Latest news with #SecurityService
Qatar Tribune
2 hours ago
- Business
- Qatar Tribune
Asian shares slide, oil prices climb higher
Agencies Asian shares sank on Monday and oil prices jumped as trade tensions and the Russian-Ukraine conflict ratcheted up geopolitical uncertainty. Hong Kong's Hang Seng plunged more than 2 percent as Beijing and Washington traded harsh words over trade. US President Donald Trump's announcement that he will double tariffs on steel and aluminum to 50 percent layered on still more worries for investors. China blasted the US for issuing AI chip export control guidelines, stopping the sale of chip design software to China, and planning to revoke Chinese student visas. A report over the weekend that China's factory activity contracted in May, although the decline slowed from April as the country reached a deal with the US to slash President Donald Trump's sky-high tariffs, further undermined market sentiment. Markets in mainland China were closed for a holiday. Oil prices rallied after OPEC+ decided on a modest increase in output beginning in July. It was the third monthly increase in a row. US benchmark crude oil gained $1.80 to $62.59 per barrel, while Brent crude, the international standard, was up $1.60 at $64.38 per barrel. Moscow pounded Ukraine with missiles and drones just hours before a new round of direct peace talks in Istanbul and a Ukrainian drone attack destroyed more than 40 Russian planes deep in Russia's territory, Ukraine's Security Service said on Sunday. Hong Kong's Hang Seng dropped 1.4 percent to 22,969.03 as China and the US accused each other of breaching their tariff agreement reached in Geneva last month. Tokyo's Nikkei 225 lost 1.3 percent to 37,470.67, while the Kospi in Seoul added 0.1 percent to 2,698.97. Australia's S&P/ASX 200 retreated 0.2 percent to 8,414.10. India's Sensex lost 0.4 percent while the Taiex in Taiwan fell 1.6 percent . On Friday, Wall Street closed its best month since 2023.
Boston Globe
2 hours ago
- General
- Boston Globe
As Russia reels from drone attack, Ukraine targets vital Crimea Bridge
Advertisement The Washington Post could not independently verify these claims, and it was not immediately clear how much damage had been caused to the bridge. It was closed soon after the morning explosion but reopened a few hours later. Local Telegram channels in Crimea reported a second explosion Tuesday afternoon, and the bridge was once again closed to traffic for several hours. As of yet, there has been no official confirmation of the attack from Moscow. This would be Ukraine's third attack against the bridge - a key supply route, but also a symbol of Russia's occupation - since the start of Russia's 2022 full-scale invasion of Ukraine. In 2023, a Ukrainian attack using unmanned sea drones killed two civilians and damaged part of the road, closing a section of the bridge for several months. Advertisement 'There is no place for illegal Russian structures on the territory of our state,' Lieutenant General Vasyl Maliuk, head of the Security Service, said in a statement. 'The Crimean Bridge is a completely legitimate target, especially considering that the enemy used it as a logistical artery to supply its troops. Crimea is Ukraine, and any form of occupation will be met with a firm response.' Tuesday's attack follows Ukraine's stunning operation targeting Russia's strategic bomber fleet on Sunday, which was also coordinated by Maliuk and overseen by President Volodymyr Zelensky himself. The attack, which was planned over the course of 18 months and involved smuggling dozens of drones armed with explosives deep into Russian territory as far as Siberia and the Far East, reportedly destroyed at least 12 aircraft. Ukraine said the damaged or destroyed aircraft, some of which were nuclear-capable, included A-50, Tu-95, Tu-22 M3 and Tu-160 models - planes Kyiv said Russia had used nearly every night to bomb Ukraine. Most of the details on how the drone attack was carried out remain secret, and it is also not known if the planes reportedly destroyed were in active service. President Vladimir Putin has yet to comment on the attacks, and Russian state media has remained noticeably silent in the wake of Sunday's events. