Latest news with #UkrainianSecurityServices
Wall Street Journal
7 days ago
- General
- Wall Street Journal
Watch: Ukraine Attacks Key Bridge Connecting Russia to Crimea
In recent weeks, both Russia and Ukraine have exchanged a flurry of attacks. Ukraine said it hit the Kerch bridge, which connects Crimea to Russia. Russian. Photo: Handout/Ukrainian Security Services/AFP via Getty Images
South China Morning Post
03-06-2025
- General
- South China Morning Post
Russia contends with drone damage to strategic air power as Ukraine's reach grows
A surprise Ukrainian drone attack that targeted several Russian air bases hosting nuclear-capable strategic bombers was unprecedented in its scope and sophistication for the first time reached as far as Siberia in a heavy blow to the Russian military. Ukraine said over 40 bombers, or about a third of Russia's strategic bomber fleet, were damaged or destroyed Sunday, although Moscow said only several planes were struck. The conflicting claims could not be independently verified and video of the assault posted on social media showed only a couple of bombers hit. But the bold attack demonstrated Ukraine's capability to hit high-value targets anywhere in Russia, dealing a humiliating blow to the Kremlin and inflicting significant losses to Moscow's war machine. While some Russian military bloggers compared it to another infamous Sunday surprise attack - that of Japan's strike on the US base at Pearl Harbour in 1941 - others rejected the analogy, arguing the actual damage was far less significant than Ukraine claimed. A satellite image shows damage to aircraft at a Russian airfield in Irkutsk, following a Ukrainian drone attack. Photo: Capella Space via Reuters Strategic aircraft, including the A-50, Tu-95 and Tu-22M, were destroyed in the attack, according to Ukrainian security services (SBU).
SBS Australia
01-06-2025
- Politics
- SBS Australia
Ukraine launches 'large-scale' drone attacks on Russian air bases on eve of ceasefire talks
Ukraine says it has destroyed Russian bombers worth billions of dollars in a "large-scale" drone assault on enemy soil as it geared up for talks with Moscow counterparts to explore prospects for a ceasefire. In a spectacular claim, Ukraine said it damaged US$7 billion ($10.8 billion) worth of Russian aircraft parked at four airbases thousands of kilometres away, with unverified video footage showing aircraft engulfed in flames and black smoke. A source in the Ukrainian security services said the drones were concealed in the ceilings of shipping containers which were opened up to release them for the assault. Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on Sunday that his country had deployed 117 drones in the attack, which he called "our most long-range operation" in more than three years of war. "An absolutely brilliant outcome. And an outcome produced by Ukraine independently," Zelenskyy wrote on the Telegram messaging app, noting that the operation had taken more than a year and half to prepare. Ukraine did not notify the United States in advance of drone attacks carried out on Russian air bases, a Ukrainian government official told Reuters on Sunday. The long-planned operation came at a delicate moment three years into Russia's invasion. Zelenskyy said on Sunday that he was sending a delegation to Istanbul led by his defence minister Rustem Umerov for talks on Monday with Russian officials. Zelenskyy, who previously voiced scepticism about whether Russia was serious in proposing Monday's meeting, said he had defined the Ukrainian delegation's position going into it. Priorities included "a complete and unconditional ceasefire" and the return of prisoners and abducted children, he said on social media. Russia has rejected previous ceasefire demands. It said it has formulated its own peace terms but refused to divulge them in advance. Russian President Vladimir Putin ruled out a Turkish proposal for the countries' leaders to attend the meeting. Russian news agencies said the Russian delegation was headed to Istanbul on Sunday for the talks. A source in Ukraine's SBU security service said the coordinated attacks inside Russia were "aimed at destroying enemy bombers far from the front". Rybar, an account on the Telegram message platform that is close to the Russian military, called it a "very heavy blow" for Moscow and pointed to what it called "serious errors" by Russian intelligence. The SBU source said strikes targeted Russian airbases in the eastern Siberian city of Belaya, in Olenya, in the Arctic near Finland, and in Ivanovo and Dyagilevo, both east of Moscow. More than 40 aircraft had been hit at the Belaya base and a fire had broken out there, the source said, showing a video in which several aircraft could be seen in flames and black smoke rising. AFP was not able to independently verify the claims or the video images. The SBU claimed in a social media post to have hit Russian military planes worth a combined $7 billion in a "special operation". Russia's defence ministry confirmed on Telegram that several of its military aircraft "caught fire", adding that there were no casualties and that several "participants" had been arrested. Igor Kobzev, governor of Russia's Irkutsk region, which hosts the targeted Belaya airbase, said it was "the first attack of this sort in Siberia". He called on the population not to