The New York Times 2025-03-12 00:14:01


Ukraine Targets Moscow With Large-Scale Drone Attack

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Russian officials said Ukraine attacked Moscow before dawn on Tuesday with its largest long-range drone bombardment of the war, as both sides stepped up attacks ahead of talks intended to find a way to end three years of fighting.

The Russian Ministry of Defense claimed to have shot down at least 91 drones in the region around Moscow and more than 240 drones directed at other targets across the country.

The Ukrainian military said it had targeted Moscow’s oil refinery, which provides more than a third of the fuel consumed in the capital region, along with an oil production station in the Orel region. Neither claim could be independently verified.

Moscow’s mayor, Sergei Sobyanin, called the attack was the largest against the city since the start of the war. At least three people were killed and 18 others were injured in the broader Moscow region, the Russian authorities said, and four international airports temporarily suspended operations. Railway tracks near the Domodedovo airport south of Moscow were also damaged.

President Vladimir V. Putin was briefed on the attack, according to Dmitri S. Peskov, the Kremlin’s spokesman. Mr. Peskov said Russian air defenses were doing “a great job” but told reporters that the authorities “must remain on guard” because attacks would likely continue.

The predawn strikes — just hours before high-level delegations from Kyiv and the United States were scheduled to meet in Saudi Arabia to discuss a possible path toward ending the war — appeared intended to serve as a reminder that despite suffering attacks and enduring huge losses, Ukraine can still hit back at Russia.

Ukraine has proposed an immediate truce in the air, saying it would immediately stop long-range strikes into Russia if Moscow agreed to an equivalent halt. That plan, supported by European nations, including France, is envisioned as a first step in building trust ahead of talks about the overall conflict, in which over a million Ukrainian and Russian soldiers have been killed or wounded.

Ukrainian officials are expected to raise it again in meetings on Tuesday with U.S. officials in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. In addition to a partial truce in the air, Ukraine was also expected to press the case for a halt to strikes on the Black Sea to gauge whether Moscow was willing to take any steps to end the fighting.

When asked on Tuesday whether Moscow would agree to such a plan, Mr. Peskov said it was “impossible to talk about positions now” and that Russia expected the American side to inform Moscow about the results of talks with Ukraine.

Kyiv has long maintained that the only way to force Russia to accept an enduring peace deal is through force and by raising the cost of the war for the Kremlin. In recent months, Ukraine has stepped up its attacks on critical infrastructure inside Russia, targeting oil and gas facilities that help fund the Russian war effort.

The timing of the overnight attack on Moscow was meant to drive home that message, according to Andriy Kovalenko, a senior Ukrainian official focused on Russian disinformation operations.

“This is an additional signal to Putin that he should also be interested in a cease-fire from the air,” he said in a statement. “Not only the oil refinery, drones can fly en masse over Moscow.”

President Volodymyr Zelensky has said that Ukraine plans to produce 30,000 long-range strike drones and 3,000 long-range missiles this year, building its domestic arms-making abilities even as U.S. military assistance remains suspended.

Russia has maintained its relentless bombardment of Ukrainian civilian and military institutions. Nearly every night in recent weeks, Russia has launched over 100 drones at targets across Ukraine, including at Kyiv, the capital.

The assaults — which frequently include a combination of ballistic and cruise missiles in an effort to saturate Ukrainian air defenses — persisted overnight Monday and into Tuesday.

Explosions echoed across Kyiv around midnight as air defense teams scrambled. On Tuesday morning, Ukraine’s air force said that Russia had launched 126 drones and one ballistic missile, adding that it shot down or disabled most of the drones as well as the missile.

At least one person was killed when a Russian drone struck a warehouse in Kharkiv and at least 17 others were injured in other attacks across the country, the Ukrainian authorities said. Drones hit the port city of Odesa in southern Ukraine, with the local authorities reporting fires in multiple locations.

Since President Trump spoke by telephone with President Vladimir V. Putin on Feb. 12 — the first official contact between the heads of state for the United States and Russia in years — more than 100 civilians have been killed in Russian strikes, according to data compiled by The New York Times based on reports from the Ukrainian authorities.