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Tuesday that the president was being kept abreast of developments and that an investigation was underway. Russia's pro-war military bloggers have been enraged by the attacks, which some dubbed Russia's Pearl Harbor, and said they had caused significant damage to Russia's military capabilities. Hawkish former Russian president Dmitry Medvedev on Tuesday promised revenge against Kyiv for the attacks. Advertisement 'Everything that is supposed to explode, will certainly explode,' wrote Medvedev, who now serves as the deputy chairman of Russia's Security Council, in a post on Telegram. In the past week, Russia has also launched swarms of drones and missile strikes against Ukrainian cities. The latest exchange of attacks marks an intensification of the conflict, as both sides have been pushed to the negotiating table by President Trump and European allies, and as Moscow has refused any talk of a ceasefire. A Russian strike on the northeastern city of Sumy on Tuesday morning killed four people and injured 24, according to local authorities. Russia and Ukraine met for a brief second round of direct talks in Istanbul on Monday, agreeing to swap dead and captured soldiers, but there was no significant progress toward ending the grueling war or even agreeing to a cease-fire. Ukraine negotiators after the talks said they had requested a meeting of Putin, Zelensky, and Trump to move forward the process, but Peskov on Tuesday dismissed the idea and said any such high-level meeting was 'unlikely.' Moscow on Monday also published its terms of discussion for any peace deal, including Ukraine surrendering more territory to Russia, cutting down the size of its military and not engaging in any alliances or weapons deals with Western nations. Medvedev on Tuesday cast the direct peace talks as a way to ensure a swift Russian victory. 'The Istanbul talks are not for striking a compromise peace on someone else's delusional terms but for ensuring our swift victory and the complete destruction of the neo-Nazi regime,' he wrote.
Yahoo
2 hours ago
- General
- Yahoo
Maddow: Ukraine's drone attack just exposed a huge vulnerability in the world's nuclear arsenal
This is an adapted excerpt from the June 2 episode of 'The Rachel Maddow Show.' They nicknamed it the 'Bear.' It's a military aircraft first designed in Russia in the 1950s and built to compete with the American B-52 bomber. The Tupolev Tu-95 can fly across continents before it has to stop and refuel, and it can carry eight long-range missiles. For decades, Russia has had dozens of Tu-95 bombers and other planes like it. On Sunday, Ukrainian drones struck several Russian air bases, destroying a fleet of planes, including several Tu-95 bombers. Russia has been hammering Ukraine with these bombers for years, and this weekend, Kyiv decided that rather than just trying to intercept the missiles that these planes keep firing from the sky, it would instead try to take out the planes. According to NBC News, Ukraine's Security Service smuggled more than a hundred drones into Russia. They hid them under the roofs of mobile wooden cabins in a process that took months. Then all at once, simultaneously, with no warning, the cabin roofs were opened via remote control, and then the drones flew off to do their thing, packed with explosives. Ukraine says they destroyed planes across four different military sites in Russia, including in Siberia at a site almost 3,000 miles away from Ukraine. Of Russia's entire fleet of military bombers, Ukraine says they were able to destroy or severely damage about a third of them. Now, was Russia aware that this was going to happen? Clearly no. Did they have defenses in place to protect their planes? Well, that's a funny story. In a video of Sunday's drone attack, put out by Ukraine's Security Service, you can see round objects on the wings of Russia's bomber planes. Those circles are actually tires — like the tires you put on your car. Apparently, this is a thing Russia has been doing for a while now. One NATO military official told CNN in 2023, 'We believe it's meant to protect against drones. ... We don't know if this will have any effect.' Well, now we know. As Sunday's strike shows, tires do not prevent drones from destroying your attack planes. This whole thing is just astonishing, not just in a foreign policy way, but also in an action movie kind of way. It also has really serious implications beyond Russia and Ukraine. Those bomber planes Ukraine just torched are not only equipped to carry regular missiles, they also can carry nuclear warheads. If you are Russia, the United States or any country with nuclear weapons, your national security policies are based around the fact that you have an impenetrable nuclear deterrent. Why would anyone attack you if you could then retaliate by blowing them off the map with your nuclear stockpile? But Ukraine just disabled a primary piece of Russia's nuclear arsenal with devices that look like they came from RadioShack, which means it has to contend with the fact that its impenetrable nuclear arsenal is not so impenetrable after all. Sunday's strike also has really important strategic consequences for every country that thinks of itself as having a nuclear deterrent. For our country, wouldn't this be a good time to have a robust, competent national security apparatus thinking about those kinds of implications and making smart, well-informed strategic decisions on how to react to them? This article was originally published on
Yahoo
5 hours ago
