Attempted attacks against the occupied Crimean peninsula are increasing, according to Moscow. This Sunday, September 10, the Russian Ministry of Defense said on secure Telegram messaging that three Ukrainian military boats were sunk in the Black Sea, with soldiers on board.
These three stars “were heading towards the Crimean peninsula” annexed by Russia in 2014, the press release indicates. During the night from Saturday to Sunday, “in the western part of the Black Sea, the naval aviation of the Black Sea Fleet destroyed three American-made Willard Sea Force military speedboats [transportant] landing groups of the Ukrainian Armed Forces,” the ministry said. The Russian military also announced that eight Ukrainian drones had been shot down by air defense over Crimea, as well as another in the Russian region of Bryansk, bordering Ukraine.
kyiv defends itself against a swarm of Russian explosive drones
On the same night, the Ukrainian capital suffered a major Russian drone attack. According to a statement issued this Sunday morning by the Ukrainian General Staff, “the occupiers attacked Ukraine with 32 Shahed-136/131 type kamikaze drones, 25 of which were destroyed by the Ukrainian air defense forces”.
The message confirms that “the Russian occupiers directed most of the attack drones towards the kyiv region.” An AFP journalist present in the capital also reported hearing around ten explosions during the night. According to the kyiv military administration, an apartment was damaged by falling debris, as were cars and trolleybus cables. One person was injured but his life is not in danger, she wrote on Telegram.
Russian regional elections on Ukrainian soil
At the same time, the last day of regional elections takes place this Sunday in Russia, including in the occupied Ukrainian regions. Started on Friday, this ballot should make it possible to appoint governors, regional deputies and municipal elected officials.
But there should be no surprises: with a muzzled opposition and voices protesting against the conflict in Ukraine harshly suppressed, the ballot promises to be without suspense, as Moscow tries to legitimize its annexations in Ukraine by having the territories voted busy. kyiv and its Western allies have already denounced “illegal” elections in eastern and southern Ukraine. The invaded country called the poll in the occupied territories a “pseudo-election […] totally devoid of political and legal meaning”, the European Union also deeming it “illegal”.
Lula tempers G20 criticism of Russia
The Brazilian president persists and signs. While he had already indicated on Saturday evening that Vladimir Putin will not be arrested if he comes to the next G20 summit in Brazil in 2024, Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva declared this Sunday that “geopolitical questions” should not matter. derail group discussions. An implicit reference to differences over the war in Ukraine.
Taking the presidency of the bloc of twenty most developed countries at the end of the New Delhi summit in India, the Brazilian head of state indicated that he did not want to “let geopolitical issues block the agenda of the G20 discussions”, estimating that “we have no interest in the G20 being divided. We need peace and cooperation instead of conflict.” A position echoing the statement by leaders of the G20 countries on Saturday, condemning Russia’s “use of force” in Ukraine, without naming the aggressor country.
Ukraine denounces an impasse with the West on two key issues
It is the turn of Ukrainian diplomacy to criticize Western positions. On Friday, September 8, Foreign Minister Dmytro Kouleba denounced an “impasse” in negotiations with the West concerning two key points in its military defense against Moscow. Comments only broadcast on Saturday evening.
First, the creation of an international tribunal to judge Vladimir Putin. The G7 countries are strongly in favor of a tribunal […] “hybrid” based on Ukrainian legislation and which, according to Kiev, does not allow the immunity of Russian leaders to be lifted, assured the minister. In particular those of President Putin, his Prime Minister Mikhail Michoustin and the head of Russian diplomacy Sergei Lavrov: “It is impossible to explain to the Ukrainians that such a court could take place without Putin in the dock,” added the Ukrainian prosecutor general, Andriï Kostin.
Another important issue: the transfer to Ukraine of hundreds of billions of euros of Russian assets frozen abroad. Since the start of the war, the Western allies have indeed frozen more than 300 billion euros in assets of the Russian Central Bank and several tens of billions of euros in various assets belonging to sanctioned persons or entities. A jackpot that kyiv wants to recover for its military defense.
“Unfortunately, we are at a kind of impasse on these two issues because we have divisions on the first and there is clearly a lack of will on the second”, declared the Ukrainian minister.
420,000 Russian soldiers would be deployed in Ukraine
In another statement, Ukrainian authorities said on Saturday that Russia has deployed more than “420,000 troops” to occupied areas in eastern and southern Ukraine, including Crimea, according to the deputy head of the intelligence within the Ministry of Defense, Vadym Skibitsky. This figure “does not include the Russian National Guard and other special structures responsible for maintaining the occupying power over our territories”, added the Ukrainian general.
Romania discovers drone debris on its soil
As Russia bombs Ukrainian ports on the Danube, on the border with Romania, Bucharest said on Saturday September 9 that Romanian soldiers discovered debris from a drone “similar to those used by the Russian army”, near the Romanian village from Plauru, also on the Ukrainian border. “During the search, debris from drones similar to those used by the Russian army were discovered,” the Ministry of Defense said in a statement, adding that they would be appraised. He also clarified that it was the Romanian navy which carried out the search after drone debris had already been discovered in the week, a few kilometers away.
“I strongly condemn this violation of our sovereign airspace which poses a threat to Romanian citizens in the sector,” said his side. Romanian President Klaus Iohannis on the social network X (formerly Twitter).