The intensifying strikes have been accompanied by shifting dynamics on the front lines, with Russian force retaking a large part of the territory in Russia’s Kursk region that had been occupied by Ukrainian forces. In a statement on Tuesday, the Russian defense ministry said that its forces had retaken more than 35 square miles of land in the Kursk region. That claim could not be independently verified.

Kyiv had hoped to use its control of that portion of land as leverage in any negotiations to end the war, but the recent developments may have changed that calculus, because the cost of holding the territory could outweigh any diplomatic gain.

More than 125 Ukrainian drones targeted the Kursk region overnight, according to Russia’s defense ministry. That came after the top Ukrainian military commander, Oleksandr Syrsky, said on Monday night that Kyiv was dispatching reinforcements to Kursk — but rejected Russian claims that a large contingent of Ukrainian soldiers there were at risk of encirclement.

“A decision was made to reinforce our group with the necessary forces and resources, including electronic warfare and drones,” he said.

At the same time, there are signs that the Russian offensive in eastern Ukraine has stalled. Russian forces have not advanced in over a week and Ukrainian forces have engaged in limited counterattacks to regain small patches of land, according to Ukrainian soldiers and military analysts who use combat footage to track the daily movements along the front.

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Despair Haunts Ramadan for Palestinians Displaced in West Bank

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The bustle of Ramadan markets has been reduced to a trickle of somber shoppers. A heavy silence has replaced lively chatter. No lanterns glow in windows, and the strings of lights that crisscrossed alleyways, flickering above children playing in the streets, have gone dark.

“Ramadan used to shine,” said Mahmoud Sukkar, a father of four in the West Bank. “Now, it’s just darkness.”

The holy month has long been commemorated in Palestinian cities by traditions deeply rooted in fasting, community and spiritual devotion. Families gathered in the evenings around tables laden with traditional dishes for iftar — fast-breaking meals. Neighbors shared food and other offerings, and nights were illuminated by crescent-shape lights.

But this year is different.

In the West Bank cities of Jenin and Tulkarm, especially the sprawling refugee camps in the Israeli-occupied territory, the streets that once glowed and reverberated with the laughter of children are shrouded in grief. An Israeli military operation that began in January led 40,000 Palestinians to flee their homes, what historians have called the biggest displacement of civilians in the West Bank since the Arab-Israeli war of 1967.

For the first time in decades, Israeli forces sent tanks into Jenin and established a military post in Tulkarm. Nearly 50 people have been killed since the incursion began, according to Palestinian officials. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel said the operation aimed to eradicate “terrorism.”

Before Israel’s operation began, the Palestinian Authority had been carrying out an extensive security operation in Jenin, which had become a haven for Iran-backed armed fighters from Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad.

A year ago, multiple officials told The New York Times that Iran was operating a clandestine smuggling route to delivering weapons to Palestinians in the West Bank.

While nearly 3,000 Palestinians have returned home since the start of Israel’s military operation, most remain displaced.

Mr. Sukkar, 40, and his wife, Na’ila, 34, fled Jenin with their children and his mother on the third day of the Israeli operation. They left with only the clothes they were wearing — no heirlooms, no keepsakes, none of the decorations they used to commemorate Ramadan.

Their displacement fragmented the family, with Mr. Sukkar and their 9-year-old son moving to a friend’s home, and his wife, her mother-in-law and three younger children staying with relatives. But as Ramadan approached, they sought to reunite.

“We couldn’t stay apart,” Mr. Sukkar said. “Ramadan means we have to be together. And we don’t want to remain a burden on others.”

Mr. Sukkar worked in Israel before the war with Hamas erupted in Gaza in October 2023, but he has been mostly unemployed since. With no stable income, the family eventually found rent-free housing in dorms at Arab American University in Jenin, an initiative funded by the government. They moved in one day before Ramadan, relieved to have a space of their own.

But the struggles of displacement persist.

“We left with nothing,” Mr. Sukkar said. “Now, we don’t know where we belong.”

