Russian missiles on Tuesday crashed into schools, hospitals and kindergartens in central Ukraine, killing at least 11 and wounding dozens more in a region coming under mounting pressure.

The attacks came as President Volodymyr Zelensky arrived in the Netherlands to meet with allies on the sidelines of the NATO defence alliance summit.

He is expected to meet with US President Donald Trump on Wednesday to discuss more sanctions on Russia and arms procurement, a senior Ukrainian source told AFP.

Emergency services in the Dnipropetrovsk region, now threatened by Russian battlefield advances, published photos of rescuers helping civilians covered in blood after the attack.

“This is not a fight where it’s hard to choose a side. Standing with Ukraine means defending life,” Zelensky said after the attack.

Ukraine’s foreign minister said the strikes amounted to a “rejection of peace” from Russia, which has rejected US and Ukrainian ceasefire proposals.

“It is a matter of credibility for allies to step up pressure on Moscow,” Andriy Sybiga said.

Ukrainian police said 11 residents of Dnipro were killed and two more were left dead in the nearby town of Samar. More than 100 people were wounded, according to a statement.

Police added that an administrative building, shops, educational facilities and a children’s hospital were damaged.

– Toddler killed –

Russian forces, which invaded Ukraine just over three years ago, recently claimed to have reached the border of the central industrial Dnipropetrovsk region, to gain a foothold there for the first time of the war.

The attacks on Dnipro city, the region’s capital, came just hours after deadly overnight drone attacks.

Three people including a toddler were killed earlier in the northeastern Sumy region that borders Russia during the barrage, local officials said.Oleg Grygorov, head of the Sumy region’s military administration, said a five-year-old boy was pulled from the rubble of a destroyed house.

“The strike took the lives of people from different families. They all lived on the same street. They went to sleep in their homes but the Russian drones interrupted their sleep — forever,” he said.

One man died next to his spouse in a Ukrainian drone strike on Russia’s western border region of Belgorod, the region’s governor said, adding that the woman survived the attack.

Another drone had targeted a residential building in Moscow overnight, wounding two people, including a pregnant woman, the local authorities said.

Russia occupies around a fifth of Ukraine and claims to have annexed four Ukrainian regions as its own since launching its invasion in 2022 — in addition to Crimea, which it captured in 2014.Kyiv has accused Moscow of deliberately sabotaging peace talks to prolong its full-scale offensive and to seize more territory.

AFP

(BBC) – Iran’s top security body must make the final decision on whether to close the Strait of Hormuz, Iranian TV said on Sunday, after parliament reportedly backed the measure in response to U.S. strikes on several of Tehran’s nuclear sites.Iran has in the past threatened to close the strait but has never followed through on the move, which would restrict trade and impact global oil prices.

Below are details about the strait:

WHAT IS THE STRAIT OF HORMUZ?The strait lies between Oman and Iran and links the Gulf north of it with the Gulf of Oman to the south and the Arabian Sea beyond.It is 21 miles (33 km) wide at its narrowest point, with the shipping lane just 2 miles (3 km) wide in either direction.

WHY DOES IT MATTER?

About a fifth of the world’s total oil consumption passes through the strait. Between the start of 2022 and last month, somewhere between 17.8 million and 20.8 million barrels of crude, condensate and fuels flowed through the strait daily, data from analytics firm Vortexa showed.

OPEC members Saudi Arabia, Iran, the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait and Iraq export most of their crude via the strait, mainly to Asia.

The UAE and Saudi Arabia have sought to find other routes to bypass the strait.

About 2.6 million barrels per day (bpd) of unused capacity from existing UAE and Saudi pipelines could be available to bypass Hormuz, the U.S. Energy Information Administration said in June last year.

Qatar, among the world’s biggest liquefied natural gas exporters, sends almost all of its LNG through the strait.

The U.S. Fifth Fleet, based in Bahrain, is tasked with protecting commercial shipping in the area.

HISTORY OF TENSIONS

In 1973, Arab producers led by Saudi Arabia slapped an oil embargo on Western supporters of Israel in its war with Egypt.

While Western countries were the main buyers of crude produced by the Arab countries at the time, nowadays Asia is the main buyer of OPEC’s crude.

Donald Trump, the United States President yesterday announced the bombing of three Iranian nuclear sites, marking a dramatic military escalation that effectively signaled Washington’s entry into Israel’s war against Iran.

Trump said: “We have completed our very successful attack on the three Nuclear sites in Iran, including Fordow, Natanz, and Esfahan.

All planes are now outside of Iran air space,” Trump posted on his Truth Social platform.

In a televised address, he described the strikes as a “spectacular military success.

”The U.S. intervention has heightened fears of a broader regional conflict, reviving memories of the devastation in Iraq following the 2003 invasion.

Israel’s initial strikes on June 13 targeted Iran’s key nuclear infrastructure and top military commanders, killing over 400 people.

Tehran’s retaliatory attacks have so far left at least 24 dead in Israel.

While Iran’s nuclear programme appears significantly degraded, global attention now shifts back to the nations that already possess nuclear weapons — countries whose arsenals shape the world’s balance of power.

As of this year 2025, nine countries officially or unofficially possess nuclear weapons, each with distinct strategic aims and geopolitical influence.

Here are Nine countries that own the most nuclear weapons globally:

1. Russia (~5,889)

2. United States (~5,244)

3. China (~500+)

4. France (~290)

5. United Kingdom (~225)

6. Pakistan (~170)

7. India (~164)

8. Israel (~90)

9. North Korea (~30–50)