kyiv targeted by a dozen drones
kyiv was the target, overnight from Tuesday to Wednesday, of a major attack by Russian drones. They were shot down, causing falling debris which caused material damage but no casualties, according to the authorities. According to the Kyiv military administration, groups of Iranian-made “Shahed” explosive drones, coming from several directions, entered the skies of the capital simultaneously.
The mayor of kyiv, Vitali Klitschko, confirmed the fall of debris on several neighborhoods and material damage. “There are no dead or injured in the capital,” he wrote on Telegram.
In the Golosiivsky district, the debris fell on a playground and a non-residential building, according to the military administration.
This offensive comes the day after a wave of air and sea drone attacks against Moscow, Crimea and the Russian fleet in the Black Sea. A skyscraper in the capital’s financial district was hit for the second time in days.
In Odessa, the port of Izmail hit, a stock of 40,000 tons of cereals damaged
The port of Izmail, a Ukrainian port infrastructure on the Danube, crucial for grain exports, was hit by night strikes by Russian drones, the Prosecutor General of Ukraine said on Wednesday August 2. “The enemy attacked port facilities and industrial infrastructure on the Danube,” his office said on Telegram. “As a result of the strikes, an elevator, grain sheds, cargo terminal tanks, warehouses and administrative premises were damaged or destroyed,” he added. They are also believed to be Iranian-made “Shahed” drones, launched from the Black Sea.
“The Russians hit warehouses and grain silos, damaging nearly 40,000 tons of grain expected by African countries, China and Israel,” Ukrainian Infrastructure Minister Oleksandr Kubrakov said on Telegram.
Russian forces have repeatedly struck Ukraine’s Black Sea port infrastructure in recent weeks, particularly in Odessa, from where Ukrainian grain was previously exported to the rest of the world. The bombardments began after Russia on July 17 ended a UN-brokered deal with Turkey that had allowed the export of 33 million tonnes of Ukrainian grain, despite the invasion. Russian.
Russia has announced that it has launched naval maneuvers involving around fifty ships and aviation in the Baltic, a sea essentially bordered by NATO countries that Moscow considers an existential threat.
The “Ocean Shield 2023” maneuvers include some 200 military exercises with “more than 30 ships and warships, 20 supply ships, 30 aircraft […] and about 6,000 military personnel,” the defense ministry said, adding that the objective was to “verify the ability of the military fleet to defend the national interests of Russia”. The objective is to “verify the ability of the military fleet to defend the national interests of Russia”, he added in a statement broadcast on Telegram, which does not specify the duration of the maneuvers.
Since Russia launched its assault on Ukraine, the countries bordering the Baltic Sea have closed ranks against Moscow. Thus, Finland and Sweden have both asked to join NATO, something done for Helsinki and in progress for Stockholm. Moscow has lost its strategic underwater gas pipelines in the Baltic Sea linking its territory to Germany, these having been damaged by explosions still unsolved, and Europe having decided to wean itself off Russian hydrocarbons to sanction Russia and not finance its war effort.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Wednesday called on his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin to avoid any “escalation” in the conflict with Ukraine in the Black Sea, the presidency reported. During a telephone interview, the Turkish head of state asked Vladimir Putin “not to take any action that could cause an escalation of tensions in the war between Russia and Ukraine”. He also stressed “the importance of the Black Sea Initiative, which he sees as a bridge for peace,” the presidency said in a statement, about the grain deal from which Moscow recently withdrew. .
For Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who was one of the negotiators and one of the guarantors with the United Nations and intends to “continue his efforts” to relaunch the agreement, “the prolonged stoppage of the Black Sea Initiative does not will benefit no one and countries in need of grain and with low incomes will suffer the most”. He argued that “grain prices fell by 23% when the corridor was operating” between August 1, 2022 and July 17 at midnight and that they “have increased by 15% in the last two weeks”.
France on Wednesday accused Russia of “deliberately” putting world food security at risk “by destroying essential infrastructure for the export of cereals”. “It is only seeking its own interest at the expense of the most vulnerable populations by driving up the prices of agricultural products and trying to prevent one of its main competitors from exporting its productions”, namely Ukraine, reacted Foreign Ministry spokeswoman in a statement.
