguinhos favela in Rio after visiting his grandmother, his mother said. He later died of his injuries.

“Police officers allege that they shot him to disperse a crowd” that was protesting, said Oliveira, who wants the law enforcement official who fired the shot convicted of intentional homicide. In 2024, a jury convicted the official of manslaughter without intent to kill. Prosecutors successfully appealed, but a new court date for a second trial hasn’t been set.

Like Oliveira, Monica Cunha also transformed her pain into activism. After her 20-year-old son was killed by police in 2006, she became a councilwoman and this month will launch her precandidacy to run for state lawmaker in the upcoming October elections.

“I fight for memory, truth, justice, reparations and guarantees of nonrepetition — not only for myself, but so that no other family has to endure this pain,” Cunha said in an Instagram post on the 18th anniversary of her son’s death. “The racism that kills our children and loved ones is not an isolated problem, and it must be confronted through state policies. I will keep going, turning grief into struggle.”

Brazilian police have killed more than 6,000 people every year since 2018, according to the Brazilian Forum on Public Safety, a prominent nonprofit. The largest number of victims are age 18 to 24, while 82% of victims of lethal police violence are Black, the nonprofit said in its 2025 annual publication on violence in Brazil.

Anti-gang tactics in Rio’s favelas came under scrutiny once again last year, when police killed 117 suspected gang members in the state’s most lethal raid ever, targeting members of the criminal group Red Command in two favelas. Five police officers also died. Officers arrested 113 people, seized 118 weapons and confiscated more than a ton of drugs in that operation, police said.

Then-Rio Gov. Cláudio Castro, a Bolsonaro ally, defended the operation, which he said targeted “ narco-terrorists ” — a term echoing U.S. President Donald Trump. Last month, the Trump administration classified the Red Command as well as its rival First Command Capital as foreign terrorist organizations.

Nadia dos Santos’ sons Cleyton and Cleyverson were both killed by police: the former in 2015 when he was 18 and the latter when he was 17 in 2022. Police also killed the son of her sister, Glaucia dos Santos, Fabricio, in 2014 when he was 17. A memorial honoring and depicting the three boys covers the front wall of the family’s home in Rio’s Chapadao complex of favelas.

The sisters founded support groups and began the long work of investigating the circumstances of each boy’s death, seeking accountability through the courts.

In 2023, the police officers involved in the death of Fabricio were sentenced to nine years in prison, a decision that was celebrated by other mothers and gave them hope, Glaucia dos Santos said.

“We want others to stay alive, so we have to stay upright” despite the immense toll of the grief, said Glaucia dos Santos.

Her sister Nadia said the mothers need a nationwide public policy on restitution that she went to Brasilia to demand.

“The state should have the obligation to give us mothers who lose our sons because of the state’s violence reparations. … We fight, we work, but we become ill. We need solutions,” she said.

Oliveira suggested restitution could take the form of placing victims’ names in public places and naming facilities after them, such as schools, hospitals and daycare centers.

“There are other forms of reparation as well, such as building other public policies of nonrepetition that would help prevent new cases. … Many things need to be done, repaired, so that this barbarity does not continue,” she said.

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Associated Press journalist Diarlei Rodrigues contributed to this report.

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Follow AP’s coverage of Latin America and the Caribbean at https://apnews.com/hub/latin-america

LONDON, July 15 (Reuters) – Britain’s populist Reform UK called on Wednesday for all lawmakers to be given “full security” if they want it after the murder of Ann Widdecombe, a prominent member of the party led by veteran Brexit campaigner, Nigel Farage.

At a news conference, Zia Yusuf, Reform’s home affairs policy chief, accused other politicians and the media of fuelling hostility against the party, which, he said, had led to death threats against Farage and other lawmakers.

Paying tribute to Widdecombe, a 78-year-old former Conservative minister who was found murdered in her home last week, Yusuf said lawmakers needed better security provision. A British man has been arrested.

“If Reform win the next general election … I will ensure that all members of parliament, of all parties, are provided with round-the-clock protection,” Yusuf said.

“We will also allocate significant new resources to protect former politicians still active in public life.”

In Britain, politicians are no strangers to abuse from the public, but in recent years many lawmakers have said the tone has become increasingly ugly and dangerous, with some changing their routines and behaviour to avoid confrontation.

In 2021, Conservative lawmaker David Amess was stabbed to death in a church by a man inspired by Islamic State. Five years earlier, Labour lawmaker Jo Cox was shot and stabbed by a Nazi-obsessed attacker during the Brexit campaign.

Yusuf said Farage, who is under pressure over funds he received from wealthy donors, had received almost 600 death threats since February.

That was why, he said, Farage had accepted donations to fund his own security detail — an argument, among others, the Reform leader has used to justify his acceptance of a £5 million ($6.70 million) donation from a billionaire cryptocurrency investor.

