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Tag: Drones

  • Germany offers Israel military help and promises to crack down at home on support for Hamas

    Germany offers Israel military help and promises to crack down at home on support for Hamas

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    Germany is offering military help to Israel and promising to crack down on support for the militant Hamas group at home following its attack on Israel

    ByThe Associated Press

    October 12, 2023, 4:25 AM

    German Chancellor Olaf Scholz delivers a government statement on the situation in Israel during a meeting of the German federal parliament, Bundestag, at the Reichstag building in Berlin, Germany, Thursday, Oct. 12, 2023. (Michael Kappeler/dpa via AP)

    The Associated Press

    BERLIN — Germany is offering military help to Israel and promising to crack down on support for the militant Hamas group at home following the group’s attack on Israel. Chancellor Olaf Scholz on Thursday underlined Germany’s historical responsibility for Israel’s security.

    The Defense Ministry said it agreed to an Israeli request to use up to two of five Heron TP combat drones that are currently leased by the German military and were already in Israel for the training of German servicepeople. And Defense Minister Boris Pistorius said in Brussels that Israel has requested ammunition for warships, a request that will now be discussed.

    Scholz told the German parliament that he has asked Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to inform Germany of any needs, “for example the treatment of wounded.”

    “At this moment, there is only one place for Germany — the place at Israel’s side,” he told lawmakers. “Our own history, our responsibility arising from the Holocaust, makes it a perpetual task for us to stand up for the security of the state of Israel.”

    Scholz noted that thousands of people have demonstrated in support of Israel in recent days, but said that “there were also other, shameful pictures from Germany last weekend.”

    On Saturday, a small group handed out pastries in a Berlin street and dozens of people later demonstrated in celebration of the Hamas attack.

    Scholz said that Germany will issue a formal ban on activity by or in support of Hamas, which is already listed by the European Union as a terror group. He said groups such as Samidoun, which was behind the weekend pastry action, will be banned.

    Scholz said there will be “zero tolerance for antisemitism.”

    The chancellor also questioned the lack of a clear condemnation of the Hamas attack by the Palestinian Authority and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, saying that “their silence is shameful.”

    Germany has suspended development aid for the Palestinian areas, though it is keeping up humanitarian help.

    Scholz also assailed Iran’s role in the region. “We have no tangible evidence that Iran gave concrete and operative support to this cowardly attack by Hamas,” he said. “But is clear to us all that, without Iranian support in recent years, Hamas would not have been capable of these unprecedented attacks on Israeli territory.”

    Several German citizens were among those kidnapped in Saturday attack.

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  • Shelling in northwestern Syria kills at least 5 civilians, activists say

    Shelling in northwestern Syria kills at least 5 civilians, activists say

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    BEIRUT — A drone attack hit a crowded military graduation ceremony Thursday in the Syrian city of Homs, killing 80 people and wounding 240, the health minister said, in one of the deadliest recent attacks on an army that’s been fighting a civil war for more than a decade.

    The strike killed civilians, including six children, as well as military personnel, and there were concerns the death toll could rise as many of the wounded were in serious condition, Health Minister Hassan al-Ghabash said.

    Syria’s military said in an earlier statement that drones laden with explosives targeted the ceremony packed with young officers and their families as it was wrapping up. Without naming any particular group, the military accused insurgents “backed by known international forces” of the attack and said “it will respond with full force and decisiveness to these terrorist organizations, wherever they exist.”

    No group immediately claimed responsibility for the attack as Syria endures its 13th year of conflict.

    U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres “expressed deep concern” about the drone attack in Homs as well as reports of retaliatory shelling in northwest Syria, his spokesperson Stephane Dujarric said. Guterres condemned all violence and called for a nationwide cease-fire, the spokesperson added.

    The military did not provide any casualty numbers, but Syria’s state television said the government announced a three-day state of mourning starting Friday. The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, an opposition war monitor, and the pro-government Sham FM radio station earlier reported the strikes.

    Syria’s crisis started with peaceful protests against President Bashar Assad’s government in March 2011 but quickly morphed into a full-blown civil war after the government’s brutal crackdown on the protesters.

    The tide turned in Assad’s favor against rebel groups in 2015, when Russia provided key military backing to Syria, as well as Iran and the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah.

    So far, the war has killed half a million people, wounded hundreds of thousands and left many parts of the country destroyed. It has displaced half of Syria’s prewar population of 23 million, including more than 5 million who are refugees outside Syria.

    While most Arab governments have restored ties with the government in Damascus, Syria remains divided, with a northwest enclave under the control of al-Qaida-linked militants from the Hayat Tahrir al-Sham group and Turkish-backed opposition fighters. The country’s northeast is under control of U.S.-backed Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces.

    The city of Homs is deep in government-held territory, far from front lines where government and rebel forces routinely skirmish.

    After the drone attack, the Syrian government forces shelled villages in Idlib province, in the rebel-held northwest. In the towns of Al-Nayrab and Sarmin east of Idlib city, at least 10 civilians were wounded according to opposition-held northwestern Syria’s civil defense organization known as the White Helmets. Government forces continue to shell other areas in the rebel-held enclave.

    The Syrian army shelled another village in the region earlier Thursday before the drone attack over Homs, killing at least five civilians, activists and emergency workers said. The shelling hit a family house on the outskirts of the the village of Kafr Nouran in western Aleppo province, according to the White Helmets.

