LONDON (AP) — Britain ’s Queen Camilla on Wednesday spoke publicly for the first time about her personal experience of indecent assault, saying that speaking out was one way she could use her royal platform to shine a light on the epidemic of violence against women.
Camilla, who has made fighting domestic abuse one of her signature causes, recalled fending off a man who attacked her on a train in the 1960s when she was a teenager.
“I was reading my book, and you know, this boy, man, attacked me, and I did fight back,’’ Camilla told the BBC. “And I remember getting off the train and my mother looking at me and saying, ‘Why is your hair standing on end?’ and ‘Why is a button missing from your coat?’”
While the attack made her “furious,” Camilla said, she kept it quiet for many years until she heard other women recount their own stories.
She said she decided to speak up because domestic violence has been a “taboo subject” for so long that most people don’t realize how bad the situation is.
“I thought, well, if I’ve got a tiny soapbox to stand on, I’d like to stand on it,” she said. “And there’s not a lot I can do except talk to people and get people together.”
The comments came in a group interview with the surviving family members of Louise Hunt, 25, her sister Hannah, 28, and their mother Carol, 61, who were murdered by Louise’s ex-partner at their home outside London in July 2024.
The queen praised former racing commentator John Hunt and his daughter Amy for their work fighting domestic violence.
“Wherever your family is now, they’d be so proud of you both,’’ Camilla said. “And they must be, from above, smiling down on you and thinking, 'My goodness me, what a wonderful, wonderful father, husband, sister. They’d just be so proud of you both.”
While this is the first time Camilla has spoken publicly about the attack she experienced, it was previously recounted in the book “Power and the Palace,” published earlier this year by Valentine Low, a former royal correspondent for the Times of London. That account was based on what the queen told former Prime Minister Boris Johnson when he was mayor of London.
According to Low’s book, Camilla was on a train to London’s Paddington Station when the man sitting next to her reached out and attempted to touch her. She fought him off by removing her shoe and bashing him in the groin. When she got to Paddington she found a man in uniform and told him what had happened, and the man was arrested.
FILE - Britain's Queen Camilla looks on during a visit to open a new purpose-built Sexual Assault Referral Centre (SARC) in Exeter, England, Thursday Feb. 6, 2025 during the national Sexual Abuse and Sexual Violence Awareness Week 2025. (Justin Tallis/Pool Photo via AP, File)
KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Russian drones blasted apartment buildings and the power grid in the southern Ukraine city of Odesa in an overnight attack that injured six people, including a toddler and two other children, officials said Wednesday.
The attack came as Russian President Vladimir Putin expressed confidence in his country's eventual victory in the nearly four-year war against its neighbor.
Four apartment buildings were damaged in the Odesa bombardment, according to regional military administration head Oleh Kiper. The DTEK power provider said two of its energy facilities suffered significant damage. The company said 10 substations that distribute electricity in the Odesa region have been damaged in December alone.
Russia has this year escalated its long-range attacks on urban areas of Ukraine. In recent months, as Russia’s invasion of its neighbor approaches its four-year milestone in February, it has also intensified its targeting of energy infrastructure, seeking to deny Ukrainians heat and running water in the bitter winter months.
Between January and November, more than 2,300 Ukrainian civilians were killed and more than 11,000 were injured, the United Nations said earlier this month. That was 26% higher than in the same period in 2024 and 70% higher than in 2023, it said.
Russia’s sustained drone and missile attacks have taken place against backdrop of renewed diplomatic efforts to stop the fighting.
U.S. President Donald Trump hosted Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy at his Florida resort on Sunday and announced that a settlement is “closer than ever before." The Ukrainian leader is due to hold talks next week with the heads of European governments supporting his efforts to secure acceptable terms.
Despite the progress in peace negotiations, which he didn't mention, Putin reaffirmed his belief in Russia’s eventual success in its invasion of Ukraine as he gave his traditional New Year’s address to the nation Wednesday.
He gave special praise to Russian troops deployed in Ukraine, describing them as heroes “fighting for your native land, truth and justice.”
“We believe in you and our victory,” Putin said, as cited by Russian state news agency Tass.
Putin delivered his recorded 3-1/2 minute speech against the backdrop of a snowy Kremlin, a tradition broken only in 2022 — the year the invasion began — when the Russian leader gave his address flanked by men and women in military fatigues.
The ongoing long-range attacks, meantime, are inflaming tensions.
The overnight Odesa strikes “are further evidence of the enemy’s terror tactics, which deliberately target civilian infrastructure,” Kiper, the regional head, said.
Moscow has alleged that Ukraine attempted to attack Putin’s residence in northwestern Russia with 91 long-range drones late Sunday and early Monday. Ukrainian officials deny the claim and say it’s a ruse to derail progress in the peace negotiations.
Maj. Gen. Alexander Romanenkov of the Russian air force claimed Wednesday that the drones took off from Ukraine’s Sumy and Chernihiv regions.
At a briefing where no questions were allowed, he presented a map showing the drone flight routes before they were downed by Russian air defenses over the Bryansk, Tver, Smolensk and Novgorod regions.
It was not possible to independently verify the reports.
The European Union’s foreign policy chief, Kaja Kallas, on Wednesday called the Russian allegations “a deliberate distraction” from the peace talks.
“No one should accept unfounded claims from the aggressor who has indiscriminately targeted Ukraine’s infrastructure and civilians since the start of the war,” Kallas posted on X.
Zelenskyy said Wednesday that Romania and Croatia are the latest countries to join a fund that buys weapons for Ukraine from the United States. The financial arrangement, known as the Prioritized Ukraine Requirements List, or PURL, pools contributions from NATO members, except the United States, to purchase American weapons, munitions and equipment.
Since it was established in August, 24 countries are now contributing to the fund, according to Zelenskyy. The fund has so far received $4.3 billion, with almost $1.5 billion coming in December alone, he said on social media.
Ukraine’s air force said Wednesday that Russia fired 127 drones at the country during the night, with 101 of them intercepted by air defenses.
Meanwhile, the Russian Defense Ministry said that 86 Ukrainian drones were shot down overnight over Russian regions, the Black Sea and the illegally annexed Crimea peninsula.
The Ukrainian attack started a fire at an oil refinery in Russia's southern Krasnodar region, but it was quickly put out, local authorities said.
A previous version of this story was corrected to give the timing of the alleged attack on Putin's residence as late Sunday and early Monday.
Katie Marie Davies in Leicester, England, contributed to this story.
Follow AP’s coverage of the war in Ukraine at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine
In this photo provided by the Ukrainian Emergency Service, emergency services personnel work to extinguish a fire following a Russian attack in Odesa, Ukraine, Wednesday, Dec. 31, 2025. (Ukrainian Emergency Service via AP)
In this image made from video provided by the Russian Defense Ministry Press Service on Tuesday, Dec. 30, 2025, a Russian Army soldier fires from D-30 howitzer towards Ukrainian positions in an undisclosed location in Ukraine. (Russian Defense Ministry Press Service via AP)
