War Ukraine – Russia, last minute | kyiv defends "any 'bombshot' against Russian ships" after attacking an oil tanker in the Black Sea
A Russian tanker docked in the Black Sea has been hit by a Ukrainian maritime drone carrying 450kg of explosives while transporting fuel for the Russian army, a Ukrainian intelligence source has said.
The Russian tanker was sanctioned by the US for supplying jet fuel to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. British Intelligence highlights the “significant blow” for the Black Sea Fleet due to the damage caused just 24 hours ago to the Olenegorsky Gornyak, 3,600 tons and 113 meters long, the largest since the sinking of the Moskva cruise ship.
As the war in Ukraine marks 526 days since the Russian invasion of the Saudi city of Jeddah, on the Red Sea, national security advisers and international representatives seek to restore a “just peace” according to the Ukrainian formula, at the initiative of Crown Prince Mohamed bin Salman. Ukrainian President Volodimir Zelensky is already in Jeddah. violates its border on the Black Sea, the Russian Defense Ministry said on Saturday.
The Russian crew identified the drone as a US Air Force MQ-9A Reaper reconnaissance drone, which turned away from the border as the Russian plane approached, the ministry adds.
Saudi Arabia hosts a meeting between representatives of several countries starting this Saturday to seek a solution to the war in Ukraine, a new example of Riyadh's diplomatic muscle from which little progress is expected.
The rich monarchy of the Gulf announced on Friday night the arrival of “security advisers from brother countries”, without revealing the names of the States that will participate, to discuss the “Ukraine crisis”, for two days in the city of Jeddah .
“I anticipate that the conversation will not be easy, but the truth is on our side,” Andrii Yermak, head of Ukraine's presidential office, said in an interview on Friday.
Yermak heads the Ukrainian delegation that will attend Jeddah, on the shores of the Red Sea, and whose office specified this week that nearly 40 countries would be present at the session organized by kyiv.
The Secret Service of Ukraine (SBU) today justified recent drone attacks on Russian ships in the Black Sea as “legitimate” on the grounds that they were in “Ukrainian waters”.
“These are absolutely logical and effective actions,” said the head of the SBU, Vasyl Malyuk, on Telegram, referring to the drone attacks on the Crimean peninsula.
These operations take place in “Ukrainian territorial waters and are therefore absolutely legitimate,” he added.
Russia currently needs at least 100,000 drone operators, based on the calculation of one pilot for each drone, Andrei Dobriakov, deputy director of Rosaviatsia, the Russian Civil Aviation Agency, said today.
“According to rough estimates, Rosaviatsia has already registered more than 100,000 drones. Correspondingly, you have to draw from a 'one by one' account. We already need 100,000 operators. As of today, this year,” he said, quoted by TASS.
Ukraine's Agency for Shipping Services has warned that six Russian Black Sea ports are “in a risk zone,” according to a Reuters late-breaking report.
The agency said in a statement that the warning applied to the ports of Anapa, Novorossiysk, Gelendzhik, Tuapse, Sochi and Taman..
The Russian military claimed on Saturday the capture of a town in northeastern Ukraine, where Moscow troops have been attacking for several weeks as opposed to the southern front, where they are defending against a Ukrainian counter-offensive.
“In the Kupiansk area, as a result of the competent and professional actions of the military units (…) the village of Novoselivske was liberated,” the Russian Defense Ministry said on Telegram, according to Afp.
Ukrainian troops had seized this town from the Russians in December 2022.
The Ukrainian army said on Friday that it was facing Russian attacks in the Kupiansk, Liman and Svatove sectors in the northeastern part of the front.
“The number of enemy attacks increased. Violent fighting is taking place,” said Ukrainian Deputy Defense Minister Ganna Maliar.
According to her, the objective of Russia is to “divert” the Ukrainian forces towards these areas and “break through the defenses”.
“In the Kupiansk sector, the enemy set itself the goal of recapturing the territories lost last fall,” when a lightning Ukrainian counteroffensive forced Russian troops to retreat beyond the Oskil River.
In that area, the Russian army claimed on Saturday to have “carried out offensive actions on a broad front”, allowing it to “improve” its positions.
Mikhail Podolyak, adviser to the head of the office of the President of Ukraine, is committed to maintaining a strategy like that of the latest events in the Black Sea in order to achieve peace.
Russia's Defense Ministry said on Saturday that its forces had taken control of the village of Novoselivske in the Lugansk region of eastern Ukraine.
Reuters could not immediately verify the report.
The Ukrainian Secret Service (SBU) today defended the recent drone attacks on Russian ships in the Black Sea as “legitimate” on the grounds that they were in “Ukrainian waters,” reports Efe.