    A woman and four of her children were killed, according to the Observatory. Nine other members of the family were wounded, it said.

    The vast majority of around 4.1 million people residing in northwestern Syria live in poverty, relying on humanitarian aid to survive. Many of them are Syrians, internally displaced by the war from other parts of the country.

    In northeastern Syria, local authorities said Turkish drone attacks struck Hassakeh and Qamishli provinces Thursday, hitting oil production facilities, electrical substations and a dam. A statement from the local Kurdish authorities said six members of their security forces and two civilians were killed.

    Meanwhile, three U.S. officials told The Associated Press that a U.S. F-16 fighter jet shot down a Turkish drone Thursday that came too close to their positions in Hassakeh after it had been dropping bombs in nearby areas. The U.S. has about 900 troops in Syria conducting missions to counter Islamic State group militants.

    Turkey didn’t immediately comment on the strikes but Ankara said the main Syrian Kurdish militia is allied with Turkey’s outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party, which has led an insurgency against Turkey since 1984 that has killed tens of thousands of people. Ankara has declared the PKK a terrorist group.

    Syrian Kurdish forces were a major U.S. ally in the war against the militant Islamic State group, which was defeated in Syria in March 2019.

    ___

    Aji reported from Damascus, Syria. Associated Press reporter Ghaith Al-Sayed in Idlib, Syria, contributed to this report.

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  • Ukrainian attacks force Russia to relocate Black Sea fleet

    Ukrainian attacks force Russia to relocate Black Sea fleet

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    KYIV — Ukraine has hammered Russia’s Black Sea fleet so hard that Moscow is shifting much of it away from Crimea, allowing Kyiv to reopen its ports to grain vessels despite Russia’s blockade threats.

    “As of today, Russia is dispersing its fleet, fearing more attacks on its ships. Some units are relocating to the port of Novorossiysk. They try not to visit Sevastopol so often because they don’t feel safe there anymore,” Ukrainian navy spokesperson Dmytro Pletenchuk told POLITICO.

    Ukraine unleashed a series of carefully planned attacks against the fleet and parts of its crucial infrastructure in recent weeks — destroying key air defense systems, landing commandos on Crimea, and pounding the fleet’s base in Sevastopol in an attack that heavily damaged a submarine and a missile carrier and put the fleet’s dry dock out of commission.

    The coup de grâce was a missile attack on the fleet’s headquarters in downtown Sevastopol.

    Ukrainian forces also control drilling rigs in the Black Sea as well as Zmiiniy Island — the famous island where Ukrainian forces said: “Russian warship, go fuck yourself” in the early days of the war.

    That’s made naval operations in the western part of the Black Sea perilous for Russia, allowing grain ships to dock at Ukrainian ports with much less fear of being stopped and boarded by the Russians.

    “Now ships and boats of the Black Sea fleet of the Russian Federation do not actually sail in the direction of the territorial sea of Ukraine. From time to time, they appear on the coast of Crimea, but not closer. They do not dare to go beyond the Tarkhankut Peninsula,” Natalia Humeniuk of Ukraine’s Army Operational Command South, told Ukrainian television on Wednesday, referring to the point that marks the westernmost extremity of Crimea into the Black Sea.

    Mayday mayday

    She said Russian warships had been pushed back at least 100 nautical miles from the coast controlled by Ukraine.

    That’s allowed Kyiv to restart grain exports from three Black Sea ports — reopening a route that the Kremlin had tried to throttle after pulling out of the U.N.-negotiated grain deal in July.

    An official with the Ukrainian Armed Forces Command South, who was granted anonymity due to the sensitivity of the issue, said the Ukrainian military counted at least 10 Russian Black Sea fleet vessels that used to be based in Crimea and have now shifted east to the Russian port of Novorossiysk.

    “They stopped being there all the time,” Pletenchuk said.

    While cargo ships are again sailing to Ukrainian ports, Humeniuk warned that the threat isn’t over.

    The Black Sea fleet has been a bone contention between Ukraine and Russia since the collapse of the Soviet Union | AFP via Getty Images

    Although Russian warships have made themselves scarce, Russian planes are still flying over the sea. Russian forces frequently bomb Zmiiniy Island and attack cities and towns on the Black Sea coast of Ukraine with drones.

    There is also the danger that Russia may lay mines to block sea routes, British intelligence said on Wednesday.

    But for the moment, the situation on the Black Sea is a huge embarrassment for the Kremlin, as its second-largest naval force has been humbled by a country with almost no navy.

    The Black Sea fleet has been a bone contention between Ukraine and Russia since the collapse of the Soviet Union. Moscow had a special arrangement with Kyiv to keep basing the fleet in Sevastopol, and concern over those basing rights was one of the reasons Russian President Vladimir Putin gave for his illegal annexation of Crimea in 2014.

    The challenge to the fleet also endangers Russia’s hold on Crimea, said Volodymyr Zablotskiy, a Ukrainian military and naval expert.

    “Without Crimea, this expansion fleet will not be viable, and the capabilities of the Kremlin and the region will be limited. These are the strategic consequences of our future de-occupation of the peninsula,” he said. “It is the fleet that enables the logistics of the Russian forces in this direction. And the key to it is the possession of Sevastopol.”

