Moscow launches drone attack as Kyiv immobilise third of Black Sea ships- Ukraine war

Ukraine has sunk or disabled a third of Russian warships in the Black Sea, a navy spokesman has said.

Dmytro Pletenchuk made the comments after Kyiv “destroyed” the Russian landing ship Kostiantyn Olshansky that was resting in port in Sevastopol. The ship had previously been part of the Ukrainian fleet until it was captured in 2014 when Putin annexed Crimea.

Two other landing ships, the Yamal and the Azov, were also damaged in the attack, as well as the Ivan Khurs intelligence ship.

“Our ultimate goal is complete absence of military ships of the so-called Russian Federation in the Azov and Black Sea regions,” Mr Pletenchuk said.

Russian President Vladimir Putin and the leader of the Republic of Congo, Denis Sassou Nguesso, agreed in a telephone call to further deepen political, economic and humanitarian ties, the Kremlin said on Wednesday.

Russia is seeking to strengthen relations with African countries, pitching Moscow as a friendly country without a colonial background in Africa.

It follows his call with Mali’s military leader Assimi Goita, with the two men agreeing to forge closer ties when it came to counter-terrorism, agriculture, the energy sector and mining.

Mali has in recent years become one of Russia’s closest African allies, with the Wagner Group mercenary force deploying there to fight anti-government rebels in the Sahel country.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has ordered the Russian government to look at how to organise the production of home-grown gaming consoles, state news agency TASS reported on Wednesday.

Putin is trying to make Russia less dependent on consumer goods and electronics produced by what Moscow regards as hostile states due to sweeping Western sanctions imposed on Russia over its actions in Ukraine.

Ukraine’s national football has provided a glimmer of hope after qualifying for the Euro 2024 tournament.

In a playoff final in Poland last night, the team defeated Iceland 2-1 and have now progressed to the group stages, with games set to take place in June and July.

Their opening game is set to be against Romania on 17 June and followed by matches against Belgium and Slovakia in Group E.

Posting on X, Volodymyr Zelensky said: “Thank you, team. For the important victory and making it to EURO.

“For proving once again, whenever Ukrainians face difficulties they do not give up and continue to fight, Ukrainians certainly win.”

Kyrgyzstan’s foreign ministry has urged citizens of the Central Asian nation to put off unnecessary travel to Russia after a deadly shooting that was blamed on migrants from the region.

The developments have increased existing anti-immigrant sentiment in Russia, especially towards migrant labourers from the predominantly Muslim countries of Central Asia.

A Kyrgyzstan-born man was remanded in pre-trial custody by a Russian court on Tuesday, accused of providing accommodation to the four suspected perpetrators, who are of Tajik origin. Those four and three others of Tajik origin suspected of complicity are also in pre-trial detention.

Islamic State has said it was responsible for the attack and has released video footage of the massacre, which killed 139 people and wounded 182. The group has not identified any of the attackers.

Hundreds of thousands of people from Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, and Kyrgyzstan work in Russia, and some have already said it has become tougher for them to do so. Some passengers, for example, refuse to board taxis with Tajik drivers.

A Ukrainian spy boss has revealed a secretive assassination campaign which is possibly being carried out by Ukraine’s national spy service to target pro-Kremlin collaborators.

In an hour-long televised interview, Lieutenant General Vasyl Malyuk, an SBU senior officer, said spiekd had targeted “very many” people responsible for Ukrainian war crimes.

This included clandestine operations to kill Ukrainian nationals collaborating with Moscow to arrest other Ukrainians, with the SBU sanctioned to carry out assassinations once their intelligence had been confirmed.

Notable deaths included Vladlen Tatarsky, a Kremlin propagandist and media personality, who was targeted for his calls for the elimination of Ukrainians.

He was handed an explosive-rigged statuette in a St Petersburg cafe in April last year, with Mr Malyuk saying he deserved it given his repeated abuse of Ukrainian prisoners of war.

Former parliament member Ilya Kyva, who was a fugitive from Kyiv authorities after being convicted of treason, was another high-profile execution. He had been collaborating with Russia’s FSB when he was killed by an assassin who shot him at close range in a park in suburban Moscow.

In one assassination attempt that failed, close Vladimir Putin ally Aleksander Dugin had switched cars at the last minute with his daughter, who was killed when the vehicle, which had been rigged with a bomb, exploded in Moscow.

France will soon be able to deliver 78 Caesar howitzers to Ukraine and will boost its supply of shells to meet Kyiv‘s urgent needs for ammunition to fight Russia‘s full-scale invasion, the defense minister said Tuesday.

Defense Minister Sébastien Lecornu said at a news conference that an agreement was reached among France, Ukraine and Denmark to finance the Caesar self-propelled 155 mm howitzers, which will enable France to “quickly deliver” them.

France has also set a goal to deliver 80,000 shells for 155 mm guns to Ukraine this year — up from 30,000 delivered since the beginning of the war on Feb. 24, 2022, he said.

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Ukraine’s air force chief said on Wednesday that Russia launched 13 Shahed drones at Ukraine overnight, 10 of which were downed in Kharkiv, Sumy and Kyiv regions.

“Anti-aircraft missile units, mobile fire groups, electronic warfare equipment … were involved in repelling the air attack,” Mykola Oleshchuk said.

Ukraine needs any edge it can get to repel Russia from its territory. One emerging bright spot is its small but fast-growing defense industry, which the government is flooding with money in hopes that a surge of homemade weapons and ammunition can help turn the tide.

The effort ramped up sharply over the past year as the U.S. and Europe strained to deliver weapons and other aid to Ukraine, which is up against a much bigger Russian military backed by a thriving domestic defense industry.

The Ukrainian government budgeted nearly $1.4 billion in 2024 to buy and develop weapons at home — 20 times more than before Russia’s full-scale invasion.