
Falling drone debris kills one in southern Russia, local officials say
The attack is Ukraine's latest in its war with Russia, which invaded its smaller neighbour in February 2022.
Emergency officials in Krasnodar region on the Black Sea, writing on the Telegram messaging app, said debris from a falling drone struck and killed a woman in Adler district near the resort city of Sochi.
A second woman was being treated in hospital for serious injuries.
Reuters could not independent confirm the report.
The administrative head of the Sirius federal district, south of Sochi, said a drone hit an oil base, but gave no further details.
Russia's Rosaviatsia aviation authority said operations were suspended at Sochi airport for about four hours.
Ukraine's military has frequently launched drone attacks on Russian targets often far from the war's front line, particularly on sites linked with energy.
Russian forces have in recent weeks intensified drone attacks on Ukrainian towns and cities.

Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles


BBC News
29 minutes ago
- BBC News
Global News Podcast Trump-Putin meeting over Ukraine likely ‘in coming days'
The Kremlin has said planning is underway for a meeting between Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump next week, but denied the Russian leader has agreed to a subsequent meeting with the US president and Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky. The Trump administration's long-threatened tariffs on around ninety countries have taken effect on imports from dozens of countries, raising the effective US rate to its highest level in nearly a century. Relatives of hostages held in Gaza have set sail towards the territory in a flotilla of eleven boats adorned with flags and protest posters, calling on the Israeli government to stop the war, amid discussion of plans to escalate the military conflict in Gaza. German police have arrested three men suspected of being members of the outlawed Reichsbeurger group and of planning high treason. The families of those killed in the Air India crash in Ahmedabad two months ago, say it's like 'losing him twice' after receiving parts of a stranger's body, instead of their relative. The dangers of unregulated cosmetic procedures like botox and what the UK government is doing about it. Why a new investigation into Pompeii has shed new light on what happened after the eruption of Mount Vesuvius, and why one 90's superhero has joined in with the Trump recruitment drive for ICE agents to ramp up immigration raids and detentions across the United States. The Global News Podcast brings you the breaking news you need to hear, as it happens. Listen for the latest headlines and current affairs from around the world. Politics, economics, climate, business, technology, health – we cover it all with expert analysis and insight. Get the news that matters, delivered twice a day on weekdays and daily at weekends, plus special bonus episodes reacting to urgent breaking stories. Follow or subscribe now and never miss a moment. Get in touch: globalpodcast@


