Your Monday Briefing: Russian Missiles Hit Kyiv

Good morning. We’re masking Russian missile strikes in Kyiv and the thirty third anniversary of the Tiananmen Sq. bloodbath.

Russian missiles hit Kyiv

No less than 5 missiles hit Kyiv early on Sunday, the primary Russian strike in Ukraine’s capital in over a month. No less than one individual was injured, officers mentioned, as the town’s sense of relative safety ruptured.

Russia mentioned the missiles destroyed tanks and armored autos equipped by Ukraine’s Japanese European allies. One missile that was headed for Kyiv “flew at a critically low altitude” over a nuclear energy plant, Ukraine’s state nuclear energy firm mentioned. Listed below are stay updates.

The assault, after 100 days of struggle, got here as President Vladimir Putin warned that Moscow would hit targets it had thus far prevented if Western nations started delivering longer-range missiles to Ukraine.

The east: Fight continued to rage across the contested metropolis of Sievierodonetsk. “We’re surrounded on all sides,” mentioned a farmer, who continues to be making an attempt to feed his neighbors regardless of the hazard. Highly effective explosions had been additionally heard in and round Kramatorsk, the capital of Ukrainian-controlled areas of the Donetsk area.

Africa: The Wagner Group, an opaque community of Russian mercenaries, mining corporations and political affect operations, is increasing aggressively throughout a swath of the continent. In Sudan, a Putin ally received wealthy whereas crushing a democracy motion.

Different updates:

• Ukraine’s nationwide soccer workforce misplaced to Wales on Sunday, dashing its hopes of competing within the World Cup.

• A Ukrainian official angrily rejected a plea from President Emmanuel Macron of France to not “humiliate” Russia and to as a substitute search a negotiated settlement.

• Russia has arrested hundreds of its residents, because the Kremlin cracks down on criticism of its struggle.

Hindus flee Kashmir amid violence

A whole lot of Hindu households have fled the Kashmir area in latest weeks amid a spike in focused militant assaults. Final week, three Hindus had been killed, together with a instructor gunned down outdoors her college.

Many extra want to depart, seeing disturbing echoes of the Nineteen Eighties and Nineteen Nineties, when militant assaults additionally drove a Hindu exodus. Some are demanding that the federal government switch their jobs and households to safer locations outdoors the majority-Muslim area.

However Kashmiri Hindus are assembly resistance from Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his administration, who they are saying have erected blockades round their neighborhoods. Like many previous Indian governments, Modi has portrayed the Hindu presence as an illustration of the restive Himalayan area’s stability. A mass exodus would hardly assist that narrative.

Background: In 2019, Modi’s authorities dissolved Kashmir’s elected authorities and revoked its semiautonomous standing. Since then, India’s authorities has clamped down on dissent. Kashmiri Hindu organizations say the renewed wave of focused killings is an obvious retaliation for the coverage.

Historical past: India and Pakistan have disputed Kashmir because the finish of British rule in 1947. Within the late Nineteen Eighties, a Kashmiri separatist motion focused the area’s Hindus. After a mass exodus, the federal government inspired Kashmiri Hindus to return by providing them authorities jobs and funds for purchasing or rebuilding properties.

A Tiananmen Sq. anniversary

On June 4, 1989, Chinese language troopers crushed the Tiananmen Sq. protests in Beijing. For many years, Hong Kong held a big candlelight vigil in Victoria Park to commemorate these killed within the rebellion.

This 12 months, the town held no vigil: China’s marketing campaign of smothering dissent put an finish to the annual gathering. It banned the June 4 vigil in 2020 (although many individuals defied the ban) and once more final 12 months, citing Covid-19 restrictions.

Taipei — the capital of Taiwan, which has lengthy resisted China’s claims of sovereignty — has since emerged as the brand new middle for remembrance. Crowds mourned the individuals who died in Beijing 33 years in the past and in addition the erasure of political freedoms in Hong Kong and the victims of China’s draconian insurance policies in Xinjiang and Tibet.

Background: In 2020, after Hong Kong’s pro-democracy protests, Beijing imposed a sweeping nationwide safety legislation. Since then, the native authorities has basically banned public commemorations of the 1989 killings, which worn out a student-led protest motion calling for democratic change in China.

Immigrants: Within the U.Okay., former residents of Hong Kong are settling in however eager for the town they left behind.

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