Ukraine war: Ships defy Russian warning as Crimean bridge targeted by kyiv drones

Cargo ships leave Ukraine, despite threats from Russia

Maritime officials say a pair of cargo ships left Ukraine on Saturday despite Russian warnings and are now in the Black Sea.

Ukraine’s Infrastructure Minister Oleksandr Kubrakov says the Anna-Theresa, a Liberian-flagged bulk carrier carrying 56,000 tonnes of pig iron, left the Ukrainian port of Yuzhny on Friday and is now near Bulgarian territorial waters.

A second vessel, the Ocean Courtesy, which flies the Marshall Islands flag, reportedly left the same port on Friday with 172,000 tonnes of iron ore concentrate.

That ship arrived at the Romanian Black Sea port of Constanta shortly before noon on Saturday, according to the global ship-tracking website MarineTraffic.

It is not yet clear if the ship will depart from the Romanian port.

On X, formerly known as Twitter, Kubrakov wrote that the two ships sailed through a temporary corridor for civilian ships from Ukraine’s Black Sea ports to the Bosphorus.

The corridor runs along the western shores of that ocean, avoiding international waters and using instead those controlled by NATO members Romania and Bulgaria.

The authorities of the Bulgarian port of Varna have not confirmed whether the Anna-Theresa will enter the port or continue towards the Bosphorus Strait.

The ships are only the third and fourth vessels to have used the temporary corridor set up by the Ukraine government after Russia halted a wartime deal aimed at ensuring safe grain exports from Ukraine.

The ships had been docked in Ukrainian Black Sea ports since before the full-scale Russian invasion of its neighbor.

His departure coincided with the official announcement of an upcoming meeting between Russian President Vladimir Putin and his Turkish counterpart, Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

The high-level talks, scheduled for Monday in the Russian Black Sea resort of Sochi, come just over six weeks after Moscow ripped out of a deal brokered by Ankara and the UN that allowed Ukrainian grain reached world markets safely despite the conflict.

Crimean bridge attacked again by Ukrainian drones, Moscow claims

Moscow claims to have shot down three Ukrainian naval drones targeting the Crimean bridge overnight from Friday to Saturday in the Black Sea.

According to the Russian Defense Ministry, the Ukrainian drones were destroyed around 2:20 a.m. Moscow time before reaching the bridge, built after the annexation of Crimea in 2014.

This is not the first time an incident like this has been reported. On August 12, two Ukrainian missile attacks on this strategic bridge in the Kerch Strait were reportedly thwarted.

An earlier offensive in July caused extensive damage to the road section of the structure, which is also used to deliver military equipment to the Russian army fighting in Ukraine.

Before the latest offensive, reportedly thwarted by Moscow, kyiv claimed a symbolic victory on Friday by claiming to have carried out its first drone strike this week from Russian soil.

They say that overnight from Tuesday to Wednesday, Ukrainian drones attacked the airport in the city of Pskov, some 700 kilometers from Ukraine, in a region bordering Estonia and Latvia to the west and Belarus to the south.

Ukrainian military intelligence chief Kyrylo Budanov confirmed the incident via Telegram, saying: “The drones used to attack the Kresty airbase in Pskov were launched from inside Russia.”

The Kremlin has yet to comment on this claim.

United States: “Remarkable progress” made by Ukrainian forces in the south

The US government says Ukrainian forces have made “remarkable progress” in their advance against heavily fortified Russian positions in the south of the country.

John Kirby, White House security spokesman, explained that these advances were achieved in the last 72 hours south of Zaporizhzhia.

Speaking to CNN, Ukraine’s Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba confirmed that kyiv’s forces were advancing, but “it’s a tough fight.”

Kirby said that kyiv itself had admitted that the advance in the south was proceeding more slowly than expected.

Its objective is to divide the Russian land corridor towards Crimea.

Earlier this week, the Ukrainian army claimed to have captured the village of Robotyne in the Zaporizhzhia region.

In the south of the country, Moscow is believed to have built an elaborate system of trenches and tunnels, all defended by minefields, along with concrete anti-tank barriers and artillery positions.

In response, Kiev has continued to urge NATO countries to provide them with tanks, warplanes and mine clearance equipment, perhaps most notably US-made F-16 fighter jets.

Progress made on the Orikhiv axis

Ukrainian forces have continued to carry out offensive actions in the Orikhiv axis of southern Ukraine, with units said to have reached the first main Russian defensive line.

Russian forces, made up of elements of the 58th Combined Arms Army and the Russian Airborne Forces, are trying to stop the Ukrainian counter-offensive while maintaining their own offensive on the northern axis around Kupiansk.

It is believed that Russian forces are probably trying to divert Ukraine from its counteroffensive by putting pressure on kyiv to split its forces between Orikhiv and Kupiansk.

Russia has made modest gains near Kupiansk since this Ukrainian counter-offensive began in June. They are likely interested in capitalizing on this progress by continuing to contribute resources to the hub.