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Iran war live updates: Regime issues threat against protesters; drone reportedly hits major US diplomatic facility in Iraq

Iran fired missiles and drones at targets across the Gulf including oil infrastructure in Saudi Arabia and a ship off the coast of the Emirates, while Israeli and the United States struck targets across the region on Wednesday. Here is a quick summary of that activity: Saudi Arabia’s defence ministry said early Wednesday it destroyed five drones heading toward the kingdom’s vast Shaybah oil field in the Empty Quarter desert. It added that it intercepted and destroyed two drones in the Eastern Province. Kuwait said it downed eight drones over the tiny, oil-rich nation. Off the coast of the United Arab Emirates, in the Strait of Hormuz, a projectile hit a container ship early Wednesday morning, while United Arab Emirates officials said early Wednesday that its air defences were working to intercept incoming Iranian fire. Bahrain sounded sirens early Wednesday, warning of an incoming Iranian attack. The warnings came a day after an Iranian attack hit a residential building in the capital, Manama, and killed a 29-year-old woman and wounding eight people. Israelis were repeatedly driven into bomb shelters as the military warned Iran had launched missiles toward Israel. In Iraq, a drone hit a major US diplomatic facility, next to the Baghdad airport. Meanwhile, Israel pounded Lebanon with a new wave of attacks, setting an apartment block in central Beirut alight. Earlier strikes in southern Lebanon killed five people in the Nabatieh district and two in the Tyre district. The US said it had destroyed 16 Iranian mine-laying vessels near the Strait of Hormuz on Tuesday.

Why Iran’s vital Kharg Island oil hub is still untouched by US-Israel bombers

Kharg Island – through which 90% of Iran’s oil exports flow – is arguably the country’s most sensitive economic target but the export terminal has so far remained untouched throughout the US-Israel bombing campaign. Experts say bombing or capturing the site with US forces would be likely to cause a sustained increase to already surging oil prices, as it would amount to taking the entirety of Iran’s daily crude exports offline. “We may see the $120 a barrel price we saw on Monday heading to the $150 if Kharg were attacked,” said Neil Quilliam, with the Chatham House thinktank. “It’s too vital for global energy markets”. Although the US has struck 5,000 targets in and around Iran, it has so far refrained from bombing the country’s oil infrastructure – though oil prices remain nearly $20 per barrel higher because the fear of Iranian retaliation has in effect closed the strait of Hormuz to tanker traffic. Israel’s air force did strike two oil refineries and two depots on Saturday, plunging Tehran into what some residents described as an “apocalyptic” darkness as thick black smoke descended over the capital. But there have been no attacks since. Kharg, a five-mile-long coral island in the Persian Gulf 27 miles from the mainland, is where pipelines from Iran’s oilfields in the centre and the west of the country terminate. Established by a US oil conglomerate, Amoco, it was seized by Iran during the 1979 revolution. While most of Iran’s coastline is silty and too shallow for very large crude tankers used by the oil industry, Kharg is sufficiently close to deep waters. Satellite imagery reveals vast loading jetties emerging from its eastern shore. Typically, between 1.3m and 1.6m barrels of oil a day pass through Kharg, though Iran increased volumes to 3m a day in mid-February, according to the investment bank JP Morgan, in anticipation of a US-led attack. A further 18m barrels are stored on Kharg as a backup, the bank added. Media reports have hinted at White House interest, including a brief reference in an Axios report on Saturday that officials had considered “seizing Kharg”. The US defence secretary, Pete Hegseth, has not ruled out attacking Iran with ground forces, although there are not large numbers of US troops in the region. Michael Rubin, a senior Pentagon adviser on Iran and Iraq in the George W Bush administration, said last week he had discussed the idea with White House officials, arguing it could be a way to cripple the Iranian regime economically. “If they can’t sell their own oil, they can’t make payroll,” he said. Before the latest US-Israel offensive, most of Iran’s crude oil from Kharg was exported to China. But the interconnected nature of the market means a permanent loss in export supply would affect prices globally, at a time when a further 3.5m barrels a day, mostly from Iraq, are also offline because of the closure of Hormuz. Destroying Kharg or damaging the export site “runs the risk of causing an economy-shaping increase in oil price that would not drop rapidly”, argues Lynette Nusbacher, a former British army intelligence officer. Israel did not attack it in last summer’s 12-day war, and its complex infrastructure could take years to repair. There is also a longer-term political argument. “Kharg Island is sufficiently important to the Iranian economy that destroying its facilities would abandon any pretence of fighting a war to create a brighter future for Iran,” Nusbacher argues, because it would deny a successor regime vital oil income. An effort to seize the island, given its size, would be likely to require a sizeable and sustained operation, greater than a typical special forces incursion. Though a US seizure would in theory give the White House leverage over Tehran, Quilliam argued it was very likely that such an effort would be self-defeating. “If the US were to seize it, then you are separating the Iranian oil industry. Iran would have production but couldn’t export, while the US wouldn’t be able to produce. That would set markets in a tailspin; that’s a real standoff,” the analyst said.

