A drone assault on the headquarters of Russia’s Black Sea Fleet wounded six folks and shut down a pageant marking Navy Day in the Crimean peninsula metropolis of Sevastopol, the mayor mentioned Sunday.
“There were no fatalities, six people were injured, two in moderate condition, the rest are in stable condition,” Mayor Mikhail Razvozhaev mentioned on social media.
The Black Sea Fleet’s press service mentioned the drone gave the impression to be selfmade and described the explosive gadget as “low-power.” Crimean authorities raised the terrorism threat level for the region to “yellow,” the second-highest tier.
Sevastopol is about 100 miles south of the Ukrainian mainland and has been under Russian control since 2014, when the Kremlin illegally annexed Crimea. Russian forces also control much of the mainland coast area along the Black Sea. There was no immediate information on where the drone came from.
Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has vowed to take Crimea back from Russia. His top aide said the drone strike was a reflection of Russia’s weak air defenses.
“Did the occupiers admit the helplessness of their air defense system? Or their helplessness in front of the Crimean partisans?” Oleksiy Arestovich said on Telegram.
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Latest developments:
►Russian rockets hit a school in Kharkiv and a bus station in Sloviansk, among other strikes. In southern Ukraine, one person was reported killed and six injured in shelling in a residential area in Mykolaiv, local officials said.
►Russia’s state-owned natural gas corporation said it has halted shipments to Latvia because of contract violations. Gas giant Gazprom said the shipments were stopped because Latvia broke “terms for extraction of gas.” The statement likely referred to a refusal to meet Russia’s demand for gas payments in rubles.
Wealthy businessman killed in what Ukrainian official calls targeted attack
One of Ukraine’s wealthiest men and his wife were killed in their Mykolaiv home by a Russian missile strike that an Ukrainian official said was carefully targeted.
Oleksiy Vadatursky, who headed a grain production and export business and once was given the “Hero of Ukraine” award for his contributions to the country, died alongside his wife, Raisa, in an early Sunday morning attack, regional Gov. Vitaliy Kim said.
Their killing comes just as Ukraine is about to resume exporting grain under a deal with Russia brokered by the United Nations and Turkey.
The southern port city of Mykolaiv came under heavy bombardment overnight, but presidential adviser Mykhailo Podolyak said Vadatursky, 74, was specifically targeted. Vadatursky’s agribusiness, Nibulon, includes a fleet of ships for sending grain abroad.
It “was not an accident, but a well-thought-out and organized premeditated murder,” Podolyak said. “Vadatursky was one of the largest farmers in the country, a key person in the region and a major employer. That the exact hit of a rocket was not just in a house, but in a specific wing, the bedroom, leaves no doubt about aiming and adjusting the strike.”
Zelenskyy declares obligatory evacuation from Donetsk area
As Russian forces and separatists attempt to fully take over the Donetsk area, Ukrainian officers are calling for residents to evacuate from Ukrainian-held elements of the province. President Volodymyr Zelenskyy introduced a compulsory evacuation and urged folks to depart the area and to influence their family members nonetheless there to go, based on CNN and Reuters.
“The sooner it is done, the more people leave Donetsk region now, the fewer people the Russian army will have time to kill,” he mentioned in his nightly video tackle Saturday.
Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk warned that the area will face extreme heating issues this winter due to the destruction of gasoline mains and mentioned folks ought to evacuate earlier than the chilly units in.
New Russian maritime coverage targets US, NATO
Russian President Vladimir Putin on Sunday signed a Maritime Doctrine that claims U.S. efforts towards dominance in the world’s oceans and NATO’s mounting exercise are main safety threats to Russia. The new coverage, posted on the Kremlin’s authorized info net portal, cites the world U.S. affect on points associated to using transportation lanes and vitality assets.
The coverage requires creating Russia’s shipbuilding trade in the Far East, in specific for constructing “large-tonnage vessels” to be used in the Arctic in addition to superior plane carriers for the navy.
Strategic targets of the coverage embody elevating Russian navy’s fight capabilities to guard Russia’s nationwide safety and its nationwide pursuits.
Low expectations for UN convention on nuclear nonproliferation
Nuclear nonproliferation agreements are tough beneath the perfect of circumstances. The present circumstances, with Russia waging conflict in Ukraine and at instances reanimating fears of nuclear confrontation, are removed from perfect.
That’s what awaits representatives from greater than 110 nations as they convene beginning Monday at a significant U.N. convention on the landmark Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty. The gathering was purported to happen in 2020, on the treaty’s fiftieth anniversary, however was postponed due to the pandemic.
The four-week assembly goals to generate a consensus on subsequent steps, however expectations are low for a considerable – if any – settlement.
“It is a very, very difficult moment,” mentioned Beatrice Fihn, the chief director of the Nobel Peace Prize-winning International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons, referring to Russia’s aggression and nuclear saber-rattling. “How governments react to the situation is going to shape future nuclear policy.”
Ukraine sees some success repelling Russian forces
Ukrainian forces have possible “successfully repelled small-scale Russian assaults” close to Donetsk in the Donbas area, the British Ministry of Defense mentioned. In Kherson, the ministry mentioned, Russian forces have established pontoon bridges to “compensate for the fact that nearby bridges have been damaged in recent strikes.”
A senior U.S. protection official additionally mentioned this weekend Ukrainians have been making advances in the Kherson area. “Not large, giant advances, but they are certainly advances against the Russians,” the official instructed journalists. A senior navy official on the briefing added that Russian forces look like “ill-prepared” for Ukraine’s counteroffensive there.
Ukraine condemns Russia for up to date act of ‘terrorism’
Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy known as for Russia to be acknowledged as a state sponsor of terrorism, citing the “deliberate mass murder” of Ukrainian conflict prisoners through shelling in the separatist japanese area of Donetsk.
Dozens of Ukrainians held as prisoners of conflict have been reportedly killed in a missile strike Friday – an assault for which Russia and Ukraine blame one another. Separatist authorities and Russian officers mentioned at the very least 53 folks died and 75 have been injured in Olenivka, a settlement managed by the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic. The prisoners have been captured after Mariupol fell in May.
“Russia has proven with numerous terrorist attacks that it is the biggest source of terrorism in today’s world,” Zelenskyy mentioned.
Contributing: The Associated Press