Palestinians in Jenin long not just for safety, but also for the sights, sounds and tastes that make Ramadan a time of joy and reflection. With tens of thousands displaced, many families can’t break their fast in their own homes.

In the central market in Jenin city, street vendors stand by with racks of seasoned greens and plastic gallons of lemonade and carob juice. But instead of seeing excited shoppers hurrying to prepare for iftar, they face people moving quietly, their faces heavy with exhaustion and worry, navigating the sidewalks rather than the crowded stalls.

In previous years, families would stroll together after breaking their fast, visiting relatives or buying knafeh, a sweet made of dough and white cheese. Now, the streets remain mostly empty.

The musaharati, the traditional night caller who used to walk through neighborhoods beating a drum to wake people for suhoor — the predawn meal before fasting — no longer makes his rounds. For generations, he would stop by doorsteps to collect small donations in exchange for his Ramadan blessings.

“He won’t knock on our door this year,” Ms. Sukkar said. “We don’t have a door to knock on.”

In Tulkarm, Ramadan is overshadowed by a sense of uncertainty, residents say. The presence of the Israeli military not only instills fear, but it also disrupts the very rhythm of daily life.

Intisar Nafe’, an activist displaced from the Tulkarm camp, said she had taken pride in cooking for her community. Her small kitchen had been a refuge, her meals a gesture of care. Her iftar table would have been filled with musakhan, a fragrant chicken dish, or maftoul, hand-rolled couscous.

“Nothing is like Ramadan this year,” she said in a phone interview. “I used to cook for others, help in Ramadan kitchens. Now, I’m waiting for someone to feed me.”

Ms. Nafe’ was displaced with her sister and nieces when her home was destroyed in a military operation, she said. She first moved into a mosque with them while the rest of her family scattered. She, her sister and nieces later rented a small apartment in Tulkarem city.

“Ramadan is about family,” she said. “It’s about breaking bread together, sharing meals, visiting one another. Without that, what is left?”

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She misses watching Ramadan-themed Arab and Turkish soap operas and the traditions surrounding Ramadan meals.

“My mother, now 88, learned these dishes from my grandmother, who was a Nakba survivor,” she said, referring to the displacement of hundreds of thousands of Palestinians during Israel’s founding in 1948. “Our kitchen was a continuation of the homes we lost.”

Ramadan’s meal structure — breaking the fast with water and dates, followed by soup, salad and a main course — is now a privilege that few displaced Palestinians can afford. For many in Jenin, iftar is a boxed meal delivered by volunteers. Every evening around 5 o’clock, people rush outside to receive the donations. The meals often arrive cold.

“We do what we can to make it feel like home,” Ms. Sukkar said. “I pour water into plastic cups. I lay out what little we have. But it’s not the same.”

A nostalgic smile flickered across her face. “My iftar table in Ramadan used to be the most beautiful thing,” she continued. “Maybe our house in the camp was small and crowded, but with time, neighbors became family. It was our little paradise, our safety.”

Many displaced families are uncertain when, or if, they will ever return home. Israel has given no sign of ending its operation soon.

“Ramadan is supposed to be a time of renewal,” Ms. Nafe’ said, “but in Tulkarm, it is a month of waiting — waiting for news, waiting for a sign that life might return to what it once was.”

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For Duterte, Signs of a Reckoning Years After He Ordered a Deadly Drug War

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For years the bodies piled up.

Some were shot by vigilantes on motorbikes. Others had bullets in the head, execution style. In killing after killing, the police would only describe the victims as “drug suspects” who had resisted arrest, a charge that rarely stood up to even minor scrutiny. And yet the slaughter continued with impunity, at the behest of the man who was elected president of the Philippines, Rodrigo Duterte.

But on Tuesday, nearly three years after Mr. Duterte left office, a major step was taken toward accountability for thousands of Filipinos who have long sought justice for their loved ones. Acting on a warrant issued by the International Criminal Court, which had been investigating Mr. Duterte’s antidrug campaign, the Philippine authorities arrested Mr. Duterte at Manila’s main airport as he returned from a trip to Hong Kong. On Tuesday night, he was flown out of a plane that was bound for The Hague, where the court is based, according to two people with knowledge of the matter.

