Giuffre family welcomes Andrew's fall from royal status but wants more action

LONDON (AP) — British politicians, the public and the family of Virginia Roberts Giuffre on Friday praised King Charles III’s decision to strip his brother Andrew of his princely title and spacious home, a banishment that has left the disgraced royal increasingly exposed to political and legal scrutiny over his finances and his friendship with Jeffrey Epstein.

The king acted to stem mounting public disapproval as damning new details emerged about Andrew's relationship with the convicted sex offender. Charles moved to preserve the monarchy from the fallout by forcibly removing a British prince’s title for the first time in a century.

Julian Payne, a former communications secretary to the king and queen, said that, as the scandal around 65-year-old Andrew grew and grew, the royal family had decided that “a tipping point had been reached."

The former Prince Andrew is now known as Andrew Mountbatten Windsor. As of Friday, he was no longer listed on the roll of the peerage, where he had previously appeared as Duke of York, another of his titles.

He also will move out of Royal Lodge, the 30-room mansion near Windsor Castle where he has lived for more than 20 years, and into a more remote home funded by his brother on the king's 20,000-acre (8,100 hectare) Sandringham Estate in eastern England.

Buckingham Palace said Andrew had been served notice to surrender his lease and would move "as soon as practicable,” though that is not expected to be until after Christmas — when the whole family usually gathers at Sandringham.

Sandringham locals were not overjoyed about their soon-to-be neighbor.

“Well, he’s got to go somewhere. It is what it is, isn’t it?" said Vanessa Beech. She said the king had “most certainly” made the right decision about Andrew.

The British government, which was consulted but not directly involved, welcomed the king's decision.

“I think the vast majority of people in this country will think that it’s the right thing to do," trade minister Chris Bryant told the BBC.

Andrew surrendered his use of the title Duke of York earlier this month over new revelations about his friendship with Epstein and renewed sexual abuse allegations in Giuffre's posthumous memoir. Andrew denies all her claims.

But the king went even further to punish him for serious lapses of judgment by removing the title of prince that he has held since birth as a child of a monarch, the late Queen Elizabeth II. Andrew also lost the designation “his royal highness,” making the former prince effectively a commoner now.

“These censures are deemed necessary, notwithstanding the fact that he continues to deny the allegations against him,” the palace said. “Their Majesties wish to make clear that their thoughts and utmost sympathies have been, and will remain with, the victims and survivors of any and all forms of abuse.”

It is almost unprecedented for a British prince or princess to be stripped of that title. It last happened during World War I, when Prince Ernest Augustus, who was a U.K. royal and also a prince of Hanover, had his British titles removed for siding with Germany. He ceased to be a British prince under the Titles Deprivation Act of 1917, which was enacted in 1919, once the war was over.

Giuffre’s family declared victory on behalf of Andrew’s accuser, who died by suicide in April at the age of 41. She said that in the early 2000s, when she was a teenager, she was caught up in Epstein’s sex trafficking ring and exploited by Andrew and other influential men. Epstein was found dead in a New York City jail cell in 2019 in what investigators called a suicide.

“Today, an ordinary American girl from an ordinary American family brought down a British prince with her truth and extraordinary courage,” Giuffre’s family said in a statement.

Her brother Sky Roberts praised the king for “setting a precedent to the rest of the world to say, ‘I do stand with survivors. I am going to hold even my brother to account.'”

“But it’s still, it’s not enough in the sense that he’s still walking around a free man," Roberts told Sky News about Andrew.

Bryant, the government minister, said Andrew was now an “ordinary member of the public” and should agree to answer questions if asked by a Senate committee in the U.S.

Andrew also could face legal trouble in Britain, where police are investigating a claim that he asked one of this police bodyguards to dig up dirt on Giuffre.

A parliamentary committee is also looking into how Andrew paid for Royal Lodge, which he leased for a nominal annual fee — known as a “ peppercorn rent.”

Andrew’s is the most dramatic royal exit since 1936, when King Edward VIII abdicated the throne so he could marry twice-divorced American socialite Wallis Simpson. The couple were given the titles Duke and Duchess of Windsor and lived the rest of their lives in exile.

Prince Harry, despite renouncing his royal role, feuding with his family and moving to California, remains a prince and the Duke of Sussex.

Andrew faced a new round of public outrage after emails emerged earlier this month showing he had remained in contact with Epstein longer than he previously admitted.