Iran’s regional proxies hold back from all-out war with US and Israel

Iranian-backed militias around the Middle East are continuing attacks against Israel, the US and their allies in retaliation for the US-Israeli offensive against Tehran, but have so far held back from all-out confrontation, analysts and regional officials say. The relative restraint suggests that Tehran sees such forces as a strategic reserve to be deployed if the 12-day war continues to intensify – though it may also be a sign that Iranian command and control systems are breaking down. Hezbollah, the Lebanon-based Islamist militant movement which has close links to Iran, joined the conflict early, launching missile and drone attacks at Israel after the killing of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran’s supreme leader. On Tuesday, Shia militias in Iraq attacked a US diplomatic facility in Baghdad, the latest in a string of such strikes, and have previously launched long-range attacks at Israeli and US bases in Jordan. But so far, the Yemen-based Houthis, which are also part of Iran’s once-potent coalition of militant militias across the Middle East known as the “axis of resistance”, have not reopened hostilities with the US or joined Tehran’s retaliatory attacks on Israel or Gulf neighbours or shipping – though they warned last week that their “fingers are on the trigger”. With the closure of the strait of Hormuz, a critical chokepoint for global oil supplies, the Red Sea shipping lanes have become even more vital. No attacks in the Red Sea have been reported since the Iran war began, but threats persist, the Joint Maritime Information Center, a naval advisory service, said on Sunday. Observers say the imminent passage of a US aircraft carrier battle group through the narrow Bab el-Mandeb strait at the eastern end of the Red Sea would be a key moment that would test the powerfully armed movement’s intentions. “That is going to be a really important test … The Houthis have mines, drones, artillery, a whole range of missiles. The axis of resistance will never get a better chance to set a US aircraft carrier on fire,” said Michael Knights, a regional expert at Horizon Engage, a strategic advisory – based in New York. The Houthis have received extensive financial, military and other support from Tehran over decades, and described the appointment on Monday of Mojtaba Khamenei as supreme leader of Iran as “a new victory for the Islamic Revolution”. However, experts say the Houthis, though they still possess an arsenal of powerful long-range missiles, may decide against active involvement in the current conflict and would not simply follow orders from Tehran. “It is difficult to predict, but I don’t think they will strike shipping in the Red Sea purely based on solidarity with Iran … They are weighing domestic considerations,” said Allison Minor, of the Atlantic Council, a thinktank based in Washington DC. “Getting involved in the Iran war is a potential scenario, but would not yield the same domestic and international benefits for the Houthis that attacking Israel and Red Sea shipping during the Gaza war did, and …. could pose greater risks.” Last week, Phillip Smyth, a US-based independent analyst of Iran’s allies and proxies, said Tehran may be holding the Houthis “in reserve”, but that the movement’s leaders could also be “hedging their bets in case the Iranian regime collapses”. In Iraq, which is emerging as a key new theatre in the conflict, violence has continued to flare. One Iranian-backed armed group said an airstrike on Tuesday killed four of its fighters at a base in northern Iraq in the latest of a series of such attacks, most likely carried out by either the US or Israel. The strike comes after almost daily attacks by pro-Iranian militia forces against a US base in Erbil, the capital of the autonomous Kurdistan region, and on positions of potential allies among local Kurdish factions. Since the beginning of the war 12 days ago, there have been unconfirmed reports of US and Israeli special forces operating against pro-Iranian Shia militia groups in Iraq’s western desert. In one clash with what are thought to have been Israeli special forces, Iraqi government troops suffered casualties, prompting a protest from Baghdad. There have also been multiple air strikes against militia bases in the west and south of Iraq. Jordan has faced Iranian attacks. According to the Jordanian military, Iran targeted the kingdom with 60 missiles and 59 drones during the first week of the conflict. Most were intercepted. However, missiles destroyed a valuable US radar deployed to the Muwaffaq Salti airbase, where dozens of US warplanes were stationed, including F-35 stealth fighters and key electronic warfare aircraft. In Iraq, drone and rocket attacks launched by pro-Iranian militia have also repeatedly targeted Baghdad international airport, which houses a military base and a US diplomatic facility, as well as oilfields and facilities. On Monday, two drones were downed nearby, a security source said. The Iraq-based militia fighters have posted videos boasting of their efforts to strike US and Israeli targets in the region, though their ability and will to inflict serious harm is doubted by some observers. “They could be doing more than they are doing now,” said one regional security official. “The [weapons] they have are not the best … and they are clearly worried about getting hit hard if they do cause serious harm, so that’s going to limit what they can or want to do.” Iraq has been a proxy battleground between the US, its allies and Iran since the 2003 US-led invasion, but the country’s current leaders have sought to avoid being drawn into this new conflict. The pro-Iranian militia fighters are recruited among Iraq’s majority Shia community, and follow orders from senior officers from Iran’s Quds Force, an elite unit within Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC). Two of the more militant militias, Kataeb Imam Ali and Kataib Hezbollah, have been repeatedly targeted by US forces in recent days. The number of casualties in the strikes and counterstrikes in Iraq is unclear, but between 20 and 30 fighters from militant groups are thought to have been killed, as well as about 20 civilians in Kurdistan, local NGOs said. The Houthis began launching missiles at Israel and striking Red Sea shipping, in what they said was solidarity with Palestinians, after the Israeli offensive into Gaza that was triggered by the Hamas surprise attack in October 2023. The attacks led to several rounds of Israeli bombing of the Houthis and a concentrated US offensive last year which ended in an uneasy ceasefire deal. Analysts said a further scenario that could unfold now was an attack by the Houthis on Saudi Arabia. Their attack on oil infrastructure in March 2022 highlighted the kingdom’s political and economic vulnerabilities.