- General
- Yahoo
Ukraine strikes bridge linking Crimea, Russia in underwater attack
WASHINGTON — Ukraine said it struck and damaged the Crimean bridge on Tuesday, two days after carrying out one of its most audacious assaults of the war deep inside Russia. In a social media post, Ukraine's Ministry of Defense wrote that several months of planning went into the operation, which was executed by the country's Security Service. 'Today, at 4:44 a.m., without any civilian casualties, the first explosive device was detonated,' the statement read. 'The underwater pillars of the bridge supports were severely damaged at the seabed level — thanks to 1,100 kg of explosives in TNT equivalent. As a result, the bridge is now in critical condition.' Dozens of Palestinians killed after shots fired near Gaza aid site While the full extent of the damage was not yet clear, the agency shared a video of the underwater blast and smoke, as well as a photo showing mangled steel and other debris. The bridge — also called the Kerch Bridge — spans 12 miles and links annexed Crimea to Russia. It is a critical pipeline for the Russian military in its war against Ukraine and has symbolic importance for President Vladimir Putin, who attended a ceremony marking its opening in 2018. Vasyl Malyuk, head of Ukraine's Security Service, celebrated the operation in a statement. 'Previously, we hit the Crimean Bridge twice in 2022 and 2023. So, today we continued this tradition underwater,' Malyuk said. 'The Crimean Bridge is absolutely a legitimate target, especially considering that the enemy used it as a logistical artery to supply its troops.' Russia has not yet commented on the attack. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Time of India
7 hours ago
- Politics
- Time of India
Crimean Bridge: All about the mysterious Marichka underwater drone that Ukraine may have used to blow up the Crimean Bridge
ADVERTISEMENT What Is the Marichka Underwater Drone? — 2uwmp (@2uwmp) ADVERTISEMENT Bridge Explosion: What We Know ADVERTISEMENT Why the Crimean Bridge Matters Ukraine's Security Service (SBU) announced on Tuesday that it had struck the road-and-rail bridge linking Russia to the annexed Crimean peninsula with explosives placed below the waterline. According to the agency, 1,100 kilograms (2,420 pounds) of explosives were used in the early-morning operation, damaging the underwater support pillars of the strategically important structure — a key supply route for Russian forces in the ongoing reports suggest Ukraine may have deployed its "Marichka" underwater drone to carry out the attack.'The SBU conducted a new, unique special operation and struck the Crimean Bridge for the third time — this time underwater,' reported Ukrainian news outlet operation lasted several months. SBU agents mined the supports of this illegal facility. And today, without any civilian casualties, at 4:44 a.m., the first explosive device was activated!'The report added that underwater drones were used to follow up on the initial blast, causing further damage to the bridge's submerged Marichka is a 6-meter-long black unmanned underwater vehicle (UUV) developed in Ukraine. With a range of up to 1,000 kilometers, the drone is designed for a variety of missions, including reconnaissance, transportation, and direct to Ukrainian media, Marichka is a homegrown project built by volunteer engineers under the group AMMO Ukraine, and funded entirely through public donations. The estimated cost of a single unit is around UAH 16 million (approximately $433,000).The drone is said to be meant for suicide missions targeting Russian naval assets in the Black Sea as well as critical infrastructure along the Russian the SBU shared video footage showing an explosion beside one of the Crimean Bridge's support pillars. Reuters verified the location using satellite imagery and structural identifiers but could not independently confirm the time the footage was military bloggers downplayed the damage, claiming the attack was unsuccessful and suggesting it may have involved a Ukrainian sea drone rather than a strike comes shortly after another bold Ukrainian operation — "Spider's Web" — which targeted Russian long-range bomber aircraft at airfields deep inside Russian territory using aerial 19 kilometers (12 miles) over the Kerch Strait, the Crimean Bridge is the only direct land link between mainland Russia and the Crimean peninsula, which Moscow annexed from Ukraine in 2014. The bridge was personally championed by President Vladimir Putin, who opened it in structure includes separate road and railway spans, supported by concrete stilts and steel arches at the navigational channel between the Black Sea and the Sea of Russia's February 2022 invasion, the bridge played a critical role in moving troops and supplies into southern Ukraine, particularly into the Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions.