Then came publication of “Nobody’s Girl,” by Giuffre, who alleged she had sex with Andrew three times, the first when she was 17. She said he acted as if he believed “having sex with me was his birthright.”

Andrew has long denied Giuffre’s claims but stepped down from royal duties after a disastrous November 2019 BBC interview in which he attempted to rebut her allegations.

In 2022, Andrew paid millions to settle a civil suit filed by Giuffre in New York.

Peter Hunt, a former BBC royal correspondent, said the king and senior royals were “fearful of remaining out of step with public opinion” as they “attempt to restore credibility and trust in an ancient institution.”

Journalists wait at an entrance near to the Royal Lodge, following the announcement that Prince Andrew will be stripped of his titles and leave the 30-room mansion he has occupied for more than 20 years in Windsor, England, Friday, Oct. 31, 2025.(AP Photo/Alastair Grant)

A TV presenter holds a newspaper with a picture of prince Andrew as she talks to the camera at a gate near to the Royal Lodge, following the announcement that Prince Andrew will be stripped of his titles and leave the 30-room mansion he has occupied for more than 20 years in Windsor, England, Friday, Oct. 31, 2025.(AP Photo/Alastair Grant)

FILE - Britain's Prince Andrew, left, and Britain's King Charles III leave after the Requiem Mass service for the Duchess of Kent at Westminster Cathedral in London, Tuesday, Sept. 16, 2025. (AP Photo/Joanna Chan, File)

The entrance near to the Royal Lodge is seen following the announcement that Prince Andrew will be stripped of his titles and leave the 30-room mansion he has occupied for more than 20 years in Windsor, England, Friday, Oct. 31, 2025.(AP Photo/Alastair Grant)

Journalists wait at an entrance near to the Royal Lodge, following the announcement that Prince Andrew will be stripped of his titles and leave the 30-room mansion he has occupied for more than 20 years in Windsor, England, Friday, Oct. 31, 2025.(AP Photo/Alastair Grant)

Gates are closing near to the Royal Lodge, following the announcement that Prince Andrew will be stripped of his titles and leave the 30-room mansion he has occupied for more than 20 years in Windsor, England, Friday, Oct. 31, 2025.(AP Photo/Alastair Grant)

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Russia launched a second major drone and missile bombardment of Ukraine in four days, officials said Tuesday, aiming again at the power grid amid freezing temperatures in an apparent snub to U.S.-led peace efforts as Moscow's invasion of its neighbor approaches the four-year mark.

Russia fired almost 300 drones, 18 ballistic missiles and seven cruise missiles at eight regions overnight, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on social media.

One strike in the northeastern Kharkiv region killed four people at a mail depot, and several hundred thousand households were without power in the Kyiv region, Zelenskyy said.

The daytime temperature in Kyiv, which has endured freezing temperatures for more than two weeks, was minus 12 degrees C (about 10 degrees F), with streets covered in ice and the rumble of generators heard throughout the capital.

Kyiv has grappled with severe power shortages for days, although Mayor Vitali Klitschko said Monday night's strikes caused the biggest electrical outage the city has faced so far.

More than 500 residential buildings remained without central heating Tuesday. Throughout the city, bare trees were weighed down with icicles and snow was piled up next to sidewalks.

Olena Davydova, 30, charged her phone at what is called a ”Point of Invincibility" shelter in Kyiv’s Dniprovskyi district. The government-built temporary installations, often large tents on the sidewalk, provide food, drinks, warmth and electricity.

Davydova said she had been without power for nearly 50 hours. That forced her to adopt some new routines: sleeping in one bed with her child and two cats, storing fresh food on the balcony, and using candles after dark.

She says she is taking the changes in stride. “I still have enough patience. I’m not reacting to this in a very emotional way,” she told The Associated Press.

Elsewhere, friends and relatives gathered in apartments still with power or hot water, at least temporarily, to charge their phones, take showers, or share a warm drink.

Klitschko ordered the city to provide one hot meal per day to needy residents. He also announced that workers in the city’s water, heating and road maintenance services would receive bonuses for working “day and night” to restore critical infrastructure.

Four days earlier, Russia also sent hundreds of drones and dozens of missiles in a large-scale overnight attack and, for only the second time in the war, it used a powerful new hypersonic missile that struck western Ukraine in what appeared to be a clear warning to Kyiv’s NATO allies that it won’t back down.