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    Veronika Melkozerova

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  • Russia launches more drone attacks as Zelenskyy travels to a European forum

    Russia launches more drone attacks as Zelenskyy travels to a European forum

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    KYIV, Ukraine — Russia targeted Ukraine with drones in another massive attack early Thursday as President Volodymyr Zelenskyy traveled to Spain to rally support from Western allies at a summit of some 50 European leaders.

    Ukraine’s air force said that the country’s air defenses intercepted 24 out of 29 Iranian-made drones that Russia launched at the southern Odesa, Mykolaiv and Kirovohrad regions.

    Andriy Raykovych, the head of the Kirovohrad regional administration, said that an infrastructure facility in the region was struck and emergency services were deployed to put out a fire. He said there were no casualties.

    The attack came as Zelenskyy arrived in Granada in southern Spain to attend a summit of the European Political Community, which was formed in the wake of Russia’s February 2022 invasion of Ukraine.

    “The key for us, especially before winter, is to strengthen air defense, and there is already a basis for new agreements with partners,” he said in a statement posted on his Telegram channel.

    Last winter, Russia targeted Ukraine’s energy system and other vital infrastructure in a steady barrage of missile and drone attacks, triggering continuous power outages across the country. Ukraine’s power system has shown a high degree of resilience and flexibility, helping alleviate the damage, but there have been concerns that Russia will again ramp up its strikes on power facilities as winter draws nearer.

    Zelenskyy noted the Granada summit will also focus on “joint work for global food security and protection of freedom of navigation” in the Black Sea, where the Russian military has targeted Ukrainian ports after Moscow’s withdrawal from a United Nations-sponsored grain deal designed to ensure safe grain exports from the invaded country’s ports.

    The U.K. Foreign office cited intelligence suggesting that Russia may lay sea mines in the approach to Ukrainian ports to target civilian shipping and blame it on Ukraine. “Russia almost certainly wants to avoid openly sinking civilian ships, instead falsely laying blame on Ukraine for any attacks against civilian vessels in the Black Sea,” it said, adding that the U.K. was working with Ukraine to help improve the safety of shipping.

    In other Russian attacks on Ukraine in the past day, two civilians were killed in the shelling of the southern city of Kherson and another one died after a Russian strike on the city of Krasnohorivka in the eastern Donetsk region. At least eight people were wounded by the Russian shelling, according to Ukraine’s presidential office.

    A Russian strike on a hospital in the city of Beryslav in the Kherson region ravaged the building and injured two medical workers, according to the regional administration chief, Oleksandr Prokudin.

    Ukraine, in its turn, has struck back at Russia with regular drone attacks across the border.

    Roman Starovoit, the governor of Russia’s Kursk region that borders Ukraine, said Ukrainian drones attacked infrastructure facilities in several areas, resulting in power cuts.

    Starovoit also said that Ukrainian forces fired artillery at the border town of Rylsk, injuring a local resident and damaging several houses.

    ___

    Yuras Karmanau in Tallinn, Estonia, contributed to this report.

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  • Sirens blare across Russia as it holds nationwide emergency drills

    Sirens blare across Russia as it holds nationwide emergency drills

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    Sirens have wailed across Russia and television stations interrupted regular programming to broadcast warning signals as part of sweeping drills intended to test the readiness of the emergency services amid the fighting in Ukraine

    MOSCOW — Sirens wailed across Russia and TV stations interrupted regular programming to broadcast warnings Wednesday as part of sweeping drills intended to test the readiness of the country’s emergency responders amid the fighting in Ukraine.

    The exercise that started on Tuesday follows Ukrainian drone attacks on Moscow and other cities. As the readiness drill went on, the Russian Defense Ministry said air defenses shot down 31 Ukrainian drones over border regions early Wednesday.

    As part of the drills, TV stations broadcast a notice saying: “Attention everyone! The readiness of the public warning system is being tested! Please remain calm!”

    Russian media said the exercise’s storyline mentions the increasing danger of a conflict between nuclear powers and simulates a response to a situation in which 70% of housing and all vital infrastructure have been destroyed, wide areas contaminated by radioactive fallout and a general mobilization announced.

    The stark scenario echoes Kremlin warnings that Western support for Ukraine has increased the threat of a direct confrontation between Russia and NATO.

    Dmitry Medvedev, deputy head of Russia’s Security Council chaired by President Vladimir Putin, has regularly talked about the growing threat of a nuclear conflict.

    Lambasting Western officials who talk about increasing military assistance to Kyiv, Medvedev charged over the weekend that “those imbeciles are actively pushing us to World War III.”

    Such ominous statements and sweeping emergency drills contrast with the government’s efforts to assuage a public increasingly tired of the nearly 20 months of fighting that the Kremlin continues to call its “special military operation.”

    While regularly criticizing the West over Ukraine, Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu and other members of the military brass have said Russia doesn’t need another wave of mobilization because the army has enough volunteer soldiers.

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  • France, Germany pave the way to making weapons in Ukraine

    France, Germany pave the way to making weapons in Ukraine

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    PARIS — French and German defense companies are setting up local shops in Ukraine for arms maintenance — a first step toward manufacturing weapons in the country. 

    This week, Germany’s Federal Cartel Office gave the green light to a proposed joint venture between Rheinmetall, a German arms maker, and the Ukrainian Defense Industry, a Ukrainian state-owned defense group.

    France’s Armed Forces Minister Sébastien Lecornu traveled to Kyiv this week with about 20 French defense contractors — reportedly including Thales, MBDA, Nexter and Arquus — to facilitate partnerships with Ukrainian officials. 

