Ukraine hits a gas plant in Russia as medics count deaths in a Darfur prison

Ukrainian forces launched long-range drones that struck the Orenburg gas processing plant, which also houses Russia's only helium plant, and two Russian Satellite Communications Company sites, one in Moscow Oblast and one in Vladimir Oblast. Russia said it shot down 323 Ukrainian drones overnight. Ukrainian missiles also struck two military airfields and air-defence systems in Crimea.

Deputy prime minister Oleksiy Kuleba said Russian drone attacks killed at least five people, including an Egyptian crew member on a Panamanian-flagged ship in the Black Sea and three members of one family in Sumy Oblast. The ship was damaged and the crew evacuated. The Black Sea death and the Sumy deaths were part of the same briefing.

The Sudan Doctors Network said more than 215 civilians had died at the RSF-run Daqris prison in South Darfur from disease, epidemics, torture, and mistreatment. The United Nations human rights office said sexual violence had been more widespread across Sudan since the war began three years earlier in April. The prison figure was a medical and detention toll, not a battlefield claim.

The Sudanese army said it launched an offensive in Geissan district of Blue Nile and captured a rebel stronghold near Ethiopia. Nigerian police said at least 20 people were killed in an attack in Bokkos, Plateau State. A report said the Malian army and Russian Africa Corps killed four civilians near Timbuktu and Gao and arranged one body in the shape of a swastika.

Israel's defense minister Israel Katz said forces would not leave occupied southern Lebanon even if the United States demanded it, and that 200,000 residents would not return home. The military said it killed Hamas member Akram Muhammad Mahmoud Abu Machi, accused of taking part in the October 7 attacks, in a strike in southern Gaza. Soldiers opened fire near an excavator in Nabatieh, killing two civilians and wounding two.

The United Nations said Myanmar's army had killed more than 700 civilians in six months. China put export controls on 10 United States companies and barred procurement from 46 others after a United States blacklist. The week’s wars were not paused by the oil-price drop or by the World Cup schedule.