On Monday, the U.S. accused Russia of a “ dangerous and inexplicable escalation ” of the fighting at a time when the Trump administration is trying to advance peace negotiations.

Tammy Bruce, the U.S. deputy ambassador to the United Nations, told an emergency meeting of the U.N. Security Council that Washington deplores “the staggering number of casualties” in the conflict and condemns Russia’s intensifying attacks on energy and other infrastructure.

Russia has sought to deny Ukrainian civilians heat and running water over the course of the war, hoping to wear down public resistance to Moscow’s full-scale invasion, which began on Feb. 24, 2022. Ukrainian officials describe the strategy as “weaponizing winter.”

The attack in Ukraine’s Kharkiv region also wounded 10 people, local authorities said.

In the southern city of Odesa, six people were wounded in the attack, said Oleh Kiper, the head of the regional military administration. The strikes damaged energy infrastructure, a hospital, a kindergarten, an educational facility and a number of residential buildings, he said.

Last year was the deadliest for civilians in Ukraine since 2022 as Russia intensified its aerial barrages behind the front line, according to the U.N. Human Rights Monitoring Mission in the country.

The war killed 2,514 civilians and injured 12,142 in Ukraine — 31% higher than in 2024, it said.

“The sharp increase in long-range attacks and the targeting of Ukraine’s national energy infrastructure mean that the consequences of the war are now felt by civilians far beyond the front line,” Danielle Bell, the agency’s head, said in a statement Monday.

Zelenskyy said Ukraine is counting on quicker deliveries of agreed upon air defense systems from the U.S. and Europe, as well as new pledges of aid to counter Russia’s latest onslaught.

Meanwhile, Russian air defenses shot down 11 Ukrainian drones overnight, Russia’s Defese Ministry said Tuesday. Seven were reportedly destroyed over Russia’s Rostov region, where Gov. Yuri Slyusar confirmed an attack on the coastal city of Taganrog, about 40 kilometers (about 24 miles) east of the Ukrainian border, in Kyiv's latest long-range attack on Russian war-related facilities.

Ukraine’s military said its drones hit a drone manufacturing facility in Taganrog. The Atlant Aero plant designs, manufactures and tests Molniya drones and components for Orion unmanned aerial vehicles, according to the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine. Explosions and a fire were reported at the site, with damage to production buildings confirmed, the General Staff said.

It wasn't possible to independently verify the reports.

Katie Marie Davies in Manchester, England, and Volodymyr Yurchuk in Kyiv contributed.

Follow AP’s coverage of the war in Ukraine at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine

A man gets warm at emergency tents where people can warm up following Russia's regular air attacks against the country's energy objects, that leave residents without power, water and heating in the dead of winter, in Kyiv, Ukraine, Tuesday, Jan. 13, 2026. (AP Photo/Efrem Lukatsky)

People get warm and charge their batteries in a tent set up by the emergency service following Russia's regular air attacks against the country's energy objects, in Kyiv, Ukraine, Tuesday, Jan. 13, 2026. (AP Photo/Danyil Bashakov)

A man smokes outside of an emergency tent where people can warm up following Russia's regular air attacks against the country's energy objects, that leave residents without power, water and heating in the dead of winter, in Kyiv, Ukraine, Tuesday, Jan. 13, 2026. (AP Photo/Danyil Bashakov)

In this photo provided by the Ukrainian Emergency Service, emergency services personnel work to extinguish a fire following a Russian attack in Kharkiv, Ukraine, Tuesday, Jan. 13, 2026. (Ukrainian Emergency Service via AP)

In this photo provided by the Ukrainian Emergency Service, emergency services personnel work to extinguish a fire following a Russian attack in Kharkiv, Ukraine, Tuesday, Jan. 13, 2026. (Ukrainian Emergency Service via AP)

In this photo provided by the Ukrainian Emergency Service, emergency services personnel work to extinguish a fire following a Russian attack in Kharkiv, Ukraine, Tuesday, Jan. 13, 2026. (Ukrainian Emergency Service via AP)

In this photo provided by the Ukrainian Emergency Service, emergency services personnel work to extinguish a fire following a Russian attack in Kharkiv, Ukraine, Tuesday, Jan. 13, 2026. (Ukrainian Emergency Service via AP)

In this photo provided by the Ukrainian Emergency Service, emergency services personnel work to extinguish a fire following a Russian attack in Kyiv region, Ukraine, Tuesday, Jan. 13, 2026. (Ukrainian Emergency Service via AP)