    On Friday, the Ukrainian capital hosted the Defense Industries Forum, an arms fair attended by 165 defense companies from 26 countries.

    At the event, Ukrainian officials met directly with defense companies to sign contracts without going through Western governments, explore joint production opportunities and provide specific input about their needs on the ground in the fight against Russian President Vladimir Putin’s full-scale invasion.

    The goal is to “boost co-production and cooperation to strengthen Ukraine and our partners,” Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said earlier this week. 

    The arms fair is taking place as Western armies, especially in Europe, are reaching the limit of what they can give to Ukraine from their own stocks. For the past few months, Ukraine has sought to ramp up its own arms industry, in part because U.S. elections in 2024 could mean a return of Donald Trump as president. The former leader has hinted at not providing much support to Kyiv if he wins a second term.

    As Kyiv prepares for a long war, capitals such as Paris are seeking to shift from donations to contracts and cooperation with the private sector.

    French pivot

    In the past week, French officials have started to hammer home a new message: France can no longer sustain giving weapons to Ukraine and will instead plug Ukrainian officials into the country’s defense industry.

    According to a government report, France delivered €640.5 million worth of weapons to Ukraine in 2022, including 704 missile launchers and portable anti-tank rocket launchers, 562 12.7mm machine guns, 118 missiles and missile launchers, and 60 armored fighting vehicles for free. 

    “We can’t continue to take resources from our armed forces indefinitely, otherwise we’ll be damaging our own defense capabilities and the training levels of our troops,” Lecornu told French TV Sunday.

    Ukrainian servicemen ride on a T-64 tank during a military training exercise in Kyiv region | Genya Savilov/AFP via Getty Images

    Creating bridges between Ukrainian officials and French companies will “create long-term solidity, a more contractual relationship for ammunition and maintenance,” he told lawmakers two days later.

    In Kyiv this week, French defense contractors did ink deals with Ukraine for artillery, armored vehicles, drones and mine clearance — including for cooperation in the war-torn country.

    According to Le Figaro, French firm Arquus signed a letter of intent Thursday to ensure the maintenance of armored personnel carriers on the ground, and could install a production facility in the future. Nexter CEO Nicolas Chamussy — the manufacturer of the Caesar self-propelled howitzer — also told the French outlet it was looking for a local partner to create a joint venture for maintenance. 

    French startup Vistory will build two 3D-printing factories to make spare parts, according to La Croix.  

    Germany, Sweden and UK

    France’s shift comes on the heels of similar plans with British arms manufacturer BAE Systems and the Swedish government. 

    In August, Kyiv and Stockholm signed a statement of intent to deepen cooperation “in production, operation, training, and servicing” of the Combat Vehicle 90 (CV90) platform, manufactured by a Swedish branch of BAE Systems. A few days later, BAE Systems announced it would set up a local entity to ramp up production of 105mm light artillery guns.

    The German competition authority’s decision this week to green-light Rheinmetall’s joint venture with the Ukrainian Defense Industry — which will be based in Kyiv and operate exclusively in Ukraine — paves the way for a partnership designed to maintain and service military vehicles. It will also include “assembly, production and development of military vehicles.”

    Both parties also hope to eventually develop military systems jointly, “including for subsequent export from Ukraine.”

    Rheinmetall CEO Armin Papperger expressed a desire to manufacture the company’s next generation Panther tank in Ukraine — up to 400 per year. Although still a prototype, the new tank would be the successor of the company’s Leopard 2 main battle tank.

    Laura Kayali reported from Paris. Caleb Larson reported from Berlin.

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  • Start a New Hobby with Nearly Half Off This 4K Drone | Entrepreneur

    Start a New Hobby with Nearly Half Off This 4K Drone | Entrepreneur

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    Disclosure: Our goal is to feature products and services that we think you’ll find interesting and useful. If you purchase them, Entrepreneur may get a small share of the revenue from the sale from our commerce partners.

    One of the most important things for entrepreneurs isn’t related to work at all. Every entrepreneur should have a hobby. And if you don’t have one, why not consider exploring the sky with the Ninja Dragon Blade K 4K drone on sale for nearly half off? Not only could it be a lot of fun to fly, but who knows, maybe that hobby will even grow into an aerial photography business.

    The Ninja Dragon Blade is a cutting-edge drone that’s built for stability and speed. It’s built with the user in mind, with a host of intuitive flight controls to help pilots of all experience levels fly with ease. It has a one-key takeoff and landing function to effortlessly take flight and land with the simple push of a button and headless mode for easy flight, while the 4-way anti-collision system helps you confidently navigate tight spaces. An optical flow sensor also enables precise hovering and accurate positioning, giving you more stable photography and videography.

    The 4-channel movement lets you ascend, fly forward and backward, to either side, and perform 360º rolls in the sky. And with the built-in 4K HD camera, you can capture gorgeous imagery of your flights every time you take to the sky. Gesture recognition detects programmed gestures within a 2-meter range, allowing you to fly with the simple movement of your hands or take photos or videos hands-free.

    The 1,800mAh battery supports up to 12 minutes of flight time and when you’re done, you can easily fold up the Ninja to store for later.

    Take to the skies with the Ninja Dragon Blade K 4K drone. Normally $169, it’s 48% off at just $86.99 now.

