Kyiv, Aug 10: Russia and Ukraine exchanged strikes overnight that killed civilians and injured many others on both sides, local authorities reported.

Large-scale Russian missile strikes on Ukrainian cities have become almost routine in recent weeks, with Moscow exploiting Ukraine’s critical shortage of interceptors for the US-made Patriot systems — the sole air defence weapon in its arsenal able to shoot down ballistic missiles.

In the latest attacks, Ukrainian drones killed five people and injured two dozen others, including a 4-year-old boy, in Russia’s border region of Belgorod, according to the regional administration.

In Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second-largest city, Russian missiles struck a high-rise apartment block in the Saltivskyi district, killing two people and injuring 13, according to regional head Oleh Syniehubov. Eight more people were injured in Ukraine’s Black Sea port of Odesa after “dozens of missiles and drones” struck the city and surrounding region, according to local administration head Oleh Kiper.

Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has for months lobbied other countries, especially the US, to send Ukraine more Patriot systems made scarcer by the Iran war, arguing they are crucial for defending civilians.

Failing that, Zelenskyy wants to make Patriot ammunition in Ukraine or get approval from Elon Musk to use his Starlink satellite communications system to guide strikes inside Russia that can hit its missile launchers.

Meanwhile, Kyiv has kept up long-range drone strikes against Russian energy infrastructure, as well as the country’s largest online retailer, Wildberries, and other targets deep inside Russia, sparking a fuel crisis.

Russia’s defence ministry on Sunday claimed its overnight strikes hit drone warehouses in the Kharkiv region, as well as fuel depots and stores of other materiel belonging to Ukraine’s armed forces at the port of Odesa.

It said its forces had shot down 153 Ukrainian drones during the night, including over Russian-occupied Crimea and the Black and Azov seas.

In Russia’s Belgorod region, authorities said Ukrainian drone strikes damaged 29 apartment blocks and five private houses, as well as administrative buildings and unspecified “commercial facilities.”

Debris from Ukrainian drones also fell on two enterprises and a private home in the Russian city of Novorossiysk, mayor Andrey Kravchenko said on Sunday. He did not specify what the commercial sites were. Regional authorities later said falling debris had injured one person, damaged two private houses, and blown out a window in an apartment block.

A major fuel terminal is located at Novorossiysk that links Kazakhstan’s oil fields to markets around the world, and which has previously been a target for Ukrainian strikes.

Moldova says blast near Ukraine border caused by a drone

A “powerful explosion” believed to be from a combat drone was reported in the village of Crocmaz, in southeast Moldova near the border with Ukraine, local police said Sunday.

No one was injured by the impact, which caused a vegetation fire in the Stefan Voda district, police said, adding that “fragments of a combat drone were found at the scene” and would be examined by specialists. Police did not specify the origin of the drone.

Multiple drones have violated Moldovan airspace since Russia launched its full-scale war in neighbouring Ukraine.

Bulgaria summons Ukrainian ambassador over drone incident

Bulgaria has summoned Ukraine’s ambassador after a drone entered Bulgarian airspace, the country’s public broadcaster BNT reported on Sunday.

The drone exploded on Saturday, close to an international gas pipeline, shortly after crossing the border from Romania. No casualties or damage were reported.

Bulgaria’s defence ministry said the drone appeared to be the type used by Ukrainian armed forces, and that the incident was likely accidental.

Ukrainian Foreign Ministry spokesman Heorhii Tykhyi said the incident was being examined, but that it did not deliberately target Bulgaria. Ukraine and Bulgaria were in “close contact” to clarify what had happened, he added.

Dubai, Aug 10: Israel on Sunday rejected a deal announced by US President Donald Trump for Gaza. Details emerged on the potential deal between Iran and Oman on managing the Strait of Hormuz as Tehran suggested that vessels linked to “hostile countries” would be barred. Iran also shuffled its top security post.

Meanwhile, Yemen’s Iranian-backed Houthi rebels struck a government-held port on the country’s Red Sea coast, deepening fears over threats to strategic shipping routes and a potential return to civil war.

Here’s a look at developments across the Middle East. Full coverage can be found here.

Netanyahu insists no Gaza withdrawal until Hamas disarms

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu dismissed the deal on Gaza announced by Trump last month, saying Israel’s military “will not carry out any withdrawal until Hamas is genuinely disarmed.”

Netanyahu told a Cabinet meeting that “Israel rejects the 15-point document” but is still discussing plans for Gaza with Washington, after making similar comments last week. Trump had said Israeli forces would withdraw as the Hamas militant group’s disarmament is completed. Israeli forces control over half the Palestinian enclave of about 2 million people that’s been largely destroyed.

There was no immediate White House comment on Netanyahu’s statement.

“We remain committed to the road map,” said a member of the Hamas political bureau, Bassem Naim, adding that the group expects mediators and the US to pressure Netanyahu — who also faces domestic tensions as he struggles to hold onto power ahead of the next elections scheduled for Oct. 27.

The Hamas-led attack on Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, sparked the war in Gaza. A fragile ceasefire continues.

Houthis target Aramco refinery and Red Sea port

Iranian-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen attacked the government-held port city of Mocha late Sunday night. It was the second attack on the Red Sea coast city in less than 24 hours.

A Houthi military source told the Houthi-controlled Al-Masirah TV that the attack targeted weapons depots and Saudi troop concentrations.

A statement from the Yemeni Armed Forces posted on X said residential neighbourhoods were targeted by ballistic missiles and drones in the attack, and that air defense systems managed to intercept some of the drones.