The I.C.C. accused Mr. Duterte, 79, of crimes against humanity during his time as president and when he was the mayor of the city of Davao. His case will be a high-profile test of the court, which in recent months has sought the arrest of Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, and the head of the military junta in Myanmar, Min Aung Hlaing, on the same charges as Mr. Duterte. But those orders are unlikely to come to fruition, much like the court’s warrant for President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia that was issued two years ago.

Mr. Duterte’s camp said his detention was illegal, arguing in part that the I.C.C. had no jurisdiction in the Philippines because he had withdrawn the country from the court when he was president. But in the warrant, a three-judge panel wrote that it was investigating killings during the time the Philippines was still a member of the court. And the nation remains a member of Interpol, which can seek arrests on behalf of the I.C.C. A representative of Interpol was present when Mr. Duterte was arrested.

Mr. Duterte’s arrest pierced the culture of impunity he had built around his so-called death squads. Even after his single, six-year term ended, he seemed to be above justice. His successor, Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr., rose to the presidency after forming a political alliance with Mr. Duterte’s daughter, Sara, who became vice president. Early in his administration, Mr. Marcos indicated that he would not cooperate with the I.C.C.

But ties between Mr. Marcos and Ms. Duterte unraveled quickly and in spectacular fashion. By late 2023, Mr. Marcos’s government had quietly allowed I.C.C. investigators to enter the Philippines.

Harry Roque, Mr. Duterte’s spokesman, said his lawyers were scrambling to file a petition in court for his release.

In a statement, Ms. Duterte said her father was “being forcibly taken to The Hague.” She added, “This is not justice — this is oppression and persecution.”

Before he was elected in 2016, Mr. Duterte announced that he would crack down on drugs and that the country’s “drug pushers, holdup men and do-nothings” had better leave because he would “kill” them. Rights groups say roughly 30,000 ended up dying in his war on drugs.

Soon after Mr. Duterte was inaugurated, a group of policemen barged into Mary Ann Domingo’s tiny apartment, killing her partner and son. Last June, in a rare conviction, a judge ruled that the four police officers who participated in the operation were guilty of homicide. But they still have not been imprisoned.

“I don’t feel any sense of justice,” Ms. Domingo said. “Duterte has no remorse.”

Even as he took responsibility for the carnage, Mr. Duterte seemed untouchable, until Tuesday. His arrest brought tears of joy and frustration.

“It took so long, so many lives,” said Grace Garganta, 32, whose father and brother were killed by masked men just a few hours apart on July 2016 in Navotas.

“I almost lost hope, but this has renewed the sense of hope in me because even small victims like us can stand a chance against Duterte and his powerful men,” she said in tears.

In Manila, a coffee shop staffed primarily by the mothers and wives, sisters and daughters of the drug war victims offered customers 50 percent off drinks. In Quezon City, a special
Mass was organized to remember the victims, whose photographs were placed before candles.

“I’m ecstatic,” said Leila de Lima, a former senator who had been detained for six years after she criticized Mr. Duterte’s war on drugs. “This is something I had been hoping and praying for. And here it is, the time for reckoning is before us.”

For decades, Mr. Duterte operated with seemingly no bounds. As mayor of Davao, the second-largest city in the Philippines, for more than two decades, he ran a deadly antidrug crackdown with impunity. In 2016, he parlayed his law-and-order credentials into a victory in the presidential election, even though experts said the country did not have an outsized problem with drugs.

Even as they continued to mourn their relatives, many Filipinos could not imagine a day when Mr. Duterte would be in custody. On Friday, Mr. Duterte embarked on what appeared to be a sudden trip to Hong Kong. Speculation was rife: Was he trying to outrun an I.C.C. arrest?

But on Tuesday, he returned to the Philippines and remained characteristically defiant.

“You would have to kill me first, if you are going to ally with white foreigners,” Mr. Duterte said as he was getting off the plane from Hong Kong, according to a video posted by GMA News, a Philippine broadcaster.

