Russia says it has neutralized dozens of drones – L’Express

This Tuesday, December 5, Ukraine enters its 650th day of war since the Russian invasion of February 2022. The night was marked by the neutralization by Russia, according to Moscow, of dozens of drones over Crimea and the Sea of ​​Azov.

⇒ Dozens of Ukrainian drones neutralized.

⇒ The White House’s warning to Congress.

⇒ The war and its 150 million tonnes of CO2 equivalent emissions.

“An attempt by the kyiv regime to carry out a terrorist attack with aerial drones […] was foiled last night,” the Russian Defense Ministry said in a statement. “Air defense systems destroyed 22 Ukrainian drones and 13 others were intercepted over the Sea of ​​Azov and Crimea.” , according to the same source.

A “new attempted attack by the Kiev regime” was foiled on Tuesday morning, with the Russian army destroying four Ukrainian drones and intercepting two drones over the Sea of ​​Azov, the Russian Defense Ministry said. shortly after in a second press release.

Crimea, annexed by Russia in 2014, is regularly targeted because it is the rear base of Russia’s Black Sea Fleet and a key supply route for Russian forces in southern and eastern Ukraine.

A halt to the flow of military aid to Ukraine from the United States would let Russian President Vladimir Putin win the war, Joe Biden’s national security adviser, Jake Sullivan, said at a press conference on Monday. He once again urged the US Congress to vote for additional funding.

“Congress must decide whether to continue supporting the fight for freedom in Ukraine […]or whether he will ignore the lessons we have learned from history and allow Vladimir Putin to prevail,” said Jake Sullivan. “It’s as simple as that,” he said.

In a letter sent Monday to Mike Johnson, head of the House of Representatives, with a Republican majority, White House Budget Director Shalanda Young asserts that “if Congress does not act, by the end of the year we will run out of resources to deliver more weapons and equipment to Ukraine and to supply material from U.S. military stockpiles.”

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky will address senators this Tuesday during a classified and closed videoconference, the leader of the Democratic majority in the Senate, Chuck Schumer, announced during the session. He called on all senators to attend the briefing “so that we can hear directly from him what precisely is at stake in this vote.”

Fuel, fires, future reconstructions… The carbon footprint of the Russian invasion in Ukraine is estimated at 150 million tonnes of CO2 equivalent emissions, more than that of Belgium in one year, a Ukrainian deputy minister declared Monday in Dubai . This estimate was carried out by a team of experts, the Initiative on GHG Accounting of War, led by a specialist in carbon emissions, Lennard de Klerk.

“The war had devastating consequences on the environment, the air, land and water were polluted because of the fighting,” said Viktoria Kireyeva, Deputy Minister of Environmental Protection and natural resources, on the sidelines of COP28, according to an English translation of his remarks.

Ukraine claimed on Monday to have exported seven million tonnes of goods since the establishment in August of a maritime corridor in the Black Sea, despite Russian threats of reprisals on ships circulating in the area. “Two hundred ships exported seven million tons of goods,” said Ukrainian Infrastructure Minister Oleksandr Kubrakov.

Among these cargoes, “at least five million tons of Ukrainian agricultural products,” he said on Telegram. In August, kyiv set up a maritime corridor between its southern ports on the Black Sea and the Bosphorus Strait, weeks after Moscow slammed the door on a grain deal between the two warring countries.

On October 27, Ukraine said it had exported 1.3 million tons of goods. The seven million figure, also hailed by President Volodymyr Zelensky on Monday, suggests that exports rose sharply in November. “Our maritime corridor continues to function,” said Volodymyr Zelensky.