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  • Bahrain says attack by Yemen rebels kills a Bahraini officer and a soldier on the Saudi border

    Bahrain says attack by Yemen rebels kills a Bahraini officer and a soldier on the Saudi border

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    DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — A drone attack by Yemen’s Houthi rebels killed a Bahraini officer and soldier who were patrolling Saudi Arabia‘s southern border early Monday, Bahrain’s military command said.

    The statement, carried by the official Bahrain News Agency, says “a number” of Bahraini soldiers were also wounded in the attack, without elaborating.

    The tiny island nation of Bahrain is a close ally of Saudi Arabia, which has been at war with the Iran-aligned Houthi rebels for several years. A cease-fire had largely stopped the violence, and the two sides have appeared close to a peace agreement in recent months.

    It was unclear if the attack would derail those efforts or prompt retaliation by Saudi Arabia and its allies. There was no immediate comment from the Houthis or Saudi Arabia.

    “This terrorist attack was carried out by the Houthis, who sent aircraft targeting the position of the Bahraini guards on the southern border of the kingdom of Saudi Arabia despite the halt of military operations between the warring sides in Yemen,” the Bahraini military statement said.

    Yemen’s war began in 2014 when the Houthis swept down from their northern stronghold and seized the capital, Sanaa, along with much of the country’s north. In response, a Saudi-led coalition intervened in 2015 to try to restore the internationally recognized government to power.

    The fighting soon devolved into a stalemated proxy war between Saudi Arabia and Iran, causing widespread hunger and misery in Yemen, which even before the conflict had been the Arab world’s poorest country.

    Saudi Arabia and Iran restored diplomatic relations earlier this year in a deal brokered by China, further raising hopes for an end to Yemen’s conflict. Earlier this month, Saudi Arabia welcomed a Houthi delegation for peace talks, saying the negotiations had “positive results.”

    A U.N.-brokered cease-fire had already largely halted the violence, and Yemen has seen only sporadic clashes since the truce expired nearly a year ago. But diplomats have warned that the situation remains volatile.

    Yemen’s internationally recognized government condemned the attack. Foreign Minister Ahmed Bin Mubarak said he spoke by phone with Bahrain’s chief diplomat, Abdullatif al-Zayani, offering his condolences and solidarity with Bahrain.

    Bahrain, an island nation in the Persian Gulf off the coast of Saudi Arabia, was rocked by an uprising in 2011 inspired by the Arab Spring protests elsewhere in the region. Many from the country’s Shiite majority called for the overthrow of Bahrain’s Sunni monarchy. Bahrain quashed the revolt with aid from Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, and blamed much of the unrest on Shiite-majority Iran.

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  • Limited-Time Price Drop: Dual-Camera Drones for $110 | Entrepreneur

    Limited-Time Price Drop: Dual-Camera Drones for $110 | Entrepreneur

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    Disclosure: Our goal is to feature products and services that we think you’ll find interesting and useful. If you purchase them, Entrepreneur may get a small share of the revenue from the sale from our commerce partners.

    The drone craze seemed to happen fast. However, we now know the scope of a good drone’s benefits and see it was more than just a fad. According to Statista, the drone market is expected to keep growing as technology advances and new applications evolve.

    While drones provide millions of people with entertainment and a way to unwind, they can also benefit all types of businesses. For example, some industries, such as real estate, use them to get creative aerial photography and videos, and construction companies use them to gather information at sites and for mapping. If you could use a drone to amp up your business, this deal gets you two drones for just $109.97 (reg. $398) through September 30.

    The two drones share some impressive features, like a 4K wide-angle front camera with 90° adjustment and a 720p bottom camera. They also have Altitude Hold mode, allowing for a more stable fly while hovering. With WiFi connectivity and real-time FPV, you can view real-time images with the accompanying app. Plus, their One-Key Automatic Return allows the drone to find its way back to you automatically, so there’s no stress about getting it home.

    The Alpha Z PRO Ultra HD dual-camera drone comes in a sleek black and can provide up to nine minutes of flying time. The Flying Fox 4K wide-angle dual-camera drone can provide up to 12 minutes of flying and has a clean silver finish. The Flying Fox also features Gesture Control, which lets you take a photo or video just by using hand gestures.

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  • Iran’s president denies sending drones and other weapons to Russia and decries US meddling

    Iran’s president denies sending drones and other weapons to Russia and decries US meddling

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    NEW YORK — Iran’s president on Monday denied his country had sent drones to Russia for use in the war in Ukraine, even as the United States accuses Iran of not only providing the weapons but helping Russia build a plant to manufacture them.

    “We are against the war in Ukraine,” President Ebrahim Raisi said as he met with media executives on the sidelines of the world’s premier global conference, the high-level leaders’ meeting at the U.N. General Assembly.

    The Iranian leader spoke just hours after five Americans who had been held in Iranian custody arrived in Qatar, freed in a deal that saw President Joe Biden agree to unlock nearly $6 billion in frozen Iranian assets.

    Known as a hard-liner, Raisi seemingly sought to strike a diplomatic tone. He reiterated offers to mediate the Russia-Ukraine war despite being one of the Kremlin’s strongest backers. And he suggested that the just-concluded deal with the United States that led to the prisoner exchange and assets release could “help build trust” between the longtime foes.

    Raisi acknowledged that Iran and Russia have long had strong ties, including defense cooperation. But he denied sending weapons to Moscow since the war began. “If they have a document that Iran gave weapons or drones to the Russians after the war,” he said, then they should produce it.

