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Post by Admin on Aug 5, 2023 16:37:41 GMT
A Russian tanker with 11 crew members has been hit in a Ukrainian attack in the Black Sea, Russian officials say.
They said the vessel's engine room was damaged in the overnight strike in the Kerch Strait. No-one was hurt.
Ukraine has not publicly commented. But a Ukrainian security service source told the BBC a sea drone had been used.
Saturday's attack is the second in as many days involving such weapons. Russia, however, has not admitted any damage during Friday's attack.
Naval drones, or sea drones, are small, unmanned vessels which operate on or below the water's surface. Research by BBC Verify suggests Ukraine has carried out several attacks with sea drones.
The Kerch Strait connects the Black Sea and the Sea of Azov, separating Crimea - Ukraine's peninsula annexed by Moscow in 2014 - and Russia's Taman peninsula.
The Ukrainian security service source told the BBC Saturday's operation was also conducted jointly with the Ukrainian navy and that 450kg of TNT explosive had been used.
The tanker was loaded with fuel, they said so the "fireworks" were visible from afar.
Russia's maritime transport agency says the Sig tanker was located 17 miles (27km) south of the Crimean Bridge.
Russia's state-run Tass news agency quoted an official from the country's regional Marine Rescue Co-ordination Centre (MRCC) as saying that two tugs had already arrived at the scene of the attack - just to the south of the Kerch Strait.
"The engine room was damaged. Not much, but it was damaged," the official said.
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Post by Admin on Sept 1, 2023 22:13:42 GMT
Russian President Vladimir Putin will host Turkish leader Recep Tayyip Erdogan for talks next week, the Kremlin announced Friday, just over six weeks after Moscow broke off a deal brokered by Ankara and the U.N. that allowed Ukrainian grain to reach world markets safely despite the 18-month war.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Putin and Erdogan would meet Monday in Russia’s Black Sea resort of Sochi.
The announcement ended weeks of speculation about when and where the two leaders might meet next, while international efforts continue to try to patch up the Black Sea Grain Initiative, which sent grain to parts of Africa, the Middle East and Asia where hunger is a growing threat.
Ukraine and Russia are both major global suppliers of wheat, barley, sunflower oil and other commodities that developing nations rely on.
Turkey, together with the United Nations, brokered the deal in July 2022 that allowed Ukraine to resume shipping foodstuffs from three Black Sea ports. Under the initiative, ship and cargo inspections were overseen from Turkey, and vessels sailed to and from Ukraine from there. Almost 33,000 tons of grain left Ukraine while the agreement was in effect.
Ankara’s role was key. Turkey is one of Russia’s main trading partners and a logistical hub for Russia’s foreign trade amid Western sanctions. Erdogan calls Putin “my dear friend.”
A separate memorandum that Moscow and the U.N. agreed to at the same time as the Ukraine initiative pledged to help to overcome wartime obstacles to Russian exports of food and fertilizer. Russian officials repeatedly threatened to pull out of the deals and finally did in July, alleging its conditions hadn’t been met.
Russia has complained that restrictions on shipping and insurance have hampered its agricultural exports, but it has shipped record amounts of wheat since last year.
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Post by Admin on Sept 3, 2023 18:37:26 GMT
KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Two people were hospitalized following a 3½-hour Russian drone barrage on a port in Ukraine’s Odesa region on Sunday, officials said.
The attack on the Reni seaport comes a day before Russian President Vladimir Putin is due to meet with his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan to discuss the resumption of food shipments from Ukraine under a Black Sea grain agreement that Moscow broke off from in July.
Russian forces fired 25 Iranian-made Shahed drones along the Danube River in the early hours of Sunday, 22 of which were shot down by air defenses, the Ukrainian air force said on Telegram.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy ’s chief of staff, Andriy Yermak, described the assault as part of a Russian drive “to provoke a food crisis and hunger in the world.”
Russia's Defense Ministry said in a statement that the attack was aimed at fuel storage facilities used to supply military equipment.
Putin and Erdogan’s long-awaited meeting is due to take place in Sochi on Russia’s southwest coast on Monday.
Turkish officials have confirmed that the pair will discuss renewing the Black Sea grain initiative, which the Kremlin pulled out of six weeks ago.
