Ukrainian troops tell CBS News why small, cheap drones are vital to the incursion into Russia's Kursk region
CBSN
On the Ukraine-Russia border — CBS News met the troops of Ukraine's 117th Territorial Defense Brigade in the eastern Sumy region as they prepared for another trip to the front line. Their mission is to support Ukraine's military operations inside Russia's Kursk region.
The forces were preparing another drone for a one-way mission — its deadly payload: a grenade attached with cable ties. The simple weapon cost only about $400 to assemble, but it would soon be hunting multimillion-dollar targets.
Private Igor piloted the drone on a test run, but on real missions he can watch someone's final moments on his small screen, and he admitted that it can feel personal.
Southern Gaza Strip — In a rare moment of access to the war-ravaged Palestinian territory, CBS News visited a critical aid distribution center on Wednesday just inside the Gaza Strip, near the Karem Shalom border crossing from Israel. The humanitarian crisis in Gaza after more than a year of the Israel-Hamas war remains dire.
Moscow — Russian President Vladimir Putin on Thursday made a rare admission of failings by his powerful security agencies over the Ukraine-orchestrated killing of a senior general in Moscow. Lt. General Igor Kirillov, the head of the Russian military's chemical and biological weapons unit, was killed by a bomb planted in a scooter in Moscow on Tuesday, the boldest assassination claimed by Kyiv since the start of the conflict.
A judge in France on Thursday found the former husband of Gisèle Pelicot, who admitted to drugging and raping her repeatedly over the course of almost a decade and inviting dozens of other men to assault her as well, guilty of aggravated rape. He was given the maximum sentence of 20 years in prison.
Moscow — Former Royal Ballet star Sergei Polunin, famous for his tattoos of Russian President Vladimir Putin, on Wednesday announced that he plans to leave Russia. The Ukrainian-Russian dancer was one of the most prominent stars who backed Russia's unilateral 2014 annexation of Crimea and its military assault on Ukraine. He was rewarded with prestigious state posts.