    Iranian officials have made a series of contradictory comments about the drones. U.S. and European officials say the sheer number of Iranian drones being used in the war in Ukraine shows that the flow of such weapons has not only continued but intensified after hostilities began.

    Despite his remarks about trust, Raisi’s tone toward the United States wasn’t all conciliatory; he had harsh words at other moments.

    Raisi said his country “sought good relations with all neighboring countries” in the Middle East, including Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.

    “We believe that if the Americans stop interfering in the countries of the Persian Gulf and other regions in the world, and mind their own business … the situation of the countries and their relations will improve,” Raisi said.

    The United Arab Emirates first sought to reengage diplomatically with Tehran after attacks on ships off their coasts that were attributed to Iran. Saudi Arabia, with Chinese mediation, reached a détente in March to re-establish diplomatic ties after years of tensions, including over the kingdom’s war on Yemen, Riyadh’s opposition to Syrian President Bashar Assad and fears over Iran’s nuclear program.

    Raisi warned other countries in the region not to get too close with U.S. ally Israel, saying: “The normalization of relations with the Zionist regime does not create security.”

    As a prosecutor, Raisi took part in the 1988 mass executions that killed some 5,000 dissidents in Iran.

    The Iranian leader was dismissive of Western criticism of his country’s treatment of women, its crackdown on dissent and its nuclear program, including over protests that began just over a year ago over the death in police custody last year of Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old Kurdish-Iranian woman arrested for allegedly violating Iran’s mandatory headscarf law.

    He compared the protests in Iran to labor strikes and demonstrations by ethnic minorities in the United States and Western Europe. He noted that many people are killed each year in the U.S. at the hands of police, and criticized the media for not focusing on those deaths as much as the treatment of demonstrators in his country. The deaths of Americans at the hands of police are widely covered in U.S. media.

    Raisi has sought, without evidence, to portray the popular nationwide demonstrations in Iran as a Western plot.

    “The issue(s) of women, hijab, human rights and the nuclear issue,” he said, “are all pretexts by the Americans and Westerners to damage the Islamic republic as an independent country.”

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  • First two cargo ships arrive in Ukrainian port after Russia’s exit from grain deal

    First two cargo ships arrive in Ukrainian port after Russia’s exit from grain deal

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    KYIV, Ukraine — Two cargo ships arrived in one of Ukraine‘s ports over the weekend, using a temporary Black Sea corridor established by Kyiv following Russia’s withdrawal from a wartime agreement designed to ensure safe grain exports from the invaded country’s ports.

    Two Palau-flagged bulk carriers, Aroyat and Resilient Africa, docked Saturday at the seaport of Chornomorsk in the southern Odesa region, according to an online statement by the Ukrainian Sea Ports Authority. The vessels are the first civilian cargo ships to reach one of the Odesa ports since Russia exited the grain deal.

    Oleksandr Kubrakov, Ukraine’s deputy prime minister, said in an online statement Saturday that the two ships will be delivering some 20,000 tons of wheat to countries in Africa and Asia.

    For months, Ukraine, whose economy is heavily dependent on farming, was able to safely export its grain from Black Sea ports under a deal brokered by the United Nations and Turkey to ensure safe shipments. But Russia withdrew from the deal on July 17, with Kremlin officials arguing their demands for the facilitation of Russian food and fertilizer shipments had not been met.

    Following the withdrawal, the Russian Defense Ministry said it would regard any vessels in the Black Sea headed to Ukrainian ports as military targets.

    Since then, Kyiv has sought to reroute transport through the Danube River, and road and rail links into Europe. But transport costs that way are much higher. Some European countries have balked at the consequential local grain prices, and the Danube ports can’t handle the same volume as seaports.

    The interim corridor in the Black Sea, which Kyiv has asked the International Maritime Organization to ratify, was opened on Aug. 10 as United States and Ukrainian officials warned of possible Russian attacks on civilian vessels. Sea mines also make the voyage risky, and ship insurance costs are likely to be high for operators.

    Ukrainian officials said the corridor will be primarily used to evacuate ships stuck in the Ukrainian ports of Chornomorsk, Odesa and Pivdennyi since the war broke out. Kubrakov said Saturday that five vessels have since used the corridor to leave Ukrainian ports.

    After tearing up the grain deal, Russia intensified attacks on the southern Odesa region, targeting its port infrastructure and grain silos with missiles and drones.

    On Sunday, Ukraine’s Air Force Command reported another attack overnight in which the Odesa region was the main target. Russian forces fired 10 cruise missiles and six Iranian-made Shahed drones, the statement said. All drones and six missiles were downed, while the rest hit an agricultural facility in the Odesa region.

    In other developments:

    — Russian authorities on Sunday reported that Ukrainian drones targeted the annexed Crimean peninsula and a number of Russian regions overnight and in the morning. Two drones were downed overnight in the Moscow region that surrounds the Russian capital, Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin said. A third drone was intercepted over the Voronezh region that borders Ukraine, Russia’s Defense Ministry said. Another one hit a fuel tank in the neighboring Oryol region, Oryol Gov. Andrei Klychkov said, igniting a fire that was quickly put out. A drone also fell on a logistics facility in the Tula region south of Moscow, local authorities said. In the annexed Crimea, the Russian Defense Ministry reported downing six Ukrainian drones in the early hours of Sunday.

