Poland says a Russian helicopter violated its airspace over the Baltic Sea
WARSAW: A Russian military helicopter of the Baltic Fleet violated Polish airspace over the Baltic Sea on Friday evening, the Polish Armed Forces said on X on Saturday.
'The nature of the incident indicates that Russia is testing the readiness of our air defense systems,' they added.
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Saudi Gazette
3 hours ago
- Saudi Gazette
Massive Russian aerial attack targets Kharkiv
KYIV — A large Russian attack with drones and missiles has hit Ukraine's eastern city of Kharkiv on Saturday, killing at least three people and injuring 21, local officials said. The barrage — the latest in near-daily widescale attacks — included aerial glide bombs that have become part of a fierce Russian onslaught in the three-year war. The intensity of the Russian attacks on Ukraine over the past weeks has further dampened hopes that the warring sides could reach a peace deal anytime soon — especially after Kyiv recently embarrassed the Kremlin with a surprise drone attack on military air bases deep inside Russia. According to Ukraine's Air Force, Russia struck with 215 missiles and drones overnight, and Ukrainian air defenses shot down and neutralized 87 drones and seven missiles. Several other areas in Ukraine were also hit, including the regions of Donetsk, Dnipropetrovsk, Odesa, and the city of Ternopil, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha said in a post on X. 'To put an end to Russia's killing and destruction, more pressure on Moscow is required, as are more steps to strengthen Ukraine,' he said. Kharkiv's mayor Ihor Terekhov said the attack also damaged 18 apartment buildings and 13 private homes. Terekhov said it was 'the most powerful attack' on the city since the full-scale invasion in 2022. Kharkiv's regional governor Oleh Syniehubov said two districts in the city were struck with three missiles, five aerial glide bombs and 48 drones. Among the injured were two children, a month and a half year old baby boy and a 14-year old girl, he added. The attack on Kharkiv comes one day after Russia launched one of the fiercest missile and drone barrages on Ukraine, striking six Ukrainian territories and killing at least killing at least six people and injuring about 80. Among the dead were three emergency responders in Kyiv, one person in Lutsk and two people in Chernihiv. Meanwhile, the Ukrainian Air Force said it shot down a Russian Su-35 fighter jet on the Kursk front inside Russia, the Ukrainian daily Ukrainskaia Pravda reported. No more details were given immediately. US President Donald Trump said this week that his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, told him Moscow would respond to Ukraine's attack on Russian military airfields last Sunday with "Operation Spiderweb" In a new statement bound to cause offense in Kyiv and amongst its allies, Trump told journalists on board Air Force One on Friday evening local time when asked about "Operation Spiderweb": "They gave Putin a reason to go in and bomb the hell out of them last night. That's the thing I didn't like about it. When I saw it I said 'Here we go, now it's going to be a strike'." — BBC
Saudi Gazette
a day ago
- Saudi Gazette
Russian aerial assault kills four in Kyiv days after Ukraine's attack on bomber fleet
KYIV — Russia launched drones and ballistic missiles at multiple targets across Ukraine, Kyiv authorities said on Friday, in a deadly air assault that left at least four people dead and 20 wounded in the capital. Ukraine is hit by nightly barrages of Russian drones and missiles. But the country has been bracing for a major retaliatory strike promised by President Vladimir Putin following its daring raids on airfields deep inside Russia. It was unclear whether the assault into Friday was that strike or if further barrages can be expected in the coming days. Fires caused by falling debris and drone strikes were reported in buildings across Kyiv, as Ukraine attempted to repel the Russian attack, the Head of Kyiv City Military Administration Tymur Tkachenko said. A CNN producer in the Kyiv region reported hearing at least two explosions. Tkachenko accused Russia of hitting residential areas with the drone attack, saying a high-rise building the the Solomyansky district of Kyiv was damaged. Kyiv's Mayor Vitali Klitschko also reported fires in the districts of Holosiivskyi and Darnytskyi of the Ukrainian capital. Ukrainian air defense units were activated in the Obolon area of Kyiv, Klitschko said on Telegram early Friday morning local time. 'The attack on the capital continues. Stay in shelters!' he said. Photos published by Reuters showed Kyiv residents, some accompanied by children sitting in prams, taking shelter in an underground car park. Search and rescue operations are ongoing as of Friday morning. In the northwestern city of Lutsk – around 60 miles from the border with Poland – Russian strikes wounded five people, its mayor Ihor Polishchuk wrote on Telegram early Friday. Separately, a Ukrainian drone attack hit an industrial site in the southern Russian city of Engels, the governor of the region said on Friday. Footage that CNN has geolocated to the Engels site – about 460 kilometers (285 miles) from the border with Ukraine – shows flames burning and plumes of smoke billowing into the air. In January, a Ukrainian drone attack hit the Kombinat Kristall oil depot that serves a military airfield in the city. Russia's latest drone and missile attack on Ukraine comes days after Ukraine's security service launched a series of daring, large-scale drone attacks deep inside Russia, striking airfields and hitting multiple military aircraft, including some its