The Independent
2 hours ago
- The Independent
A Trump-Putin summit will be as useful to Ukraine and democracy as Agent Orange is for gardening
A long overdue summit between the Presidents of the United States and the Russian Federation to discuss peace in Ukraine, where nuclear war has been threatened, must be seen as an historic moment for optimism. Except that from London to Langley, Berlin, Canberra and Tokyo, intelligence chiefs will be on tenterhooks wondering if this is another occasion that looks like the meeting between an agent and his handler. There's no evidence that Donald Trump works for Vladimir Putin. But there is ample evidence that the US president favours Putin's agenda. And that he has done all he can to hobble Ukraine while it defends itself against a Russian invasion of Europe's eastern flank. The summit was announced, significantly, by the Kremlin first. It may be held in the United Arab Emirates, which has been pursuing a 'friends with all, enemies of none' foreign policy. That would be apt; a summit held in a mostly benign authoritarian state between a malevolent leader of a brutal authoritarian state and his greatest admirer, who happens to lead the world's most powerful democracy. Trump has done some performative pouting and sounded peevish about Putin recently. He has been humiliated by the Russian president's indifference to his pleas to agree a ceasefire in Ukraine. This has provoked the leader of the free world to accuse its most dangerous challenger of 'bulls***' and to threaten largely toothless sanctions against the Kremlin. Earlier this year Trump. took a very different tone with Ukraine – a pro-western democracy on track to joining the European Union and hoping to become part of Nato. Trump cut weapons supplies to Kyiv. He blinded the US intelligence feed to Ukraine during the Russian counter-offensive to retake territory in Kursk. He publicly insulted Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky accusing him of risking World War III. He held Zelensky's feet to the fire to get a colonial-style mineral deal to pay for weapons that had been free. Trump also took Russia's side in every aspect of how he thought Ukraine should capitulate to Moscow in future peace talks. Putin is obsessed with returning Ukraine to the former Russian (or Soviet) empire. He has never hidden his ambition to do so and consistently denies that Ukraine is really an independent entity at all. He is also a former KBG agent, an expert at manipulation, who genuinely believes that 'the west' is plotting against Moscow, whatever ideology dominates the Kremlin. He ordered Russian intelligence services to interfere in the 2016 US elections, to undermine the very notion of truth in the western media, and has been delighted by Brexit as it weakens the perceived threat of the EU. In the US, Trump has further empowered Russia by his assault on the independence of the judiciary, his flouting of democratic conventions, the enrichment of his family through his presidency and the widespread spectacle of ICE arrests by masked police. A weakened American democracy in crisis is a victory for Putin – and it's been delivered by Trump. As The Independent has reported before, the Five Eyes intelligence network that links the US, UK, Canada, Australia and New Zealand is under strain because the agencies using the network do not trust Trump with their secrets – he has a record of blurting them out and of storing confidential material in his toilet. When he met Putin for his first summit in Helsinki in July 2018 he did so for more than two hours with only a US translator in the room with him and the Russian delegation. He snatched away the translator's notes after the meeting. Then, when asked if he agreed with US intelligence assessments that Russia has interfered with the US elections he said 'no'. 'President Putin says it's not Russia. I don't see any reason why it would be," he insisted. The remark was condemned by Republican grandees from then US House speaker Paul Ryan and senator John McCain, among many others. 'No prior president has ever abased himself more abjectly before a tyrant,' McCain said after the Helsinki summit. Most of Trump's face-to-face meetings with Putin have not been properly recorded and have often been held without the usual presence of White House aids and officials. And every time they meet, Trump has emerged apparently dazzled and fulsome in his praise for the leader of a regime that kills its political opponents in jail, tosses critics off balconies and uses nerve gas and radioactive poisons to bump off defectors to Britain. There is every chance that Trump will continue to take Russia's side against Ukraine in a summit with Putin. The bilateral sanctions he's threatened will make no difference to Russia, which now has negligible trade with the US. His 'tertiary' sanctions against India, which has been hit with a 25 per cent surge in tariffs because it imports Russian oil, are unlikely to be imposed or if they are they will be short lived. Trump needs India inside his tent. Trump has not threatened to renew arms shipments to Ukraine. He has not said he might reconsider the Nato/Ukraine request for American troops to help guarantee a future peace deal. He's granted tiny exports of enough Patriot air defence missile for Kyiv for about one night's Russian bombardment. Trump has caused turmoil in Nato more widely. The leaders of the alliance no longer see the US as a reliable ally – let alone the cornerstone of a military construct that has protected western democracy for six decades. Trump's relationship with Putin has been toxic for the West, for Europe and is stripping the branches of democracy like Agent Orange.


Reuters
2 hours ago
- Reuters
Russia's seven-month budget deficit exceeds annual target
MOSCOW, Aug 7 (Reuters) - Russia's seven-month budget deficit exceeded the target for the entire year by a quarter, Finance Ministry data showed on Thursday, highlighting the strain of financing the war in Ukraine. U.S. President Donald Trump, who is expected to meet Russian President Vladimir Putin in the coming days, said this week that the Russian economy "stinks", and that declining energy prices could pressure Putin to halt the war. The data showed that from January to August this year, Russia ran a budget deficit of 4.9 trillion roubles ($61.44 billion), or 2.2% of gross domestic product. Russia targets a deficit of 1.7% of GDP this year, having tripled it in May, citing falling oil prices and Trump's tariff wars as the main reasons. Last month, the deficit was in line with this target. The ministry reported that expenditures from January to July amounted to 25.19 trillion roubles, an increase of 20.8% compared to the same period last year. Meanwhile, revenues increased by only 2.8% year-on-year to 20.32 trillion roubles. "This is mainly due to the advanced financing of expenses in January of the current year, as well as a decrease in oil and gas revenue inflows," the ministry said, emphasizing that the current figure will not affect the annual target. Russia has been increasing fiscal spending throughout its three and a half years of war in Ukraine to finance the military effort. The Vedomosti business daily cited an unnamed Finance Ministry spokesman this week as saying that the ministry is planning another revision of this year's budget in the autumn. It did not provide any details of the planned revision. The daily also cited Dmitry Gusev, deputy head of the parliament's budget committee, as saying that increased spending was the main reason for the revision. Gusev also mentioned that non-energy revenues were affected by lower investment. The budget's oil and gas revenues - its most important source of cash, slated to account for about 22% of total revenues this year - fell by 27% in July due to lower prices and the strong rouble. Potential new sanctions, flagged by Trump in case Russia does not show any progress towards peace in Ukraine, added pressure on the economy, although the nature of new measures is not yet clear. However, Russia recorded a third consecutive week of deflation on August 6, increasing the possibility of another key rate cut by the central bank in September. A further cut could potentially boost Russia's flagging economic growth. ($1 = 79.7500 roubles)