Russia claimed on Friday that it had destroyed Ukrainian drones in Moscow and the Black Sea, two places where such attacks have increased in recent weeks in the context of the Ukrainian counter-offensive. While the first cargo from Ukraine since the end of the grain agreement arrived Thursday evening as planned in Istanbul, the Turkish presidency warned Russia of rising tensions in the Black Sea.
L’Express summarizes the latest news for you.
Ukrainian drones in Moscow
“Last night, during an attempt to reach Moscow, the air defense forces destroyed a drone. The carcass of the drone fell back into the area of the Exhibition Center, and did not cause significant damage to the building “said Mayor Sergei Sobyanin. The capital’s emergency services are on the scene and, according to initial information, no casualties have been identified, added the elected official.
According to the Russian Defense Ministry, the attack was carried out by kyiv at 4 a.m. local time (0100 GMT) and targeted “locations in Moscow and the region”. The Exhibition Center, located in the west of the Russian capital some 5 km from the Kremlin, hosts trade shows, according to its website. “A partial collapse of the outer wall was found on one of the pavilions” of the complex, Russian state news agency TASS reported, citing emergency services.
According to the TASS agency, the airspace near Moscow’s Vnukovo international airport was also briefly closed.
A naval drone in the Black Sea
On the Black Sea side, Russia said it had thwarted a new Ukrainian attack a few hours earlier with a naval drone against its fleet present in the Black Sea. In recent weeks, devices of this type have targeted Russian ships on several occasions, since Moscow refused in mid-July to renew a UN-brokered agreement which authorized Ukrainian grain exports.
The ships targeted on Thursday evening, according to the Russian Defense Ministry, “were performing navigation control tasks in the southwestern part of the Black Sea, 237 km southwest of Sevastopol”, fleet headquarters local Russian.
“The unmanned enemy boat was destroyed by fire” from Russian military ships without reaching its target, the same source reported.
Turkish presidency warns Russia
Despite this maritime blockade, the first cargo ship departing from Ukraine since the end of the grain agreement arrived Thursday evening as planned in Istanbul, according to maritime traffic sites. The Hong Kong-flagged container ship ‘Joseph Schulte’ left the Ukrainian port of Odessa on Wednesday, a challenge to Russia, which has been threatening to attack such ships since withdrawing from the EU. agreement.
Russia had fired warning shots last weekend at a cargo ship belonging to a Turkish company heading for Izmail, a port on the Danube in southern Ukraine.
On Thursday evening, the Turkish presidency broke the silence, declaring that “interlocutors in Russia have been warned to avoid this kind of initiative which could raise tensions in the Black Sea”.
Moscow has also intensified its attacks on Ukrainian port infrastructure on the Black Sea and the Danube since its withdrawal from the grain agreement concluded under the aegis of the UN and Turkey and entered into force in the summer of 2022.
Xi Jinping at the top of the Brics, Putin absent
Chinese President Xi Jinping will travel to South Africa next week where he will pay a state visit and attend the BRICS summit, the Chinese Foreign Ministry announced on Friday. Africa is a new diplomatic issue for the West, Russia and China who are vying for influence in a context of divisions fueled by the conflict in Ukraine.
“At the invitation of the President of the Republic of South Africa Cyril Ramaphosa, President Xi Jinping will attend the 15th BRICS summit to be held in Johannesburg […] and will make a state visit to South Africa from August 21 to 24,” Hua Chunying, a ministry spokeswoman, said in a statement posted online.
After a long ambivalence about whether or not the Russian president will come to the Brics summit, Vladimir Putin, under an international arrest warrant, finally decided last month not to participate.