The deal — brokered by the United Nations and Turkey in July 2022 — had allowed nearly 33 million metric tons (36 million tons) of grain and other commodities to leave three Ukrainian ports safely despite Russia’s war.
However, Russia broke away from the agreement after claiming that a parallel deal promising to remove obstacles to Russian exports of food and fertilizer hadn’t been honored.
Moscow complained that restrictions on shipping and insurance hampered its agricultural trade, even though it has shipped record amounts of wheat since last year.
The Sochi summit follows talks between the Russian and Turkish foreign ministers on Thursday, during which Russia handed over a list of actions that the West would have to take in order for Ukraine’s Black Sea exports to resume.
Erdogan has indicated sympathy with Putin’s position. In July, he said Putin had “certain expectations from Western countries” over the Black Sea deal and that it was “crucial for these countries to take action in this regard.”
Elsewhere in Ukraine, three people were killed in two separate attacks by Russian shelling in the Donetsk area Sunday. An 85-year-old man was named among the victims after being crushed by the rubble of his own home, Ukraine’s Prosecutors' Office reported.
A 36-year-old man was also killed in another Russian attack on Ukraine’s Kherson region.
Ukrainian prosecutors announced Sunday that they had opened a war crimes investigation into the death of a police officer killed by Russian shelling on the town of Seredyna-Buda on Saturday afternoon.
Two other police officers and one civilian were wounded during the attack, which hit Ukraine’s north-eastern Sumy region.
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Post by Admin on Sept 4, 2023 13:15:09 GMT
The Turkish president will attempt to persuade Vladimir Putin to re-enter the Black Sea grain deal that he quit two months ago claiming the west was not keeping its side of the bargain covering Russian food and fertiliser exports.
Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, the chief negotiator behind the initial deal signed in July 2022, has not met the Russian president face to face since the deal collapsed. The immediate backdrop to the meeting in Sochi, Russia, on Monday was another Russian drone strike on a Ukrainian grain-exporting port that damaged warehouses and set buildings on fire.
Russian drones have been systematically attacking Ukrainian grain stores since Moscow’s withdrawal from the deal and the latest attack on the Danube River port of Izmail in Ukraine’s southern Odesa region hit warehouses and production buildings. More than 220,000 tonnes of Ukrainian grain have been destroyed in the Russian assaults, Ukraine says.
It is the first in-person meeting between the two leaders since October, and if wider peace talks do ever start, Erdoğan is likely to be a leading intermediary.
Erdoğan’s chief foreign policy and security adviser, Akif Çağatay Kılıç, said in advance of the meeting: “We play a leading role here. The current status [of the grain deal] will be discussed at the summit on Monday. We are cautious, but we hope to achieve success.”
“I know that you intend to raise the issue of the grain deal,” Putin told Erdoğan at the start of the meeting. “We are open to negotiations on this question.”
Erdoğan replied: “Everyone is waiting for what will come out of our meeting today.”
The Turkish foreign minister, Hakan Fidan, earlier said it was a “process that tries to better understand Russia’s position and requests, and to meet them. “There are many issues ranging from financial transactions to insurance.”
The west says it has already issued comprehensive guidance to underline the wide exemptions in its sanctions against Russia’s food exports and had previously tried to reassure Putin that Russian grain and fertiliser exports were not subject to western sanctions.
Russia exported 56m tonnes of grain products under the Black Sea grain deal, earning $41bn in the process, the west claims. But Moscow said in practice that continued restrictions on payments, logistics and insurance had hindered shipments, leaving western undertakings unfulfilled.
Moscow also wants the Russian Agricultural Bank to be reconnected to the Swift international payments system. The west cut off the bank in June 2022 as part of sanctions imposed in response to the invasion, but the restrictions do not apply to new debt or equity.
The Kremlin is also keen to restart a critical ammonia pipeline that runs to Pivdennyi in the Odesa region, something US and European officials are increasingly open to should Kyiv allow it, given ammonia’s role as a key fertiliser ingredient.
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Post by Admin on Sept 4, 2023 13:49:36 GMT
Watch live: Russian President Vladimir Putin hosts Turkish leader Recep Tayyip Erdogan for talks in the Black Sea resort of Sochi
#Putin #Erdogan #Russia #SkyNews
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