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  • First two cargo ships arrive in Ukrainian port after Russia’s exit from grain deal

    First two cargo ships arrive in Ukrainian port after Russia’s exit from grain deal

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    KYIV, Ukraine — Two cargo ships arrived in one of Ukraine‘s ports over the weekend, using a temporary Black Sea corridor established by Kyiv following Russia’s withdrawal from a wartime agreement designed to ensure safe grain exports from the invaded country’s ports.

    Two Palau-flagged bulk carriers, Aroyat and Resilient Africa, docked Saturday at the seaport of Chornomorsk in the southern Odesa region, according to an online statement by the Ukrainian Sea Ports Authority. The vessels are the first civilian cargo ships to reach one of the Odesa ports since Russia exited the grain deal.

    Oleksandr Kubrakov, Ukraine’s deputy prime minister, said in an online statement Saturday that the two ships will be delivering some 20,000 tons of wheat to countries in Africa and Asia.

    For months, Ukraine, whose economy is heavily dependent on farming, was able to safely export its grain from Black Sea ports under a deal brokered by the United Nations and Turkey to ensure safe shipments. But Russia withdrew from the deal on July 17, with Kremlin officials arguing their demands for the facilitation of Russian food and fertilizer shipments had not been met.

    Following the withdrawal, the Russian Defense Ministry said it would regard any vessels in the Black Sea headed to Ukrainian ports as military targets.

    Since then, Kyiv has sought to reroute transport through the Danube River, and road and rail links into Europe. But transport costs that way are much higher. Some European countries have balked at the consequential local grain prices, and the Danube ports can’t handle the same volume as seaports.

    The interim corridor in the Black Sea, which Kyiv has asked the International Maritime Organization to ratify, was opened on Aug. 10 as United States and Ukrainian officials warned of possible Russian attacks on civilian vessels. Sea mines also make the voyage risky, and ship insurance costs are likely to be high for operators.

    Ukrainian officials said the corridor will be primarily used to evacuate ships stuck in the Ukrainian ports of Chornomorsk, Odesa and Pivdennyi since the war broke out. Kubrakov said Saturday that five vessels have since used the corridor to leave Ukrainian ports.

    After tearing up the grain deal, Russia intensified attacks on the southern Odesa region, targeting its port infrastructure and grain silos with missiles and drones.

    On Sunday, Ukraine’s Air Force Command reported another attack overnight in which the Odesa region was the main target. Russian forces fired 10 cruise missiles and six Iranian-made Shahed drones, the statement said. All drones and six missiles were downed, while the rest hit an agricultural facility in the Odesa region.

    In other developments:

    — Russian authorities on Sunday reported that Ukrainian drones targeted the annexed Crimean peninsula and a number of Russian regions overnight and in the morning. Two drones were downed overnight in the Moscow region that surrounds the Russian capital, Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin said. A third drone was intercepted over the Voronezh region that borders Ukraine, Russia’s Defense Ministry said. Another one hit a fuel tank in the neighboring Oryol region, Oryol Gov. Andrei Klychkov said, igniting a fire that was quickly put out. A drone also fell on a logistics facility in the Tula region south of Moscow, local authorities said. In the annexed Crimea, the Russian Defense Ministry reported downing six Ukrainian drones in the early hours of Sunday.

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  • Britain, France and Germany say they will keep their nuclear and missiles sanctions on Iran

    Britain, France and Germany say they will keep their nuclear and missiles sanctions on Iran

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    VIENNA — Britain, France and Germany announced Thursday they will keep their sanctions on Iran related to the Mideast country’s atomic program and development of ballistic missiles. The measures were to expire in October under a timetable spelled out in the now defunct nuclear deal between Tehran and world powers.

    In a joint statement, the three European allies known as E3 and which had helped negotiate the nuclear deal, said they would retain their sanctions in a “direct response to Iran’s consistent and severe non-compliance” with the accord, also known by its official name as Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action or JCPOA.

    The measures ban Iran from developing ballistic missiles capable of delivering nuclear weapons and bar anyone from buying, selling or transferring drones and missiles to and from Iran. They also include an asset freeze for several Iranian individuals and entities involved in the nuclear and ballistic missile program.

    Iran has violated the sanctions by developing and testing ballistic missiles and sending drones to Russia for its war on Ukraine.

    The sanctions will remain in place until Tehran “is fully compliant” with the deal, the E3 said. The sanctions, according to the accord from eight years ago, were to expire on Oct. 18.

    Iran’s Foreign Ministry called the European decision an “illegal, provocative action” that will hamper cooperation, in comments quoted by the country’s official news agency IRNA.

    “The actions of the European parties will definitely have negative effects on the efforts to manage the tension and create a suitable environment for more cooperation between the JCPOA parties,” the ministry said.

    The 2015 nuclear deal was meant to ensure that Iran could not develop atomic weapons. Under the accord, Tehran agreed to limit enrichment of uranium to levels necessary for nuclear power in exchange for the lifting of economic sanctions.

    In 2018, then-President Donald Trump unilaterally pulled the United States out of the accord, saying he would negotiate a stronger deal, but that did not happen. Iran began breaking the terms a year later and is now enriching uranium to nearly weapons-grade levels, according to a report by the United Nations’ nuclear watchdog.

    Formal talks to try to find a roadmap to restart the deal collapsed in August 2022.

    The E3 have informed the European Union’s foreign policy chief, Josep Borrell, about their decision, the statement said. Borrell, in turn, said he had forwarded the E3 letter to other signatories of the 2015 deal — China, Russia and Iran.

