Ukrainian soldiers in desperate need of Western weapons as they defend Bakhmut
There’s an eerie sense of foreboding in the villages, towns, and cities of eastern Ukraine – especially those within firing distance of Russian artillery, and the fighting in the nearby city of Bakhmut.
At breakfast time we were startled by the sound of an explosion near where we are staying in Kramatorsk.
A residential neighbourhood had been hit by a Russian missile, at least one person died.
Whole apartments had been destroyed and as the emergency services started rescuing the injured, survivors picked through the ruins looking for belongings.
The contents of their home were strewn across the road, along with glass and debris from the explosion.
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The elderly and most vulnerable were slowly helped from the battered buildings as medics moved in to dress their wounds and inspect injuries.
We watched on as a medic dressed an elderly resident’s nastily burnt hands.
Even as we filmed the air raid sirens started again.
Kramatorsk has been hit many times, but it’s no less of a shock each time for those still living here.
“I was sitting on the couch at home talking to my daughter on the phone, when suddenly dust and debris flew into me. I didn’t hear anything else, and I don’t want to hear anything more. B******s!”, one woman shouted at our camera.
Footage from fighting inside Bakhmut shows a Ukrainian soldier with an RPG
About 12kms (7.5 miles) back from the Bakhmut frontline is Konstantinovka.
People still live here among the many ruined apartment blocks, schools, and government buildings, but there is no quiet.
The Ukrainians resupply their troops from here.
The main route back to Bakhmut has been lost to the Russians, so enormous tanks, trucks, armoured personnel carriers and ambulances rumble through residential backstreets to obscure single lane roads that allow them some safety on their way further east.
The boom of outgoing Ukrainian artillery is a constant, sometimes the equally distinctive sound of incoming rounds makes visitors like me look up and readjust my body armour and helmet.
Groups of soldiers, some going in, and some coming out of Bakhmut stop at a few petrol stations that are still open to drink coffee, and chat to comrades.
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A team of soldiers pull up in a battered pickup and are greeted with hugs by a group of volunteer medics who have brought them some supplies.
The soldiers have just left the fighting in Bakhmut, and they busily start transferring boxes of food and medicine into their vehicle.
I ask what it is like inside, and the answer is simple: it’s hard and they need more of everything.
“It is really difficult, we need more of everything we can get, because it’s really hard now there, but we are holding on,” a soldier named Ivan told me.
“That’s it, what more can I say?”
Ivan says Ukrainian forces are ‘holding on’ in Bakhmut
More of everything includes modern Western weapons of course.
More is coming but the sense I got from what I could see of the equipment on show just a few miles from the front is that it can’t come soon enough.
I asked another soldier, Oleksandr, whose battalion has just arrived from a distant part of the country, if he was confident of a victory.
His answer was revealingly honest. “I think it’s 30 to 70 in our favour that we will win this fight for Bakhmut.”
He confirmed Russia has many soldiers on the battlefield, too.
“Russia has a lot of soldiers there, but they are taking a lot more losses than we are, much more.”
Oleksandr, pictured, is confident of victory
President Zelenskyy has said the defence of the east and the relief of Bakhmut is a priority for Ukraine.
Some military analysts disagree, but he has said in no uncertain terms that the fight for Ukraine will be won or lost in the east.
Rightly or wrongly, he says now is one of the most important periods of the war so far.
Stuart Ramsay reports from eastern Ukraine with camera operator Toby Nash, and producers Dominique Van Heerden, Artem Lysak, and Nick Davenport.
A report into the deadly Lisbon Gloria funicular crash has said the cable linking the two carriages snapped.
The carriages of the city’s iconic Gloria funicular had travelled no more than six metres when they “suddenly lost the balancing force of the connecting cable”.
The vehicle’s brake‑guard immediately “activated the pneumatic brake as well as the manual brake”, the Office for the Prevention and Investigation of Aircraft Accidents and Railway Accidents said.
Flowers for the victims in Lisbon. Pic: AP
Pic: AP
But the measures “had no effect in reducing the vehicle’s speed”, as it accelerated and crashed at around 60kmh (37mph), and the disaster unfolded in less than 50 seconds.
Questions have been asked about the maintenance of the equipment, but the report said that, based on the evidence seen so far, it was up to date.
A scheduled visual inspection had been carried out on the morning of the accident, but the area where the cable broke “is not visible without dismantling.”
The Gloria funicular is a national monument that dates from 1914 and is very popular with tourists visiting the Portuguese capital.
The Gloria funicular connects Lisbon’s Restauradores Square to the Bairro Alto viewpoint
It operates between Restauradores Square in downtown Lisbon and the Bairro Alto neighbourhood.
The journey is just 276m (905ft) and takes just over a minute, but it operates up a steep hill, with two carriages travelling in opposite directions.
How the disaster unfolded
At around 6pm on Wednesday, Cabin No.2, at the bottom of the funicular, “jerked backward sharply”, the report said.
“After moving roughly 10 metres, its movement stopped as it partially left the tracks and its trolley became buried at the lower end of the cable channel.”
Cabin No.1, at the top, “continued descending and accelerated” before derailing and smashing “sideways into the wall of a building on the left side, destroying the wooden box [from which the carriage is constructed]”.