Soon after, he was handed down a warrant from the I.C.C. In the sealed I.C.C. warrant, which was labeled “secret” and obtained by The New York Times, three judges of the I.C.C. said they believed Mr. Duterte was responsible for the drug war killings that took place when he was president and mayor of Davao, and that there were reasonable grounds to believe that these attacks were “both widespread and systematic.”

Raquel Fortun has examined 117 bodies — many with multiple shots to the head and the torso — from the drug war, in her role as a forensic pathologist. She said she had always asked each one for help in seeking justice.

“I still have got them on my tables,” she said. “I couldn’t go to them now, but I told my staff: ‘Can you please tell them that Duterte has been caught?’”

Last year, the Philippines’ House of Representatives launched an inquiry into Mr. Duterte’s drug war. The former president refused to testify in the House but appeared at a hearing in the Senate, where he has considerable support, in October.

“For all of its successes and shortcomings, I, and I alone, take full legal responsibility,” he said of the antidrug campaign. “For all the police did pursuant to my orders, I will take responsibility. I should be the one jailed, not the policemen who obeyed my orders.”

With Tuesday’s developments, that appeared to be a possibility.

Marlise Simons contributed reporting from Paris, and Aie Balagtas See from Manila.

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Separatist militants hijacked a train carrying more than 400 people in an isolated mountainous area of southwestern Pakistan on Tuesday. The fate of the passengers, dozens of whom the militants said they were holding hostage, was not immediately clear.

The militants, Baloch ethnic fighters, forced the train to stop in the Bolan district of Balochistan Province after opening fire on it, according to railway and police officials. The train was traveling from Quetta, the capital of Balochistan, to Peshawar, the capital of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Province. It was to pass through several cities, including Lahore and Rawalpindi, near Islamabad.

Shahid Rind, a spokesman for the Balochistan provincial government, said the authorities were struggling to reach the site of the ambush because of the challenging terrain.

Rashid Hussain, a trader in Quetta, said his family had left on the train for Rawalpindi in the morning but had become unreachable after 2 p.m. “I am deeply worried,” he said by telephone. “The government is not providing any updates. Neither roads nor trains are safe in this province.”

The seizure of the passenger train highlighted the increasing sophistication of a separatist insurgency in Pakistan’s southwest. The attack was the latest in a series of violent episodes in Balochistan, a province bordering Iran and Afghanistan that is the site of major Chinese-led projects, including a strategic port.

A group known as the Baloch Liberation Army, or B.L.A., claimed responsibility for the train hijacking.

The group said it had taken 182 hostages, including members of various security agencies who were traveling while on leave. “Civilian passengers, particularly women, children, the elderly and Baloch citizens, have been released safely and provided a secure route,” the group said in a Telegram post.

That account could not be independently verified, and the government has yet to confirm reports of hostages or any casualties.

Last year, the B.L.A. carried out one of Pakistan’s deadliest terrorist attacks, a suicide bombing that killed at least 25 people, including security personnel, at Quetta’s busy railway station.

The group also claimed responsibility for a deadly bombing targeting a convoy carrying Chinese citizens near the international airport in Karachi, Pakistan’s largest city. The separatists accuse the Chinese of stealing the province’s resources.

In recent months, separatist groups have escalated high-profile attacks along Balochistan’s three major highways, directly challenging the state’s authority. Last week, an alliance of the groups, including the B.L.A., announced plans to intensify attacks on Pakistani security forces, infrastructure and Chinese interests in the region.

“It points to two key trends: the increasing operational capabilities and sophistication of separatist groups and the weakening control of the government in Balochistan,” said Abdul Basit, senior associate fellow at the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies in Singapore.

At the Quetta railway station, families of passengers aboard the train anxiously gathered at the information counter on Tuesday, seeking updates.

Many people in the region had begun to prefer rail travel after frequent militant ambushes on the highways in which passengers were killed after being taken off buses. Frequent protests have also caused road blockages.

Train services had resumed only in October after a two-month suspension because of militant attacks on railway tracks.

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