Two French volunteer aid workers have been killed in a Russian drone attack in the southern Ukrainian region of Kherson, French Foreign Minister Stephane Sejourne said on Friday, confirming reports from the regional governor and other officials.
Posting on social media platform X, Sejourne blamed Russia for targetting civilians in Ukraine and adding that they "will have to answer for its crimes".
Kherson Governor Oleksandr Prokudin said on Thursday via the Telegram messaging app that the Russian attack on the town of Beryslav, on the western bank of the Dnipro River in Kherson, had killed two French nationals and wounded three other foreigners.
French President Emmanuel Macron in a post on X called Thursday's killings a "cowardly and disgraceful act", and expressed his support for all volunteers engaged in helping other nations.
Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskiy offered his condolences and wished a speedy recovery to those injured.
"Russian terror knows no boundaries or victims' nationalities. The brave French aid workers assisted people and we will always be grateful for their humanity," he said on X.
A preliminary report depicted confusion in the cockpit shortly before an Air India jetliner crashed, killing 260 people last month, after the plane's engine fuel cutoff switches almost simultaneously flipped, starving the engines of fuel.
US President Donald Trump defended the state and federal response to deadly flash flooding in Texas on Friday as he visited the stricken Hill Country region, where at least 120 people, including dozens of children, perished a week ago.
Russia pounded Ukraine with hundreds of drones and dozens of missiles on Saturday, in the fourth major attack this month, targeting western cities and killing at least two people in Chernivtsi on the border with Romania.
Thirty Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) fighters burned their weapons at the mouth of a cave in northern Iraq on Friday, marking a symbolic but significant step toward ending a decades-long armed conflict against Turkey.