Authorities received a new bomb threat to all schools in kyiv on Monday, three days after the first, the Ukrainian capital’s military administration said.
“Kyiv police again received a message about the mining of all schools” from Kyiv, the administration said on Telegram. The previous alert, which ultimately turned out to be false, dated September 1, the day of the start of the school year in Ukraine.
17 Russian drones shot down
It is a “significant night attack” which Ukraine faced, according to the Operational Command of the Ukrainian army for the south of the country. This Monday, September 4, the local governor of the Odessa region, Oleg Kiper, announced on his Telegram messaging channel that 17 Russian drones were shot down by Ukrainian forces near a port city on the Danube River.
“In several localities of Izmail district, warehouses and production buildings, agricultural machinery and equipment of industrial enterprises were damaged,” the governor explained.
He also clarified that the attack lasted three and a half hours and caused no casualties or injuries, although “several fires broke out in the territory due to falling debris” from downed Russian drones.
The river port of Izmail has become one of the main exit routes for Ukrainian agricultural products since Moscow ended the agreement on grain exports in July.
Moscow claims to have sunk 4 military patrol boats
For its part, Moscow claims several defensive victories on Monday, September 4. Early this morning, the Russian Ministry of Defense claimed on Telegram messaging to have destroyed four Ukrainian military boats in the eighth from Sunday to Monday.
Four military speedboats sunk “in the northwestern part of the Black Sea” by Russia’s naval aviation, the ministry statement said, while traveling to Cape Tarkhankut, western Crimea under Russian control.
Above all, the Ukrainian vessels would have transported “landing groups of the Armed Forces of Ukraine” indicates the Russian Ministry of Defense, without specifying the number of soldiers possibly killed.
On Wednesday August 30, the Russian Defense had already announced that it had destroyed four military patrol boats from kyiv which were carrying a total of up to 50 members of the special forces, without providing further information.
Two new Ukrainian drones shot down by Russia
Also via its channel on Telegram messaging, the Russian Ministry of Defense claimed last night the destruction of two new Ukrainian drones near Crimea and above a city in Russia bordering the country.
At around 1 a.m. (10 p.m. French time), “Ukrainian unmanned aerial vehicles were destroyed in the air over the Black Sea near the Crimean peninsula and over the territory of the region of Kursk by air defense systems in service,” the Russian statement said.
Drone attacks on Russian territory and Crimea, annexed by Moscow in 2014, have increased in recent weeks. On Saturday August 2, Russia also claimed to have shot down three Ukrainian naval drones in the Black Sea which would have targeted the peninsula under Russian control.
Erdogan negotiates with Putin this Monday in Sochi
The Turkish president hopes to change the mind of his Russian counterpart, this Monday, September 4. Recep Tayyip Erdogan is traveling to Sochi in southwestern Russia today to talk with Vladimir Putin about resuming the deal on Ukrainian grain exports via the Black Sea.
The challenge is daunting: getting the grain trade back on track in time for the fall harvest. If the hope of a new agreement remains weak, the Turkish president remains one of the last heads of member state of NATO to maintain good relations with the Russian autocrat. According to AFP, the Turkish head of state hopes to make these talks a springboard for broader peace negotiations between kyiv and Moscow.
Russian-Swedish man on trial for spying for Russia
The sexagenarian appears this Monday, September 4 in court in Stockholm. Sergei Skvortsov, settled in Sweden with his wife in the 90s and holder of dual Russian and Swedish nationality, is suspected of having transmitted Western technologies for nearly ten years to the Russian military intelligence services.
Arrested last November, the man is accused of having used the import-export companies of electronic components that he managed for his espionage activities. The Russian-Swedish will appear before the judges for “illegal intelligence activities” to the detriment of Sweden and the United States, after an investigation by the Swedish police carried out with the help of the American FBI.
The trial is scheduled to last until September 25 but will partly take place behind closed doors for national security reasons. Sergei Skvortsov faces up to four years in prison.
Zelensky replaces his Ministry of Defense amid corruption scandal
The man had been in the hot seat for a while. On the evening of Sunday September 3, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky announced the forthcoming replacement of his Defense Minister, Oleksiï Reznikov.
In his daily address, the Head of State considered that “the ministry needs new approaches and new modes of interaction with the army as much as with civil society in the broad sense”, while the minister operated during “550 days of war”. The Ukrainian president has offered to replace him with Roustem Umerov, Crimean Tatar and head of the State Property Fund of Ukraine.
And for good reason: this change comes in the midst of a Ukrainian counter-offensive and when Volodymyr Zelensky has promised to strengthen the fight against corruption. Several corruption scandals have recently come to light in the country, one of which involves the Ministry of Defence.
According to Ukrainian media, Oleksiï Reznikov is accused of having tripled the price of a contract signed at the end of 2022 with a Turkish company for the supply of uniforms. The man had meanwhile assured that the prices charged corresponded to what was offered by manufacturers in Turkey.