“These are absolutely logical and effective actions,” said the head of the SBU, Vasyl Malyuk, through his Telegram account, referring to the successive drone attacks on the Crimean peninsula, occupied by Russia.
These operations take place in “Ukrainian territorial waters and are therefore absolutely legitimate,” he adds, while the Russian side has condemned these attacks as “terrorists.”
Malyuk's statements follow the attack launched yesterday by drones by Ukraine against the Crimean peninsula and the Russian port of Novorossiysk, which are home to the largest bases of the Russian Black Sea Fleet.
The attack briefly disrupted traffic on the Kerch Bridge, the 19-kilometre bridge linking Moscow-annexed Crimea with Russia, as well as ferry transportation, reports Ap.
Tugboats were deployed to assist the tanker, which is under US sanctions for helping to supply aviation fuel to Russian forces fighting in Syria, according to the Russian news agency Tass.
Ukraine's earlier attack on Novorossiysk disrupted shipping traffic for a few hours and marked the first time a Russian commercial port had become the target of the conflict, which has lasted for almost 18 months.
The port has a naval base, shipyards and an oil terminal, and is key for exports. It is located about 110 kilometers east of Crimea.
Ukrainian drones attacked a Russian tanker in the Black Sea near Crimea on Friday night, according to Russian officials and a video circulating on social media, Ap reports.
The attack was the second maritime drone attack in a day, after Ukraine attacked a major Russian port on Friday in an attack that underscored Kiev's growing naval capabilities as the Black Sea becomes an increasingly battleground. important in war.
“The tanker Sig… suffered a hole in the engine room near the waterline on the starboard side, presumably as a result of a marine drone strike,” Russia's Federal Agency for Maritime and River Transport wrote on Telegram, adding that there were no casualties. among the 11 crew members.
A source from the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) has stated that a drone with 450 kilos of TNT hit a Russian tanker that was transporting fuel for Russian troops, Reuters reports in a last minute.
The 3,600-tonne, 113-meter-long Olenegorsky Gornyak is the largest Russian naval vessel seriously damaged or destroyed since the sinking of the Moskva cruise ship on April 13, 2022, according to the latest British Ministry of Defense update on the state of the Ukrainian war.
The United States helped Ukraine sink the Russian cruiser and flagship of that country's Black Sea Fleet 'Moskva'. The television network 'NBC' and the newspaper The Washington Post assured then that the United States Department of Defense identified the ship and confirmed its location at the request of Ukraine, Pablo Pardo, a correspondent for El Mundo in Washington, told in his day. his chronicle the US helped Ukraine to sink the Russian cruiser Moskva.
The latest report from the Intelligence of the Ministry of Defense of the United Kingdom highlights that the attack with marine drones in the port of Novorossiysk on a Russian warship is “a major blow to the BSF (Black Sea Fleet), which had transferred with Previously most of its units to this port due to the high threat that weighed on Sebastopol.
During the night of August 3-4, 2023, the Russian Navy landing ship Olenegorsky Gornyak was almost certainly severely damaged after being hit near the Black Sea Fleet base in Novorossiysk, it adds.
Images of the ship listing between 30 and 40 degrees suggest that several watertight compartments were breached or that the crew's efforts to control the damage were ineffective.
Regularly assigned to the Russian Northern Fleet, the ship has bolstered the Black Sea Fleet since Russia's invasion of Ukraine and has often carried military and civilian traffic between Russia and occupied Crimea when the Kerch bridge has been disrupted due to attacks.
An official from the Ukrainian Security Service confirmed to AP and, on the other hand, to Afp that said service was behind the attack on the oil tanker in the Kerch Strait, which was transporting fuel for Russian forces..
A maritime drone loaded with 450 kilograms (992 pounds) of TNT was used for the attack, added the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to comment officially.
“During the night, the SBU (Security Service of Ukraine) struck the 'SIG', a large oil tanker from the Russian Federation that was carrying fuel for Russian troops,” the source told Afp.
The source noted that “another successful special operation was carried out jointly with the Navy.”
The attack on the tanker came hours after one of Russia's ships was hit in the Black Sea.
As happened this Friday with the attack with Ukrainian drones on a warship in the port of Novorossiysk, videos and images of today's attack on a Russian oil tanker are disseminated on networks, without it yet being possible to verify its authenticity.
The Russian fleet in the Black Sea has been attacked several times since the Russian invasion of Ukraine began in February 2022, and those attacks have intensified in recent weeks.
Ukraine said yesterday that it had carried out a maritime drone attack against a Russian ship at the Novorossiysk naval base in southern Russia.