prized nuclear-capable heavy bomber aircraft. On Tuesday, Ukraine also launched an attack on the Kerch Bridge, the only direct connection point between Russia and the annexed Crimean Peninsula, with 1,100 kilograms of explosives that had been planted underwater. The assault took Moscow by surprise and has sparked an outpouring of calls for huge retaliation from nationalist and pro-Kremlin firebrands inside Russia. Russia's heavy bomber fleet have been instrumental in the routine bombardments of Ukrainian cities since Moscow's full scale invasion, able to fire hard to intercept cruise missiles at a safe distance from Kyiv's anti-aircraft batteries. Putin told his US counterpart Donald Trump that Russia would respond to those attacks in the two leaders' latest phone call on Wednesday. Trump's account of the call gave no indication he had called on the Russian president to temper his response, or put pressure Putin to end his invasion of Ukraine. That stance has sparked widespread anger and disappointment in Ukraine. 'When Putin mentioned he is going to avenge or deliver a new strike against Ukraine, we know what it means. It's about civilians,' Ukrainian lawmaker Oleksandr Merezhko told CNN earliuer this week. 'And President Trump didn't say, 'Vladimir, stop.'' And on Thursday, Trump compared the war to a brawl between children, saying in the Oval Office: 'Sometimes you're better off letting them fight for a while and then pulling them apart.' Analysts – and Ukraine's air defense forces – are watching closely for whether Russia might deploy some of its latest weaponry as a way to retaliate against Kyiv for its latest attacks. For example, Russia launched a new non-nuclear medium-range ballistic missile at the Ukrainian city of Dnipro last November, in an attack Putin said was a response to the use of American and British long-range weapons by Ukraine's military. That particular missile contained multiple warheads and its use in anger was seen by analysts at the time as a crossing the Rubicon moment. Russia has expanded its drone and missile production in the past year, allowing for mass attacks using several hundred projectiles at once. The Russian strategy seeks to overwhelm Ukraine's air defenses with scores of low-cost drones so that simultaneous missile strikes can succeed. Ukraine relies on US technology to defend itself against the nightly barrages of drones and missiles. But the Trump administration has signaled it expects European allies to do far more of the heavy lifting when it comes to protecting Ukraine. Last week the Pentagon notified Congress that it will be diverting critical anti-drone technology that had been allocated for Ukraine to US Air Force units in the Middle East, according to correspondence obtained by CNN and people familiar with the matter. — CNN
Saudi Gazette
4 days ago
- Saudi Gazette
Ukraine strikes bridge connecting Russia to Crimea with underwater explosives
KYIV — Ukraine said on Tuesday that it had hit the bridge connecting Russia and the occupied Crimean Peninsula with explosives planted underwater, in its third attack on the vital supply line for Moscow's forces since the full-scale war began in 2022. Ukraine's security service, the SBU, said on Telegram that its agents had mined the piers of the road and rail Crimean Bridge, also called the Kerch Bridge, and detonated the first explosive at 4.44 a.m. Tuesday. The whole operation took several months, it added. The agency said it had used 1,100 kilograms of explosives which 'severely damaged' the underwater pillars supporting the bridge. Russian officials did not immediately respond to Ukraine's claims. Traffic on the bridge has been temporarily suspended, the bridge operator announced on its official Telegram account. Although the scale of the damage was not immediately clear, Tuesday's attack is the latest example of the SBU's attempts to blindside Moscow and demonstrate that there are costs to continuing its war. On Sunday, the SBU launched an audacious drone attack on Moscow's fleet of nuclear-capable bombers, stationed at various Russian airfields thousands of miles away from Ukraine. Vasul Malyuk, the head of the SBU, said that attack caused an estimated $7 billion in damage and had struck 34% of Russia's strategic cruise missile carriers, which have been used to pummel Ukrainian cities throughout the war. The SBU said Malyuk had also overseen Tuesday's attack. 'God loves the Trinity, and the SBU always sees things through to the end and never does the same thing twice. We previously struck the Crimean Bridge twice, in 2022 and 2023. So today we continued this tradition, this time underwater,' Malyuk said. He stressed that the bridge is a 'completely legitimate target,' since Russia uses it 'as a logistical artery to supply its troops' fighting in mainland Ukraine. As well as serving as a vital supply line for Moscow's troops, the Crimean Bridge also has huge symbolic value for President Vladimir Putin, embodying his objective to bind the Ukrainian peninsula to Russia. Built after Russia's annexation of Crimea in 2014, Putin opened the bridge in 2018. The project cost around $3.7 billion. Tuesday's attack marks the third time that Ukraine has targeted the bridge since Moscow's full-scale invasion in 2022. In October of that year, a fuel truck exploded on the bridge, engulfing a part of it in flames. In July 2023, the SBU said it had blown up a part of the bridge using an experimental sea drone. Both times, Russia moved quickly to repair the damaged sections. As well as suspending traffic on the bridge, Russian authorities temporarily halted maritime traffic in the waters off Sevastopol, the largest city in Crimea, according to state media RIA Novosti. — CNN
