BIG STONE GAP, Va. (AP) — An attack by inmates at a Virginia prison injured five guards, according to state corrections officials who said most of the assailants were MS-13 gang members who entered the U.S. illegally.
Three guards were stabbed and were transported for medical treatment along with two others hurt Friday at Wallens Ridge State Prison in western Virginia, the state Department of Corrections said.
The agency said in a press release that six inmates involved had all been convicted of violent crimes including murder and rape and that five of them were “confirmed MS-13 gang members from El Salvador, who were in this country illegally.” It said the sixth inmate was a U.S. citizen with ties to a different gang.
“Five of the individuals responsible for this senseless attack should never have been in this country in the first place,” Chad Dotson, director of the Virginia Department of Corrections, said in a statement. “Every single day, our officers put their lives on the line to ensure public safety. ... This attack is an example of the dangers they face when they show up to work every day."
Corrections officials gave no further details about the prison attack, citing an ongoing investigation.
The agency said three of the injured officers were treated and released the day of the attack. The remaining two were hospitalized in stable condition.
Carla Miles, a Department of Corrections spokesperson, said she did not know if the two guards remained in the hospital Sunday.
FILE - Virginia Lt. Gov. John Hager gets a tour April 9, 1999, of the new Wallens Ridge State Prison from Department of Corrections Director Ron Angelone in Big Stone Gap, Va. (Tan Van Le/Bristol Herald Courier via AP, file)
A Ukrainian drone strike killed one person and wounded three others in the Russian city of Voronezh, local officials said Sunday.
A young woman died overnight in a hospital intensive care unit after debris from a drone fell on a house during the attack on Saturday, regional Gov. Alexander Gusev said on Telegram.
Three other people were wounded and more than 10 apartment buildings, private houses and a high school were damaged, he said, adding that air defenses shot down 17 drones over Voronezh. The city is home to just over 1 million people and lies some 250 kilometers (155 miles) from the Ukrainian border.
The attack came the day after Russia bombarded Ukraine with hundreds of drones and dozens of missiles overnight into Friday, killing at least four people in the capital Kyiv, according to Ukrainian officials.
For only the second time in the nearly four-year war, Russia used a powerful new hypersonic missile that struck western Ukraine in a clear warning to Kyiv and NATO.
The intense barrage and the launch of the nuclear-capable Oreshnik missile followed reports of major progress in talks between Ukraine and its allies on how to defend the country from further aggression by Moscow if a U.S.-led peace deal is struck.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Saturday in his nightly address that Ukrainian negotiators “continue to communicate with the American side.”
Chief negotiator Rustem Umerov was in contact with U.S. partners Saturday, he said.
Separately, Ukraine’s General Staff said Russia targeted Ukraine with 154 drones overnight into Sunday and 125 were shot down.
Follow the AP’s coverage of the war in Ukraine at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine
This photo provided by the Ukrainian Security Service on Friday, Jan. 9, 2026, shows a fragment believed to be a part of a Russian Oreshnik intermediate range hypersonic ballistic missile that hit the Lviv region. (Ukrainian Security Service via AP)
President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy, second left, listens to British Defense Secretary John Healey during their meeting in Kyiv, Ukraine, Friday, Jan. 9, 2026. (AP Photo/Danylo Antoniuk)