It crashed into a cast‑iron streetlamp and a support pole, causing “significant damage” before hitting “the corner of another building”.
Cable failed at top
Analysis of the wreckage showed the cable connecting the cabins failed where it was attached inside the upper trolley of cabin No.1 at the top.
The cable’s specified useful life is 600 days and at the time of the accident, it had been used for 337 days, leaving another 263 days before needing to be replaced.
The operating company regards this life expectancy as having “a significant safety margin”.
The exact number of people aboard each cabin when it crashed has not been confirmed.
Britons killed in disaster
Kayleigh Smith, 36, and William Nelson, 44, died alongside 14 others in Wednesday’s incident, including another British victim who has not yet been named.
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Five Portuguese citizens died when the packed carriage plummeted out of control – four of them workers at a charity on the hill – but most victims were foreigners.
Any remaining residents in Gaza’s largest city should leave for a designated area in the south, Israel’s military has warned.
Israeli forces are carrying out an offensive on suburbs of Gaza City, in the territory’s north, as part of plans to capture it – raising concern over an already-devastating humanitarian crisis.
While Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has faced pressure to stop the attack and allow more aid in, the military has announced a new humanitarian zone in the south.
Spokesperson Avichay Adraee said Gaza City residents should head to a designated coastal area of Khan Younis.
There, he said they would be able to receive food, medical care and shelter.
On Thursday, Israel said it has control of around 40% of Gaza City and 75% of the entire territory of Gaza.
Many of the city’s residents had already been displaced earlier in the war, only to return later. Some of them have said they will refuse to move again.
That’s despite the military claiming it is within a few kilometres of the city centre, coming after weeks of heavy strikes.
But the war in Gaza has left Israel increasingly isolated in the diplomatic sphere, with some of its closest allies condemning the campaign that’s devastated the territory.
Just two weeks ago, a famine was declared in Gaza City and surrounding areas by the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification, a globally recognised system for classifying the severity of food insecurity.
A resident runs with his belongings in Gaza City. Pic: Reuters
There is also concern within Israel, where calls have grown to stop the war and secure the release of the remaining 48 hostages.
Israel believes 20 of those hostages are still alive.
Even as relatives of those hostages lead protests, Mr Netanyahu continues to push for an all-or-nothing deal to release all hostages and defeat Hamas.
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On Friday, Donald Trump said Washington is in “very deep” negotiations with Hamas to release the captives.
“We said let them all out, right now let them all out. And much better things will happen for them but if you don’t let them all out, it’s going to be a tough situation, it’s going to be nasty,” he added.
Hamas is “asking for some things that are fine”, he said, without elaborating.
A man was heard screaming in the water moments before he died after a shark attack in Sydney, witnesses have said.
Emergency services responded to reports that a man in his 50s had suffered critical injuries at Long Reef Beach shortly after 10am (1am in the UK) on Saturday.
The man, whose identity has yet to be confirmed, was brought to shore but died at the scene, authorities have said.
Two sections of a surfboard have been recovered and taken for examination, and beaches near the area are closed as drones search for the animal.
Police are liaising with wildlife experts to determine the species of shark involved.
Pic: Sky News Australia
Surfer screamed ‘don’t bite me’
Speaking to Sky News Australia, witness Mark Morgenthal said he saw the attack and that the shark was one of the biggest he had ever seen.
“There was a guy screaming, ‘I don’t want to get bitten, I don’t want to get bitten, don’t bite me,’ and I saw the dorsal fin of the shark come up, and it was huge,” Mr Morgenthal said.
“Then I saw the tail fin come up and start kicking, and the distance between the dorsal fin and the tail fin looked to be about four metres, so it actually looked like a six-metre shark.”
Mark Morgenthal said it ‘looked like a six metre shark’ in the attack. Pic: Sky News Australia
Victim was a father and experienced surfer
New South Wales Police Superintendent John Duncan said at a press conference that the victim was 57 years old, calling the incident a “terrible tragedy”.
“The gentleman had gone out about 9.30 this morning with some of his friends, about five or six of his mates,” he added. “He’s an experienced surfer that we understand.
“Unfortunately, it would appear that a large, what we believe to be a shark, has attacked him. And as a result of that, he lost a number of limbs.
“His colleagues managed to make it back to the beach safely, and a short time later, his body was found floating in the surf, and a couple of other people went out and recovered it.”
Mr Duncan added that officers “understand he leaves behind a wife and a young daughter… and obviously tomorrow being Father’s Day is particularly critical and particularly tragic”.
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Local surfer and eyewitness Bill Sakula also told reporters at the beach: “It’s going to send shockwaves through the community.
“Everyone is going to be a little bit nervous for a while.”
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Surf Life Saving NSW has deployed a drone to search for further shark activity.
Its chief executive Steve Pearce said: “Our deepest condolences go to the family of the man involved in this terrible tragedy.”
Shark attacks are very rare, with this incident widely thought to be the first in New South Wales this year.
The last time a person in Sydney was killed in a shark attack was in February 2022 – the city’s first fatal shark attack since 1963.
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