Ukraine released video footage showing Bayraktar TB-2 armed drones hitting two Raptor-class patrol boats at 4.51 a.m. Monday near Snake Island, a Ukrainian island that Russian forces had captured before the war on 24 February. The day was captured. The two boats appeared to collide, but it was not clear whether they had sunk.
Ukraine’s military said in recent days that it carried out several air strikes on the strategic island 22 miles off the Ukrainian coast southwest of Odessa, destroying air defense systems and other heavy weapons of a Russian military unit. Two boats in the area, each capable of carrying 20 Marines in addition to three crew members, were likely to be reinforced and re-supplied.
The island is of heavy symbolic importance to Ukraine as its defenders refused to surrender – according to the Ukrainian version of events which has developed into a national legend – and the “Russian battleship Go Screw itself” when the Russian Black Sea. The flagship, the missile cruiser Moskva, made contact with an ultimatum on 24 February.
Meanwhile in Poland, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said the US and its European allies would continue to work to strengthen the North Atlantic Treaty Organization when she and a delegation of US lawmakers met with Polish President Andrzej Duda.
Mrs Pelosi, who has previously traveled to Ukraine, said the US was grateful to Poland for opening its doors to millions of refugees from Ukraine since Russia’s invasion in late February.
Pelosi said in a statement: “Our members discussed our countries’ continued commitment to Ukraine, especially as Congress prepares to turn into law President Biden’s new request for additional security, economic and humanitarian assistance. “
Moscow itself was sunk in a Ukrainian missile attack on April 14, with dozens of sailors still listed as missing by Russian authorities. Since the start of the war, Ukraine has also sunk a Russian landing ship, the Saratov, and damaged at least one more in a missile attack on the Russian-occupied port of Berdysk on the Sea of Azov.
Fighting the enemy by pressurizing Russian supply lines inside Russia has become an important part of Ukraine’s effort to repel the Russian offensive itself. Russian forces continued to mount pressure in the Donbass region of eastern Ukraine on Monday, with heavy fighting north of the city of Slovyansk.
Ukrainian officials said in recent days they carried out several attacks on Russian forward positions in the Izium region north of Slovensk, killing senior commanders, including a general. Although the claim cannot be independently verified, drone footage released by Ukrainian volunteers working with the military on Monday showed a series of precision strikes on a large group of Russian armor south of Izium. Went.
In Russia’s Belgorod region, staging Russian attacks on Ukraine’s second-largest city Kharkiv and Donbass, Governor Vyacheslav Gladkov posted on Telegram that he woke up early on Monday as two loud explosions hit the city.
Mr Gladkov later posted that the explosions were caused by a Russian aircraft carrying out a combat mission and that the safety of residents was never threatened.
Videos posted by Belgorod residents to social media overnight showed flames of planes rising in the night sky, while others showed loud explosions or sonic booms.
There have been repeated incidents in Russia in recent weeks, with explosions destroying Russian ammunition depots, fuel facilities and railway bridges in the Belgorod, Bryansk and Kursk border areas for Russian forces invading Ukraine. serve as logistics bases.
On Sunday, Mr Gladkov said a fire had broken out at a Defense Ministry facility in the area. He said that one person was injured and seven houses were damaged in the incident. Footage posted by residents of the area showed thick plumes of smoke rising high in the sky, and the sound of secondary explosions being fired from ammunition.
Russia has accused Ukraine of sporadic attacks and sabotage in its territory. Ukrainian authorities have adopted a policy of not commenting on events on Russian territory, with Ukrainian presidential adviser Mykhailo Podolik describing recent blasts in Russian border areas as “karma” for Russian war crimes in Ukraine.
On Sunday, Roman Starovit, the regional governor of Russia’s Kursk region, said the partial collapse of a railway bridge in his region that day was an act of sabotage. “Experts from law-enforcement agencies will investigate in more detail,” he said on Telegram, adding that there were no casualties.
The Russian Defense Ministry did not immediately comment on the incident. Last month, Moscow warned it would strike “decision-making centers” in Kyiv if attacks on Russian territory continued.
In recent days, two simultaneous fires broke out at an oil depot and a military fuel facility in the Russian city of Bryansk, which is also close to the border with Ukraine. Earlier, a fuel depot in Belgorod had exploded, resulting in a Ukrainian helicopter raid.
For the past few weeks, Kursk, Belgorod and other areas close to Ukraine have been warned of a second-highest level of terroristic threat, allowing military and police posts to be set up across the region and increased patrols by security personnel. Other security measures.
The United States, fellow NATO members and other Western countries have increased their support for Ukraine by providing it with heavy weapons, training and intelligence. In response, Russian President Vladimir Putin and Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov have warned that Moscow may strike back.
Some Western officials called Russia’s decision last week to halt natural gas delivery to Poland and Bulgaria as the biggest retaliation ever and warned that more countries that rely on Russian energy supplies could soon be targeted. .
EU energy ministers are meeting on Monday to discuss the consequences of that decision. EU members are scrambling to reduce their reliance on Russian gas imports by entering into new contracts with alternative suppliers and taking measures to reduce gas consumption at home.
German Foreign Minister Annalena Berbock said late Sunday that her country would support an EU ban on Russian oil imports, confirming reports last week about Germany’s change of mind.
New oil supply contracts that have dramatically reduced Germany’s reliance on Russian oil mean the country is now prepared to face such sanctions, Ms Baerbock told ARD public sector broadcaster late Sunday. Told.
According to the government’s latest assessment, only 12% of Germany’s oil imports currently come from Russia, down from 35% before the war. Germany, the world’s biggest importer of Russian gas, cuts nearly a third of its gas imports from Russia to less than 55% before the war, but the government has said it will rely on Russian imports until 2024.
Later on Monday, Ukrainian officials were expected to welcome civilians evacuated over the weekend from the previous Ukrainian resistance stronghold in Mariupol, the port city on the Azov Sea, under siege by Russian forces since the start of the war.
Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky tweeted on Sunday that 100 people taking refuge in an underground compound under the city’s destroyed Azovstal steel plant are being evacuated under UN surveillance and will be taken to the southeastern city of Zaporizhzhya. He said more civilians would be evacuated.
Russia’s defense ministry said later on Sunday that 80 civilians had been “rescued from the area” through a humanitarian corridor during a temporary ceasefire. The civilians were evacuated to the village of Bezimen in the Russian-occupied Donetsk region of eastern Ukraine and given housing, food and medical aid, the ministry said. The representatives of the International Committee of the Red Cross were transferred.
Russian Orthodox Church spokesman Vladimir Legoyda wrote on his Telegram channel that Patriarch Kirill of Moscow, the church’s leader, was involved in organizing the citizens’ exit.
Mr Legoyda said the safe evacuation of civilians was “a very important result of negotiations conducted with the participation of international organisations.”