Drones and missiles were also used during the earlier attack on Sunday. The Yemeni government-allied National Resistance Forces said at least seven people — four troops and three civilians — were killed and 15 civilians were injured in that strike.

Fayed al-Noman, the information ministry’s assistant undersecretary, said the attack severely damaged port buildings and piers as well as commercial goods and food supplies. The military later said missiles landed in several areas, including near a television station.

Mokha is a main port under Yemen’s internationally recognized government and has been renovated to handle shipping that avoids the Houthi-held port of Hodeida.

The Houthis said they targeted military forces and warehouses.

Yahya Saree, a Houthi military spokesperson, said they also targeted an Aramco refinery in the Saudi city of Jazan with a drone in response to Saudi drones’ breaching Yemen’s airspace over Hajjah and Saada provinces.

The Saudi Energy Ministry reported a fire at a facility belonging to the Aramco refinery, with no casualties. The ministry did not say the cause. The attacks threaten to reignite Yemen’s civil war after a 2022 truce.

Iran’s top security post changes again

Iran named a new head of its powerful Supreme National Security Council, state media reported. Mohsen Rezaei had been a military adviser to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei and a former Revolutionary Guard commander.

It was the latest shuffle at the top for the politburo-like body, which has a range of political opinions and rivalries and is adapting to the loss of several senior officials in the war.

Rezaei replaces Mohammad Bagher Zolghadr, who took up the role after Ali Larijani was killed by an Israeli strike in March. Zolghadr will become a political adviser to Khamenei.

Rezaei earlier this month said Iran will never allow an unauthorized route through the Strait of Hormuz, which was considered an international waterway before the war and Tehran’s assertion of control.

Iran says negotiations cannot resume’ until conditions met

Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi told reporters that negotiations with Oman about “new maritime routes” on the Strait of Hormuz were in the final stages but “this, however, does not mean that the Strait of Hormuz will reopen.” That step requires conditions that “have been conveyed through intermediaries.”

The Supreme National Security Council on Saturday said the strait will not reopen until the US “corrects its behavior.” It demanded that the US never threaten Iran again, a permanent end to the war with Iran and its armed allies, a lifting of the naval blockade of Iranian ports and a withdrawal of the US military from the area. The US also must “completely compensate” Iran for war damage, lift sanctions and “unconditionally” release frozen assets.

The United States did not comment on the demands. Trump on Sunday asserted to Axios that “we are only semi-negotiating” with Iran and letting economic pressures take their toll.

Araghchi said an “exchange of messages through intermediaries” continues with the US but that doesn’t constitute negotiations, which he said can’t resume until violations of the interim deal end and the US “has remedied” provisions it violated.

Details emerge about a potential Iran-Oman deal

Iran and Oman, located on the other side of the Strait of Hormuz, are working to finalize a temporary deal that would reopen it, with ships entering near Iran and exiting near Oman, according to two people familiar with the talks who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly. Ships would transit without paying fees or tolls during the interim period.

The agreement is designed to restore the separate interim deal between the US and Iran. The two people said the agreement is endorsed by Gulf Cooperation Council members and is expected to be jointly announced by Iran, Oman, the US and the UN’s International Maritime Organization. But they stressed the terms still could change.

The Iranian parliament’s National Security Committee approved “general outlines” of a plan to manage the strait, the state broadcaster reported, but a lawmaker said transits by vessels belonging to “hostile countries” would be prohibited. The member of parliament’s presiding board said countries that have “caused damage” to Iran cannot transit until they compensate for it. There were no further details.

US Vice President JD Vance dialled Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday to discuss expanding the India-US comprehensive global strategic ties in trade, defence and energy security amid rising tensions in West Asia.

Vance’s call to the prime minister came days after Turkiye, Saudi Arabia, and Pakistan signed a mutual defence pact that was widely seen as a reflection of a new regional alignment amid the West Asia conflict.

During the conversation, PM Modi extended his congratulations to Vance and Second Lady Usha on the birth of their son.

“Received a phone call from US Vice President JD Vance. We discussed ways to further deepen India-US Comprehensive Global Strategic Partnership across key areas,” Modi said on social media.

“Warmly congratulated him and the Second Lady on the birth of their son and conveyed best wishes to the entire family,” he said.

An Indian readout said Modi and Vance reviewed progress in the India-US comprehensive global strategic partnership.

“They noted the sustained momentum in the high-level engagements and reaffirmed their commitment to further strengthening cooperation in trade, defence, critical and emerging technologies, energy security and critical minerals,” it said.

“They also exchanged views on regional and global developments of mutual interest,” it added.

The American side has not yet provided any details of the conversation.

It is not immediately known whether the proposed trade deal between India and the US figured in the talks.

PM Modi and US President Donald Trump, during their meeting in France in June, instructed their officials to work towards a balanced, mutually beneficial and commercially meaningful trade agreement at the earliest.

The relations witnessed a major downturn after Washington imposed punitive tariffs on India last year and Trump made assertions regarding his role in de-escalating the India-Pakistan military clashes of May 2025 that drew sharp reaction from Indian officials.

Over the next few months, the US president repeatedly and publicly claimed that he had resolved the military conflict between the two neighbours and saved millions of lives as it was heading toward a full-scale war.

New Delhi stoutly maintained that the cessation of the hostilities was a result of talks between India and Pakistan and the US had nothing to do with it.

Washington’s new immigration policy and its decision to increase the H1B visa fee also contributed to the slide in India-US ties. However, both sides made efforts in the last few months to repair the ties and even moved forward to firm up the trade deal soon.