Ukraine war: Kyiv targets occupied Crimea with ‘massive’ strike

Slovakia has received a letter from the Croatian government offering to secure a route for additional oil supplies through Croatia amid reduced flows through Ukraine, but it is not clear how this would work, Slovak Foreign Minister Juraj Blanar said in a statement on Friday.

“For what price? What capacity? No one knows that today,” Blanar said,” reiterating Slovakia wanted the European Commission to act toward Ukraine to fully reinstate flows from Russia, while it was also searching for another solution in case the Commission does not act.

Russian forces are advancing gradually towards the key strategic city of Pokrovsk in the eastern region of Donetsk, as Ukraine struggles with soldier shortages as delays in military aid from the West hold up the equipping of fresh brigades.

Pokrovsk, which serves as a key supply route for other Ukrainian outposts, has become the main focus of fighting in the last few weeks. Military analysts fear that Ukrainian equipment is insufficient to hold off the advance – although they expect the Russian offensive to slow down as it reaches more built-up areas.

Russia’s defence ministry claimed in the last few days it had taken control of Prohres and Yevhenivka – two villages to the east of Pokrovsk – with efforts now focussed on making a breakthrough closer to Pokrovsk.

In emotional scenes on the tarmac, Biden was the first to greet each of the three as they stepped off the plane, followed by Harris, before the newly-freed Americans were reunited with their families.

Ukraine has taken delivery of a second Turkish-built navy corvette, officials said Friday, although they did not say specifically how the warships might be used in the war against Russia.

Ukraine’s first lady, Olena Zelenska, attended the launching ceremony of the Ada-class corvette during a visit to Turkey, the Ukrainian presidency announced on its website.

The corvette Ukraine already had is currently undergoing sea trials.

Ukrainian forces shot down all 89 Shahed drones launched by Russia in a nighttime attack on the country, Ukraine’s air force said Wednesday, in what was one of the largest drone barrages this year.

No damage or injuries were immediately reported in the bombardment, which mostly targeted the region of Kyiv, the capital.

Russia used the same number of Shahed drones in a Jan. 1 attack, an air force statement said.

Moldova’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said Thursday it has expelled a Russian diplomat after two Moldovan officials were detained on suspicion of treason and conspiracy against the European Union candidate country.

One of the Moldovan officials is suspected of treason for allegedly collecting and providing information to an embassy employee that could be used against Moldova’s interests, the Prosecutor’s Office for Combating Organized Crime and Special Cases said, and the other is accused of plotting against the country for personal gain.

One of the suspects works in Parliament and the other for the border police. Both were detained earlier this week for 72 hours and were allegedly collaborating with a foreign embassy in Moldova’s capital, Chisinau. The authorities did not state which country’s embassy was involved.

After years of isolation behind the bars and high walls of U.S. penitentiaries and Russian penal colonies, the prisoners will find themselves suddenly free, an emotional moment culminating from long, back-channel negotiations between Washington and Moscow.

Sometimes, they see those who are part of the swap as they pass each other on an airport tarmac or, as in the Cold War, the Glienicke Bridge connecting West Berlin to Potsdam. In decades of prisoner exchanges, those released have included spies, journalists, drug and arms dealers, and even a well-known athlete.

Thursday’s historic exchange was an especially complex affair involving months of talks among several countries before planes flew the large number of prisoners to freedom.

The exercises – which involve Russian forces spread across thousands of miles – come a day after annual navy day celebrations were held in Russia, with president Vladimir Putin addressing a parade in the former imperial capital of St Petersburg.

In his speech to sailors on the 328th anniversary of the Russian navy’s founding, also attended by crews from China, Algeria and India, Mr Putin had threatened to deploy new missiles within striking distance of the West if Washington presses ahead with plans to deploy long-range missiles in Germany.

On Day 1 of the war, President Vladimir Putin said “whoever tries to impede us, let alone create threats for our country and its people, must know that the Russian response will be immediate and lead to consequences you have never seen in history.”

Since Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022, Putin and other Kremlin voices have frequently threatened the West with its nuclear arsenal.

Over nearly 2 1/2 years of fighting, the West has given Ukraine billions of dollars of advanced weapons, some of which have struck Russian soil. And while there have been more Kremlin threats — and even the deployment of battlefield nuclear weapons in Belarus, just over the border from Ukraine — so far it has remained only a blunt message.