panic and posted an amateur video apparently showing a drone flying in the sky and a large cloud of grey smoke. The governor of the Murmansk region where the Olenya base was located, Andrey Chibis, also said "enemy drones" were flying overhead, and anti-aircraft defences were operating. Russia has been announcing Ukrainian drone attacks on a near-daily basis, usually saying they had all been shot down. But it was rare for such drone strikes to be reported so deep within its territory. At the same time, Russia has been carrying out constant attacks on Ukraine. On Sunday, Ukraine's air force said it was hit by 472 Russian drones and seven missiles overnight — a record since the beginning of the invasion. In a rare admission of its military losses, the Ukraine army said Russia's "missile strike on the location of one of the training units" had killed a dozen soldiers, most of whom had been in shelters during the attack, and wounded more than 60. The attack led Ukrainian ground forces commander Mykhailo Drapaty to announce his resignation, saying he felt "responsibility" for the soldiers' deaths. Separately on Sunday, the Russian army said it had captured another village in Ukraine's northern Sumy region, where Kyiv fears Moscow could mount a fresh ground assault. Russia claims to have captured several settlements in the region in recent weeks, and has massed more than 50,000 soldiers on the other side of the border, according to Zelensky. Authorities in the region have evacuated more than 200 villages amid intensified shelling. In Russia, officials said a blast brought down a road bridge in the Bryansk region bordering Ukraine on Saturday, derailing a passenger train heading to Moscow and killing seven people. A separate rail bridge in the neighbouring Kursk region was blown up hours later in the early hours of Sunday, derailing a freight train and injuring the driver. Authorities did not say who was behind the explosions, but investigators said a criminal inquiry was underway.
Washington Post
09-05-2025
- Politics
- Washington Post
Ukraine accuses Hungary of spying on it; Budapest expels diplomats
KYIV — Ukraine's security services said Friday they have uncovered a Hungarian spy ring that was gathering information about Ukrainian military operations in the far west of the country. The alleged network was collecting information on air and ground defense vulnerabilities in Ukraine's Transcarpathia region as well as local sentiment on a potential invasion by Hungary, the Ukrainian statement said.
Daily Mirror
30-04-2025
- Daily Mirror
Ukrainian spy 'tried to poison Russian military pilots with doped cake and booze'
A Ukrainian spy who tried to poison scores of Russian military pilots with doped cake and booze has been sentenced to 27 years behind bars on terrorist charges. Accused Yegor Semenov, 34, had been recruited by Kyiv's Ukrainian Security Services (SBU) in a bizarre plot to kill graduates from Russia's elite Top Gun school, the trial heard. Judges at the Southern District Military Court in Rostov-on-Don heard how Semenov had been promised RUB 400,000 (GBP 3,600) by his handlers to carry out the mass poisoning. Semenov, who had the SUB codename 'Mercenary 35', had targeted 70 guests at a reunion party for Russia's Armavir Higher Military Aviation School in Krasnodar Krai. The 70-plus party-goers included some of Russia's most experienced and senior pilots, military chiefs and their families. Prosecutors told how Semenov had bought 118 bottles of booze like Jameson's Irish Whiskey and cheap Armenian Kochari brandy and a giant cake. According to the court he injected them with the huge doses of the powerful medical stimulant cordiamine, which can cause seizures and respiratory arrest. Finally, it was decided Semenov used a courier service to send the toxic treats to the party at the Tsarskaya Okhota restaurant with a note pretending saying they were gifts from a missing guest. But the closed-door trial heard how the plot fell apart when some pilots became suspicious of the medical smell coming from the cake and called police to the bash in April last year (2024). Forensic tests showed the cake and every bottle of alcohol had been doped by the deadly drug, once used in small doses by Adolf Hitler's doctor to combat barbiturate overdoses. Semenov was arrested just hours later in possession of a return ticket to Moscow and plans to flee to Egypt. The court heard how Semenov discussed the plot in encrypted messaging apps with his SUB paymasters. Prosecutors told how Ukrainian-born Semenov had moved to Russia in 2018 and obtained Russian citizenship four years later. But after the Kremlin's invasion of his homeland, he contacted the SUB and offered to help them sabotage the Russian military. Semenov admitted treason and terrorism but claimed he had been blackmailed by the SUB who had threatened to harm his mother. But under interrogation, police said Semenov had described his feelings of "pure joy" at the idea of the elite Russian pilots tucking into the poison. The trial began in January 2025 and concluded with the hefty jail sentence on 29th April. Semenov will serve the first five years in a hard-labour prison, with the remainder in a strict-regime penal colony, followed by one year of restricted freedom. Prosecutors had pushed for a full life tariff and now plans to appeal the sentence.