Hasty redeployment of US missiles from South Korea to Middle East leaves Seoul rattled

It has been almost a decade since the sleepy South Korean village of Seongju was transformed overnight into a key location in the country’s ability to counter an attack from North Korea. Early on a spring morning, camouflaged trucks carrying the US-made terminal high-altitude area defense (THAAD) missile-defence system rolled into Seongju, as the country’s government ignored protests from locals who said the deployment would make them a target for Pyongyang’s ballistic missiles. The conservative government in Seoul, backed by Washington, insisted that Thaad was the most effective way to locate and destroy North Korean missiles before they threatened the South and the 28,500 US troops stationed there. The deployment also angered China and Russia, which said Thaad’s powerful radar could compromise their security. But nine years on, the US has reportedly started moving parts of the system, along with other military hardware, out of South Korea for deployment in its war against Iran. US media has reported that the Pentagon is moving parts of a Thaad system to the Middle East, citing two officials. The move, reported this week, has triggered doubts over Donald Trump’s security commitment to South Korea – the US’s most important east Asian ally along with Japan – and warnings that the nuclear-armed North could seek to ramp up pressure on its neighbour. Why, critics are asking, did South Korea invest so much political capital in a defence system that could one day be removed? South Korea’s liberal president, Lee Jae Myung, sought to reassure the public that the country was able to deter threats from the North, even if the US redeployed weapons and other military assets to the Middle East. Noting that Seoul had opposed the redeployment of US artillery batteries and air-defence units, Lee told a cabinet meeting: “If asked whether that would seriously hinder our deterrence strategy against North Korea, I can say with certainty that it would not.” He added that South Korea’s defence budget is among the highest in the world and is estimated to be 1.4 times greater than North Korean gross domestic product. The South’s foreign minister, Cho Hyun said on Friday that US and South Korean militaries were also discussing the possible redeployment of some US Patriot missile defence systems to the Middle East. South Korean media carried unconfirmed reports that some missile batteries were likely to be redeployed to US bases in Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. “For operational security reasons we do not comment on the movement of specific military capabilities or assets,” an officials from United States Forces Korea told the Yonhap news agency. Even if Lee is right to play down the security risk to South Korea, the weakening of US defences there have raised concerns that the war with Iran signals a downgrading in Trump’s commitment to North-east Asia, where North Korea’s nuclear weapons programme and the Taiwan Strait are potential flashpoints. “There is a risk that North Korea could miscalculate the relocation of some of these weapons as a pretext for low-level provocations to test the allies’ defence posture,” said Choi Gi-il, a military studies professor at Sangji University. Japan, too, is having to adapt to the US’s hasty redeployment of military hardware to the Middle East – a move that lends weight to criticism that Trump went into the Iran war without a clear plan, leaving American forces in danger of being sucked into a prolonged conflict. Japan hosts about 50,000 US troops, more than half of them on the southern island of Okinawa. Two US guided-missile destroyers based in Yokosuka, south of Tokyo, are currently deployed in the Arabian Sea, according to a report by the US Naval Institute. The head of Japan’s main opposition party has raised concerns about reports that the US was poised to send vessels based in Japan to the Middle East. “Japan has not permitted the stationing of US forces so they can sortie from those bases to fire missiles towards the Middle East,” Junya Ogawa told MPs this week. The JoongAng Daily, a conservative South Korean newspaper, said any reduction in the country’s ability to defend itself “inevitably raises concerns”. “The [South Korean] government should work to ensure that any redeployed assets return promptly once their missions end, minimising potential gaps in deterrence against North Korea. Efforts to strengthen Korea’s own defence capabilities should also accelerate.”