“Those who question Nigel Farage’s need for security should stop,” Yusuf said.

Security measures were bolstered after Cox’s murder, with lawmakers offered panic buttons and additional locks at their homes and offices. After Amess’ murder, the Conservative government and parliament offered lawmakers trained security protection when meeting voters.

(Reporting by Elizabeth PiperEditing by Ros Russell)

RABAT, July 15 (Reuters) – A Moroccan prosecutor said on Wednesday he had ordered the release of veteran journalist and political commentator Ali Lmrabet after questioning him, although an investigation continues following allegations of defamation and libel.

Lmrabet, 66, who holds French nationality and lives in Spain, was arrested on Sunday on arrival at Tangier airport. He is a political commentator on social media and has been an outspoken critic of Morocco’s political system for decades.

“The appropriate legal consequences will be determined once the investigation is completed,” the prosecutor’s office in Casablanca said in a statement.

In an earlier statement, the prosecutor’s office said Lmrabet’s arrest was on the basis of several notices issued against him over online content suspected of constituting criminal offences under Moroccan law, including alleged defamation and libel targeting individuals and institutions.

In 2003, Lmrabet was jailed after being convicted on charges that included offending King Mohammed VI. In 2005, a Moroccan court banned him from practising journalism in Morocco for 10 years.

Since then, Lmrabet has remained active as a political commentator on social media.

(Reporting by Ahmed Eljechtimi; Editing by Alexandra Hudson)

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen marked Ukraine’s annual Statehood Day on Wednesday in Kyiv, pledging continued military and financial support for the country’s sovereignty as it holds out against Russia’s 4-year-old full-scale invasion.

Ukraine has been under threat since Russian forces illegally annexed the Crimean Peninsula in 2014, followed eight years later by the all-out invasion in 2022. Statehood Day, celebrating the country’s self-determination, is a public holiday in Ukraine.

The war has killed thousands of soldiers and civilians, forced millions to flee their homes, reduced some Ukrainian cities to rubble, and has fueled fears the confrontation could slide into an open conflict between Russia and NATO, whose member nations have supported Kyiv. No peace settlement is in sight.

Senior officials from southeastern European countries also were expected in Kyiv for a gathering focused on Black Sea and regional security. Last year’s meeting in the southern city of Odesa reaffirmed their support for Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity.

President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has recently won important pledges of further support, including from the Group of Seven leading industrialized nations and the so-called Coalition of the Willing countries.

Von der Leyen said her trip to the Ukrainian capital was her 11th in wartime. Europe is watchful of Russia’s broader intentions on the continent and has provided billions of euros (dollars) to Ukraine as well as diplomatic support.

Von der Leyen said she would announce new steps toward integrating the European and Ukrainian defense industries as well as providing help to prepare the country’s air defenses for the colder months, when Russia usually tries to knock out electricity and heat in what Kyiv officials call “weaponizing winter.”

The top European Union official’s visit came as Western officials and analysts say Ukraine’s drone and missile attacks are hitting high-profile targets deep inside Russia, severely disrupting Moscow’s supply lines and causing civilian fuel shortages.

“It’s a special moment,” Von der Leyen said on social media. “Ukraine has built a strong military momentum. The tide is turning.”

Washington appeared poised to increase economic pressure on Moscow as a proposed Russia sanctions bill was unveiled in the U.S. Senate following Saturday’s death of Sen. Lindsey Graham, one of its chief backers.

The bill, which its authors had hoped to pass last summer but was held up by White House reservations, would impose steep tariffs on goods from countries that continue to buy Russian oil, gas and other exports.

Wednesday’s official ceremonies and visiting dignitaries in Kyiv came at a delicate political moment for Zelenskyy as he manages a major government reshuffle.

Meanwhile, Serbia’s Moscow-friendly president, Aleksandar Vucic, was taking part in the Southeast Europe Summit in Kyiv. Serbia, which relies almost fully on Russia for its energy supplies, has refused to join Western sanctions on Moscow, although it officially supports Ukraine’s territorial integrity.

Ukrainian officials said Wednesday that at least nine civilians were killed and 13 others were injured in Russian aerial attacks.

Russian forces dropped six glide bombs mostly targeting infrastructure in the Sumy region of northern Ukraine, killing three people and wounding seven, said Oleh Hryhorov, head of the regional military administration.

Three people were killed and three others wounded in a Russian attack on Odesa, according to Serhii Lysak, the head of the city’s military administration.

In the Chernihiv region of northern Ukraine, Russian drones killed two people and seriously wounded an 18-year-old, while one person was killed and two injured in the southern Zaporizhzhia region, officials said.

The Russian Defense Ministry said its air defenses overnight intercepted 93 Ukrainian drones over several Russian regions, as well as over Crimea and the Sea of Azov and the Black Sea.

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Hatton reported from Lisbon, Portugal. Associated Press reporter Justin Spike in Budapest contributed.

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