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Ukraine spy agency official says ‘we can confirm large landing vessel and submarine were hit’ in blitz on Russia-occupied port
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Russia’s war in Ukraine
UK Storm Shadow cruise missiles were used as part of the attack on the headquarters for Russia’s Black Sea Fleet in occupied Crimea, according to military sources.
The UK supplied Ukraine with Storm Shadow missiles earlier this year, In June, the then-defence secretary, Ben Wallace, told parliament that the missiles were having a “significant impact”.
“It is my understanding its accuracy, and ability to deliver successfully the payload as sent and designed by the Ukrainians has been almost without fault,” he said.
A submarine and landing ship were hit in the attack, a Ukrainian spy agency official has said. Russia blamed Ukraine for the attack, saying the Sevastopol shipyard in Crimea was struck by 10 cruise missiles.
“We confirm a large landing vessel and submarine were hit. We do not comment on the means (used) for the strike,” Andriy Yusov, the official, told Reuters.
Earlier, Kim Jong-Un promised that North Korea would help Russia “fight imperialism” as he and Vladimir Putin met for weapons talks.
UK Storm Shadow cruise missiles were used as part of the attack on the headquarters for Russia’s Black Sea Fleet in occupied Crimea, according to military sources, Kim Sengupta reports.
The UK supplied Ukraine with Storm Shadow missiles earlier this year, In June, the then-defence secretary, Ben Wallace, told parliament that the missiles were having a “significant impact”.
“It is my understanding its accuracy, and ability to deliver successfully the payload as sent and designed by the Ukrainians has been almost without fault,” he said.
File photo: Storm Shadow missiles with a jet
The Kremlin has said that Vladimir Putin and Kim Jong-un held “important talks” at the remote Russian Vostochny Cosmodrome.
Discussions lasted several hours, both with their ministers and then one-on-one, followed by an opulent lunch of Russian “pelmeni” dumplings made with Kamchatka crab and then sturgeon with mushrooms and potatoes.
So what are the main things we should takeaway from this rare meeting between the two leaders?
Click here for the full story.
The U.S. ambassador to Russia has met with imprisoned American Paul Whelan, serving a 16-year sentence on an espionage conviction that Washington and Whelan dispute.
Ambassador Lynne Tracy traveled to the prison colony about 220 miles east of Moscow where Whelan is held, State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said.
“We believe Paul continues to show tremendous courage in the face of his wrongful detention. Ambassador Tracy reiterated to him that President Biden and Secretary (of State Antony) Blinken are committed to bringing him home,” he added. “Secretary Blinken had a call with Paul Whelan around a month ago, a little under a month ago, and delivered that same message to him: that we are working very hard to bring him home and we will continue to do so.”
The 53-year-old Whelan, a corporate security director and former Marine, was detained in Moscow in 2018 and convicted in 2020.
The Biden administration had hoped to secure Whelan’s release during the negotiations on the prisoner exchange that eventually freed American basketball star Brittney Griner from a Russian prison in December.
Analysts have pointed out that Moscow may be using jailed Americans as bargaining chips in soaring U.S.-Russian tensions over the Kremlin’s military operation in Ukraine.
Another American jailed in Russia is Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich, who was arrested March 29 and accused of trying to obtain classified information.
Gershkovich is the first U.S. correspondent since the Cold War to be detained in Russia on spying charges, which his family and the newspaper vehemently deny.
More Ukrainian drones have been seen over Russian soil tonight.
Anti-aircraft units downed two Ukrainian drones over the Bryansk region in the south of the country, regional governor Alexander Bogomaz said on Telegram.
There were no casualties or damage.
A Ukrainian attack on a strategic shipyard in Russian-annexed Crimea this morning wounded 24 people, damaged two ships undergoing repairs and caused a fire at the facility, Russian authorities reported.
The attack in the port city of Sevastopol, which serves as the main base for Russia’s Black Sea Fleet, took place as Moscow offensives killed at least three civilians and injured 14 across Ukraine, the president’s office said.
A pre-dawn drone onslaught in southern Ukraine’s Odesa region damaged port and civilian infrastructure in the region’s Izmail district, about 220 miles across the Black Sea from Sevastopol, and wounded seven people, three seriously, Gov. Oleh Kiper said.
Russian attacks on residential areas in 10 cities and villages in the Donetsk region killed three people and wounded three. Fighting in the Zaporizhzhia region injured one resident in Orikhiv, while shelling in southern Kherson damaged homes and a kindergarten, the government said.
The Crimean Peninsula, which Russia annexed from Ukraine in 2014 in an act that most of the world considered illegal, has been a frequent target since Putin ordered a full-scale invasion of Ukraine more than 18 months ago.
Last month, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky vowed to do all he could to bring back Crimea and has urged international allies to support the effort.
The U.S. State Department has said it is “troubling” Russia is talking about cooperation with North Korea on programs that potentially would violate U.N. Security Council resolutions.
“When you see what looks to be increased cooperation and probably military transfers, that is quite troubling and would potentially be in violation of multiple U.N. Security Council resolutions,” State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said.
Russia’s President Putin and North Korea’s leader Kim meet in Amur region
Russian President Vladimir Putin and North Korea’s leader Kim Jong Un examine a launch pad during their meeting at the Vostochny cosmodrome
im Jong Un (L) chatting with Alexander Kozlov, minister of Natural Resources and Ecology of Russia
Russia’s main shipyard in Crimea has been struck in a major attack involving 10 cruise missiles, according to Russian officials, with videos overnight appearing to show large explosions at a port in Sevastopol.
It comes as Ukraine said it shot down 32 drones out of 44 fired by Russia overnight, with Ukrainian port infrastructure in Odesa described as being the main target.
The two sides exchanged heavy air strikes just a couple of hours before Vladimir Putin and North Korea’s Kim Jong-un sat down in Russia’s far east for weapons and trade talks.
The attack on Sevastopol targeted the main facility where Russia builds and repairs ships for its Black Sea Fleet, which has been involved in blockading grain exports from Ukraine.
Click here for the full story.
NATO member Romania found what appear to be new drone fragments near its border with war-torn Ukraine on Wednesday, in the third such finding in the past week, the Ministry of National Defense said.
Two helicopters from the Romanian Air Force were deployed with specialist teams to Nufaru and Victoria in the eastern Tulcea county where “fragments that could have come from a drone” are spread over an area of “several tens of meters,” the ministry said in a statement.
Full report:
NATO member Romania has found what appear to be drone fragments near its border with war-torn Ukraine, in the third such finding in the past week
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View of a damaged Russian ship following a Ukrainian missile attack on Sevastopol, Crimea
via REUTERS
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