‘If I go home, we don’t have enough money’: the low-paid Filipino workers caught up in the war on Iran

Sirens warning of Iranian missiles blare out so frequently that Joycee Pelayo, a Filipino living near to Tel Aviv, doesn’t leave the house any more. Each time an alert sounds, she rushes to help the older man she cares for, supporting him into a wheelchair, then down the steps into a nearby shelter. “Last night, there were three alerts. We received it at about 2am, in the middle of the night, and then 3am, and then 4am,” says Pelayo. She is among 2.4 million Filipinos living across the Middle East, who moved in pursuit of higher wages and a chance to give a better life to families back home, but now find themselves living with a daily barrage of drone and missile strikes. The war that has erupted between the US, Israel and Iran, engulfing the region, has already proved deadly to Filipinos workers abroad. On 28 February, 32-year-old Mary Ann De Vera, a Filipino working as a carer, became the first casualty of the conflict in Israel. She was killed in Tel Aviv after being hit by shrapnel while escorting her employer, an older woman, to a shelter. Her employer survived. Migrant workers have repeatedly found themselves in the frontlines of recent conflict in Israel. Thai nationals, who help power Israel’s agricultural industry, accounted for the highest number foreign victims of the Hamas attacks in October 2023. At least 47 Thais were killed, while 28 Thai hostages were eventually released. Four Filipinos were also killed in the Hamas attack. The Middle East is one of the main destinations for Filipinos who work abroad, and the salaries offered in the region – in jobs ranging from domestic work and healthcare, to construction and engineering – can be many times higher those available back home. In the Philippines, those who go abroad to work are praised by politicians as modern day heroes, because of the tens of billions of dollars they remit home every year. But such work comes at a high personal cost. They endure long periods away from children and partners, and can be vulnerable to abuse and mistreatment, especially in countries with a kafala (sponsorship) system, where workers are heavily dependent on their employers. Over recent years, pressures have increased pressures further, with workers facing instability through the pandemic, and, for the 31,000 Filipinos based in Israel, repeated bouts of conflict. Some are now weighing up whether to try to return home – questioning if the crisis could intensify further, and how relatives who rely upon their salaries would manage if they did return. However airspace closures and restrictions mean those who want to go home have very limited options. Robert Laurince Ramil, moved to Qatar seven months ago to work in the mechanical department of a gas plant. Of the six men in his dorm room, four of them, including Ramil, want to leave. “We can find work anywhere, but your safety and life are more important,” he says. Staff are staying in their dormitories 24/7, and leaving only to eat at an on-site canteen, he says. He spends his time following news updates and speaking to family members, including his wife and two sons, back home. The daily blasts are so loud the floor shakes. Work for now has been cancelled, though the workers are still being paid. Others though say they feel safe. Salhee Enriquez, 48, a carer in Tel Aviv, says life has continued as normal. “Every establishment has their own bomb shelter,” she says, adding that after years of conflict, people have become used to the situation. She cares for a woman with dementia, but was told by the woman’s daughter to prioritise her own safety in the event of a siren. “She said, you have a family, they are waiting for you, you are young, so go and save your life first.” Enriquez’s family in the Philippines calls her constantly, waking her in the night to check she is OK, and asking her to return. She is a single parent who moved abroad to support her daughter. “If I go home, we don’t have enough money to provide for us,” she says. Besides, she tells relatives, the airport is closed. Campaigners in the Philippines have frequently called on the government to create better job opportunities at home, so that people aren’t forced to go overseas. Pelayo’s daughter was only two years old when she moved away, but in Israel she earns 10 times more than the pay she received in her past job. High air fares and fears about leaving her employer in the lurch, meant six years passed before she was able to fly home for a holiday to see her daughter again. “Of course I want to go home and be with my family,” adds Pelayo. “But there is no job that will [match] my salary here. It’s a big difference.” “My daughter now is asking me – because they heard about what’s happening, they saw the news in the Philippines – she’s asking me mama why you don’t go home,” says Pelayo. “[I asked her] pray for me.”