“The presence of the Russian fleet in the Black Sea will end,” declared the Ukrainian presidential adviser Mikhailo Podoliak on social networks, collects Afp.
“Ukraine will guarantee freedom and security in the Black Sea for world trade,” he added.
The Crimean peninsula was also targeted by Ukrainian attacks on Friday.
Ukraine, which launched a counteroffensive at the beginning of June to retake occupied territories, with modest progress so far, says it intends to retake Crimea as well.
Russia reported on Tuesday that it thwarted a Ukrainian drone attack on patrol vessels 340 km southwest of Sevastopol, the base of the Russian Black Sea Fleet in Crimea.. A week earlier he repelled a similar action.
Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu asks Russian soldiers on the Liman front in eastern Ukraine how many German Leopard tanks they had destroyed during a decoration for troops, the Russian Defense Ministry reported on its TV channel. Telegram, according to Efe.
During the conversation held after the ceremony with the soldiers, the Russian Defense Minister inquired if any of the recipients had destroyed or captured enemy war equipment and asked if they had seen German Leopard tanks in the combat zone.
The commander of the group, Lieutenant General Andrei Mordvichev, presumed dead by the Ukrainians in March last year, replied that the Leopards have not reached this area of the front, but that he expected their early appearance.
“Our guys hit them hard, and they may not even get here,” Shoigu said with a sneer.
Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu today decorated Russian soldiers fighting on the Liman front in eastern Ukraine.
As reported by the Russian Ministry of Defense on its Telegram channel, where it posted a video of the ceremony, the holder also delivered weapons with personal inscriptions to the most prominent soldiers, Efe reports.
“I congratulate you on these well-deserved awards. I am sure that in the future they will continue to serve our country and our cause with faith and self-sacrifice.. But the pain of the war that is devastating his country does not leave his head.
“It is very difficult for us to understand that life is normal here,” confides to Afp this 24-year-old student who came to participate, like 500 other Ukrainians, in this great international Catholic meeting chaired by Pope Francis.
Coming from a country at war, the youngsters are still startled when they see the planes flying low through the skies of Lisbon. Scenes of everyday life in a city at peace are a distant memory for them, from the invasion of Russian troops in February 2022.
On the eve, Ukraine said it had carried out a maritime drone strike against a Russian ship at the Novorossiysk naval base in southern Russia.
Moscow assured that it had repelled an attempt to attack the base by Ukrainian forces “with the use of two unmanned boats,” adds Afp.
Clashes between the two sides in the Black Sea have escalated since Moscow backed out last month of an agreement facilitating the maritime export of Ukrainian grain.
The Novorossiysk maritime rescue coordination center indicated that there were no fatalities from the attack by Ukrainian drones on a Russian tanker in the Kerch Strait, according to the Russian press agency RIA Novosti, Afp replied.
Vladimir Rogov, a Moscow-appointed administration official in Ukraine's occupied Zaporizhia region, said several crew members were injured by broken glass.
“The detonation due to the explosion on the ship could be seen from the peninsula. Local residents thought it was an explosion in the vicinity of the Yakovenkovo settlement, not far from the Crimean bridge,” Rogov said on Telegram.
Traffic on this bridge connecting the Moscow-annexed peninsula with southeastern Russia was halted for about three hours early Saturday morning, according to the highway status information center.
The chemical tanker is included in US sanctions for supplying jet fuel to Russian forces backing Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.
Saudi Arabia confirmed that it will hold a meeting of national security advisers and international representatives this Saturday to address the crisis in Ukraine in the city of Jeddah with the aim of restoring a “just peace” according to the Ukrainian formula..
This meeting is part of the continuation “of the humanitarian initiatives and efforts carried out by the crown prince, Mohamed bin Salman”, and the contacts he made “with the Russian and Ukrainian leaders since the first days of the crisis”, according to a statement published by the official Saudi news agency, SPA, and replicated by Efe.
A Russian tanker was damaged by a Ukrainian drone strike in the Kerch Strait, temporarily disrupting traffic on a strategic bridge between Russia and the Crimean peninsula, a government agency and local media reported on Saturday, according to Afp.
The SIG ship was left with a hole at the waterline in the engine room area, “presumably as a result of a maritime drone strike,” the federal shipping agency said on Telegram.. “The ship is afloat,” he added.
An oil barrier has been placed around the ship and preparations are underway to repair the damage, the agency said.
The Marine Traffic ship tracking website showed the vessel stopped and assisted by tugs just south of the strait.
The Russian news agency RIA Novosti said there were no fatalities from the attack, citing the Novorossiysk maritime rescue coordination center.