Russia and Ukraine launch quite a few drone assaults focusing on a Russian air base and Black Sea coast

KYIV, Ukraine — Russia and Ukraine launched over a dozen drones at one another’s territory for a second straight day Sunday, one in every of which apparently focused a Russian navy airport.

At least 35 Ukrainian drones have been shot down in a single day over three areas in southwestern Russia, the Russian Defense Ministry stated in a submit on the messaging app Telegram.

A Russian air base internet hosting bomber plane used within the battle in Ukraine was among the many targets, in response to a Russian Telegram channel vital of the Kremlin. The channel posted brief movies of drones flying over low-rise housing in what it claimed was the Russian city of Morozovsk, whose air base is dwelling to Russia’s 559th Bomber Aviation Regiment.

Vasily Golubev, the governor of Russia’s Rostov province, individually reported “mass drone strikes” close to Morozovsk and one other city farther west, however didn’t point out the air base. Golubev stated a lot of the drones have been shot down and there have been no casualties. He didn’t touch upon injury.

Also Sunday morning, Ukraine’s air drive stated it shot down 20 Iranian-made Shahed drones launched in a single day by Russian troops in southern and western Ukraine, in addition to one X-59 cruise missile launched from the nation’s occupied south.

A civilian was killed in a single day close to Odesa, a key port on Ukraine’s southern Black Sea coast, after the remnants of a destroyed drone fell on his home, Ukraine’s navy stated.

Stepped-up drone assaults over the previous month come as either side are eager to indicate they aren’t deadlocked because the battle approaches the two-year mark. Neither aspect has gained a lot floor regardless of a Ukrainian counteroffensive that started in June.

Russian shelling on Sunday additionally killed an 81-year-old man in central Kherson, the southern Ukrainian metropolis that was recaptured by Kyiv‘s forces last fall, according to the head of its municipal military administration.

Ukrainian and Russian forces exchanged fire outside Terebreno, a Russian village just miles from the Ukrainian border, according to Telegram posts by Gov. Vasily Gladkov. He did not provide details, but insisted Russian authorities had the situation “under control.”

According to Baza, a Telegram news channel set up by Russian journalists critical of the Kremlin, fighting between Russian troops and a “Ukrainian diversionary group” began around 11 a.m. near Terebreno, home to some 200 people, forcing residents to hide in shelters.

While cross-border raids on Russian territory from Ukraine are rare, the Russian military claimed in May to have killed more than 70 attackers, describing them as Ukrainian military saboteurs, in a 24-hour battle. Kyiv portrayed the incident as an uprising against the Kremlin by Russian partisans.

Ukraine’s overseas minister, in the meantime, welcomed what he referred to as a sea change in Germany’s method towards Kyiv’s EU membership bid.

In an interview with Germany’s Bild newspaper, Dmytro Kuleba stated that German Chancellor Olaf Scholz has gained “sincere and well-deserved admiration” amongst Ukrainians for his position within the EU’s current determination to open membership talks for Kyiv.

Ukraine has lengthy confronted sturdy opposition in its makes an attempt to hitch the 27-member bloc from Hungary’s Prime Minister Viktor Orban, who has repeatedly spoken of his need to keep up shut ties with Russia.

Scholz stated that at an EU summit final week he proposed that Orban go away the room to allow the summit to launch accession talks with Ukraine, one thing the Hungarian chief agreed to do.

“What German Chancellor Olaf Scholz did at the summit to remove the threatened Hungarian veto will go down in history as an act of German leadership in the interests of Europe. The chancellor has this week won a lot of sincere and well-deserved admiration in the hearts of Ukrainians,” Kuleba instructed Bild.

He additionally voiced hope that Scholz’ actions would mark a “broader and irreversible shift” in Berlin’s method in direction of EU negotiations with Kyiv.

“When I campaigned in Berlin last May to grant Ukraine EU candidate status, my appeals to Germany to take the lead in this process mostly fell on deaf ears. ‘Germany doesn’t want to lead,’ experts and politicians in Berlin told me. I am glad that German political decisions have changed since then,” Kuleba stated.

The Ukrainian authorities has lengthy solid EU and NATO membership as key overseas coverage objectives and the EU’s determination to begin accelerated negotiations gave Kyiv a serious enhance – though it could possibly be years earlier than it is ready to be a part of. NATO leaders, in the meantime, have up to now set no clear timeline for Kyiv‘s membership bid, even as Moscow’s all-out aggression towards Ukraine led one other of Russia‘s neighbors, Finland, to be accepted into the military alliance in April.

Russian President Vladimir Putin vowed to build up military units near the Russian-Finnish border. The Kremlin leader declared, without giving details, that Helsinki’s NATO accession would create “problems” for the Nordic nation.

“There were no problems (between Russia and Finland). Now, there will be. Because we will create (a new) military district and concentrate certain military units there,” he instructed Russian state TV on Sunday morning.

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Associated Press author Vanessa Gera in Warsaw, Poland, contributed to this report.