Five killed in strikes on Lebanon, health ministry reports – as it happened

This blog is closing now. Our live coverage is continuing here. Here is a summary of the day so far: Iran’s police chief Ahmad-Reza Radan has warned Iranians on state TV that anyone who takes to the streets “at the enemy’s request” will be “confronted as an enemy, not a protester”. Radan said security forces are stationed in the streets “day and night”. Lebanese health authorities said Israel’s raids on the southern town of Qana, in the Tyre district, on Wednesday have killed five people and wounded five others. The Israeli military said it had begun an “additional wave” of strikes on targets in Tehran. It followed the IDF saying earlier that it had struck key command centres of the Iranian armed forces in Tehran and Tabriz. It comes as Iran’s UN ambassador accused the US and Israel of deliberately targeting civilians – saying that almost 10,000 civilian sites have been hit in the country, including about 8,000 residential homes, and the death toll has reached more than 1,300 people. Amir Saeid Iravani said “populated residential areas” and “critical civilian infrastructure” had been hit in attacks he described as “horrific crimes”. Donald Trump said the US has hit and “completely destroyed” 10 inactive mine-laying vessels, warning that more would follow. US Central Command added that it “eliminated” 16 Iranian mine-laying vessels near the strait of Hormuz. The updates came shortly after the US president initially said there had been “no reports” of Iran placing mines in the strait, but warned that if it had, they must be moved “IMMEDIATELY” or Iran would face military consequences “at a level never seen before”. US officials earlier told CBS News that Iran may be preparing to deploy naval mines in the strait to further disrupt the crucial shipping lane. According to CNN, a few dozen mines have been laid in recent days. White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt confirmed that the US Navy has not escorted an oil tanker through the strait of Hormuz, after the US energy secretary Chris Wright said it had happened in a swiftly deleted X post. Leavitt also said that the US military is “drawing up additional options” to keep strait open. Leavitt also said that the US and Israel’s war won’t end until Iran’s “complete and unconditional surrender” and when Trump decides his objectives have been met and determines that Iran does not pose a direct threat. She told reporters that the US military is “making tremendous strides towards achieving our military objectives”, and is now moving to “dismantle Iran’s missile production infrastructure”. Meanwhile, the Trump administration is reportedly considering the deployment of special forces into Iran to secure its stockpile of highly enriched uranium (HEU), which experts say could be used to make at least 10 nuclear warheads. The US secretary of state, Marco Rubio, has told Congress that “people are going to have to go and get it”. Here’s our story. The United States reportedly asked Israel to halt strikes on Iran’s energy infrastructure, marking the first time the US has reined in its ally since they went to war 11 days ago. It comes after an Israeli bombing of fuel storage facilities blanketed Tehran - a city home to some 10 million people - in toxic black smoke and acid rain over the weekend, raising urgent health warnings for ordinary Iranians. Israel is set to expand its defence budget by almost 40 billion shekels (US$13bn) to fund the war in Iran, according to a finance ministry official, who wished to remain anonymous, Bloomberg reports. The defence budget will be expanded by 28bn shekels, with an additional 10 billion put aside as reserves for possible military needs, the offical said. A total of seven members of the Iranian women’s football team have now been granted humanitarian visas in Australia, home affairs minister Tony Burke has confirmed. An additional two women had sought asylum before the rest of the Iranian team departed Sydney on a flight to Malaysia on Tuesday night, one player and one support member, Burke told a press conference on Wednesday morning. Russia denied sharing intelligence with Iran on US military assets in the Middle East, Trump’s special envoy Steve Witkoff said. It follows reports on Friday that Moscow was providing Tehran with targeting information that included locations and movements of US warships and aircraft in the region. “Yesterday on the call with the president, the Russians said that they have not been sharing,” Witkoff said when asked if Washington thought Moscow had shared intelligence about the location of US military assets with Tehran. “We can take them at their word. But they did say that. And yesterday morning, independently, Jared [Kushner] and I had a call with [Kremlin aide Yuri] Ushakov who reiterated the same.” Iran’s foreign minister Abbas Araghchi dismissed repeated claims from the Trump administration that Iran was planning a preemptive or preventive strike against the US or its military forces as “a sheer and utter lie”. “The sole purpose of that lie is to justify Operation Epic Mistake, a misadventure engineered by Israel and paid for by ordinary Americans,” Araghchi said in a post on X – riffing on the US’s name for the military operation, Operation Epic Fury. Approximately 140 US service members have been wounded since the start of the US-Israeli war on Iran, according to the Pentagon, eight of them severely.

