According to information from Kiev, a naval ship was severely damaged in a Ukrainian sea drone attack on the Russian Black Sea port of Novorossiysk. A video of the operation shows how a remote-controlled boat from the SBU secret service, loaded with 450 kilograms of explosives, attacked the ship, several Ukrainian media quoted an informant as saying on Friday. The Russian landing ship is said to have had a crew of around 100 men. The Defense Ministry in Moscow confirmed the drone strike but claimed it was repelled.
From Saturday, representatives from 30 countries in Jeddah in Saudi Arabia want to discuss possible steps to end the 17-month war of aggression by Russia in Ukraine. The federal government is hoping for progress in aligning various peace plans, as stated in Berlin on Friday.
Sea drone hits Russian naval ship
In the video for Novorossiysk, the attack can be seen from a drone perspective until just before the ship's wall. The media in Kiev reported that it was a joint operation by the SBU and the Ukrainian Navy. Later pictures showed the ship "Olenegorski gornjak" (Olenegorsk miner), commissioned in 1976, list- ing in Novorossiysk Bay. According to official Russian information, there was no damage. But even Russian military bloggers published photos and videos of the ship lying low in the water and wrote about the damage.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy thanked the SBU secret service for its work. The SBU brought the war back to the Russian aggressor, Zelenskyj noted on Friday evening in his nightly video address on his Telegram channel. "What you bring into the world, that's what you ultimately stay with."
"This is good and fair news for Ukraine," spokesman for the Kiev military intelligence service HUR, Andriy Yusov, said on television. "This will continue." The hit on the DropShip is a great loss for the Russian fleet. According to the information, Russia uses this type of ship to transport troops and material to the annexed Crimean Peninsula.
Ukraine has almost no navy left. However, last year she sank the flagship of the Russian Black Sea Fleet, the cruiser Moskva, with Neptun-type anti-ship missiles. More recently, Ukraine has increased its use of unmanned explosive boats against Russian targets.
Saudi Arabia confirms Ukraine summit in Jeddah
On Friday evening, Saudi Arabia officially confirmed the summit meeting of high-ranking international representatives on the Russian war of aggression against Ukraine. The state news agency SPA released a statement in the evening that the meeting would take place on Saturday in the coastal city of Jeddah. The aim is to find a "political and diplomatic way" to end the war against Ukraine. National security advisors and "a number of representatives from different countries" will therefore attend the meeting.
Representatives from Ukraine, the USA, the EU, Great Britain as well as Chile, Indonesia, Egypt and Turkey are expected, according to diplomatic circles in Riyadh. Russia will not participate. Germany is represented by Jens Plötner, foreign policy advisor to Chancellor Olaf Scholz, and Tjorven Bellmann, political director at the Federal Foreign Office, government circles said on Friday.
The Presidential Administration of Ukraine had also previously confirmed the planned meeting in the Gulf. It is about the implementation of the "peace formula" of the Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyj for a solution to the conflict. The core of the formula is the demand for the withdrawal of Russian troops from Ukraine. The Wall Street Journal had previously reported.
Kiev: Army advances south of Bakhmut
According to the Defense Ministry in Kiev, the Ukrainian army has made further gains in territory near the Russian-controlled city of Bakhmut. "On the southern flank, despite heavy artillery fire and mines, our armed forces are continuing their advance step by step," Deputy Defense Minister Hanna Maljar wrote on Telegram on Friday about the situation in eastern Ukraine. She did not give any specific information.
The general staff reports said indirectly that the town of Klishchiyivka south of Bakhmut was no longer fully under Russian control. At the same time, Russian attacks north of Bakhmut and on the Kupyansk, Lyman and Svatove sectors on the borders between the eastern Ukrainian regions of Luhansk, Kharkiv and Donetsk were repelled.
Russian minister Shoigu allegedly in the war zone
According to official information, Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu traveled to the war zone in Ukraine to visit troops. The Ministry in Moscow published a short video on Friday. It showed Shoigu sitting in a helicopter and conferring with officers. According to the information, he is said to have visited the Russian Army Group "Center" of commander Andrei Mordvichjov. It was not known exactly when and where the recordings were made. In the past, the Ministry of Defense had already published recordings of Shoigu's travels, which observers later classified as outdated.
London: Risky Russian attacks close to the NATO border
In order to prevent grain exports from Ukraine, British secret services estimate that Russia is taking the risk of attacking Ukrainian ports on the Danube. According to the Ministry of Defense in London, the targets of the Iranian-design drones are only 200 meters from the Romanian border and thus from NATO territory. The aim of the attacks is to get international shipping to stop trading via Ukrainian Danube ports.
A grain silo was recently destroyed in the Ukrainian port of Izmail on the Danube. A few weeks ago, Russia canceled an agreement on sea exports of Ukrainian grain and has been bombing port facilities and storage facilities for agricultural products ever since.