Ukraine war briefing: Zelenskyy accuses Hungary of ‘banditry’ over $82m of seized gold

The Hungarian prime minister, Viktor Orbán, has ordered that a shipment of Ukrainian cash and gold seized last week by Hungarian authorities be held in custody for up to 60 days while his country’s tax authority investigates the case. The gold and the money was being transported through Hungary by road when Hungary seized it last Thursday. Authorities said they suspected money laundering. The shipment included $40m and 35m euros in cash, as well as 9kgs (19.8 pounds) of gold worth about $82m, based on current rates. The seizure followed a dispute over gas supplies, in which Hungary and Slovakia accused Kyiv of deliberately stalling on repairs to an oil pipeline after it was hit in an apparent Russian drone attack. The seizure has outraged Ukrainian authorities who accused Hungary’s Russia-friendly government of acting illegally. The Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, accused Budapest of “banditry” over its seizure of the bank transport, and the temporary detention of its Ukrainian crew. Zelenskyy urged European leaders not to stay silent about Budapest’s actions. Russian and Ukrainian officials made rival claims of battlefield success, with Ukraine saying it pushed Moscow’s forces back across places on the frontline and the Kremlin insisting Russia’s invasion is making progress. Ukrainian forces have recently retaken nearly all the territory of the south-eastern Dnipropetrovsk industrial region during a counteroffensive, driving Russian troops out of more than 400 sq kilometres (150 sq miles), Maj Gen Oleksandr Komarenko claimed to media outlet RBC-Ukraine. Meanwhile, Russia’s president, Vladimir Putin, claimed on Tuesday that Russian forces have extended their gains in Ukraine’s eastern Donbas region, whose capture Moscow has made one of the goals of its invasion. Ukraine controlled about 25% of the Donbas six months ago, but it now holds just 15% to 17%, Putin claimed. The US has proposed another round of Russia-Ukraine talks, mediated by Washington, Zelenskyy said on Tuesday. The talks could be held in Switzerland or Turkey, he said, after initial plans for a meeting in the United Arab Emirates was disrupted by the US-Israeli war on Iran. Zelenskyy said Ukraine-Russia PoW swaps could be on the agenda. The Turkish president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, said on Tuesday: “The conflict in Iran must not obstruct the peace efforts for Ukraine.” Moscow’s deportation and forcible transfer of thousands of children from Ukraine to Russia amounts to a crime against humanity, a UN team of investigators said on Tuesday. The UN’s Independent International Commission of Inquiry on Ukraine said it had evidence leading it to conclude that “Russian authorities have committed the crimes against humanity of deportation and forcible transfer, as well as of enforced disappearance of children”. The inquiry said Russia had deported or transferred “thousands” of children from occupied areas of Ukraine, of which it had so far confirmed 1,205 cases. “Four years on, 80% of the children deported or transferred in the cases investigated by the commission have not returned,” it said. Ukrainian forces struck a key plant producing missile components on Tuesday in Russia’s border region of Bryansk, Zelenskyy said. Ukraine’s military said British Storm Shadow missiles were deployed against the Kremniy El factory. It said the facility produced critical missile components. The governor of Bryansk region, Alexander Bogomaz, said on Telegram six civilians were killed and 37 injured. A Russian strike on the eastern Ukrainian frontline city of Sloviansk killed four people and injured 16 others, local governor Vadym Filashkin said on Tuesday. Filashkin said Russia had dropped three guided bombs on the city, and that a 14-year-old girl was among those wounded. A decision by the Venice Biennale to allow Russia to participate in this year’s event came under fire from the EU on Tuesday, which warned it could cut funding. “We strongly condemn the decision” and are looking at taking action, including suspending an EU grant to the organising body, two top members of the European Commission said in a statement. Kyiv last weekend called on the Biennale to reverse its decision and to exclude Russia, as it had done at the last two Venice art exhibitions, in 2022 and 2024.