    The development comes at a delicate moment as the United States is preparing to finalize a prisoner swap with Iran that would include the unfreezing of Iranian assets held in South Korean banks worth $6 billion.

    Iran’s mission to the United Nations did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

    U.S. State Department spokesman Matthew Miller told reporters that Washington was in touch with the European allies over “the appropriate next steps.”

    “We are working closely with our European allies, including members, of course, of the E3, to address the continued threat that Iran poses including on missiles and arms transfers with the extensive range of unilateral and multilateral tools that are at our disposal,” he said.

    Iran has long denied ever seeking nuclear weapons and continues to insist that its program is entirely for peaceful purposes, though Rafael Mariano Grossi of the International Atomic Energy Agency, the U.N. nuclear watchdog, has warned that Tehran has enough enriched uranium for “several” nuclear bombs if it chose to build them.

    Under the terms of the nuclear deal, a U.N. arms embargo against Tehran will expire on Oct. 18, after which countries that do not adopt similar sanctions on their own as the E3 — likely Russia and perhaps also China — will no longer be bound by the U.N. restrictions on Iran.

    However, Iran has lately slowed the pace at which it is enriching uranium, according to a report by the IAEA that was seen by The Associated Press earlier this month. That could be a sign Tehran is trying to ease tensions after years of strain between it and the U.S.

    “The decision makes sense,” Henry Rome, an analyst with the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, said of the European decision. “The real question is how Iran will react. Given the broader de-escalation efforts underway, I would expect Iran not to act rashly, but we never know.”

    ___

    Associated Press writer Matthew Lee in Washington contributed to this report.

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  • NATO chief warns Ukraine allies to prepare for ‘long war’

    NATO chief warns Ukraine allies to prepare for ‘long war’

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    NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg warned that the war Russian President Vladimir Putin is waging on Ukraine won’t be over any time soon.

    “Most wars last longer than expected when they first begin,” Stoltenberg in an interview with Germany’s Funke media group published Sunday. “Therefore we must prepare ourselves for a long war in Ukraine.”

    “We all want a quick peace,” said Stoltenberg. “At the same time, we must recognize that if [Ukrainian President Volodymyr] Zelenskyy and the Ukrainians stop fighting, their country will no longer exist. If President Putin and Russia stop fighting, we will have peace.”

    The head of Ukraine’s Security Council Oleksiy Danilov, in an opinion piece published Saturday evening, said the only way to end the war is if Kyiv’s allies speed up deliveries of weapons. “Refusing or delaying the transfer of modern weapons to the Ukrainian armed forces is a direct encouragement to the kremlin to continue the war, not the other way around,” Danilov said.

    The Ukrainian military meanwhile continued its counteroffensive, with drone attacks targeting Crimea and Moscow on Sunday, according to Russia’s defense ministry. The attacks disrupted air traffic and caused a fire at an oil depot.

    In southwestern Russia, a Ukrainian drone damaged an oil depot early Sunday, sparking a fire at a fuel tank that was later extinguished, the regional governor said. Another drone was downed in Russia’s Voronezh region.

    Sunday also saw Russian missiles hit an agriculture facility in Ukraine’s Odesa region, according to Ukraine’s military.

    Meanwhile, two cargo ships arrived at a Ukrainian port after travelling through the Black Sea using a new route, Ukrainian port authorities said. They reached Chornomorsk over the weekend, and were due to load 20,000 tons of wheat bound for world markets, the BBC reported. Officials said it was the first time civilian ships had reached a Ukrainian port since the collapse of a grain deal with Russia ensuring the safety of vessels.

    Separately, the International Court of Justice — the United Nations’ highest court — will on Monday hear Russia’s objections to a case brought by Ukraine, who argues Russia is abusing international law in claiming the invasion was justified to prevent alleged genocide. Reuters reports the hearings are set to run until September 27.

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    Leonie Cater

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  • Boris Johnson warns Donald Trump not to drop US support for Ukraine

    Boris Johnson warns Donald Trump not to drop US support for Ukraine

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    LONDON — Boris Johnson issued a direct plea to Donald Trump not to ditch U.S. support for Ukraine if he becomes president in 2024.

    Writing for the Spectator after a trip to Ukraine, the former British prime minister — who has lobbied hard for wavering Republicans to keep the faith in the war-torn country — warned Russian triumph could boomerang on any Trump administration.

    “A Putin victory would be a catastrophe for the West and for American leadership, and I don’t believe it is an outcome that could easily be endured by a U.S. president, let alone one who wanted to Make America Great Again,” Johnson wrote in the Spectator.

    Johnson said that should Ukraine succeed in repelling Russia, “then the reverse is true.”

    “Exactly the opposite message will be sent around the world: that we do care about democracy, that we are willing to back our principles, and that the West still has the guts to stick at something until we succeed,” he added.

    Johnson’s comments come amid Ukrainian jitters about what a Trump presidency would mean for Western support.

    Since being forced from office last year, the ex-British leader has energetically lobbied for continued support for Ukraine. In May he attended a private lunch in Dallas, Texas, as part of efforts to shore up support for the Ukrainian war effort with skeptical Republicans. And he dined with Trump on the same trip, with a Johnson spokesperson saying he stressed “the vital importance of Ukrainian victory.”

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    Andrew McDonald

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  • Russian strikes on Ukraine kill 2 foreign aid workers and target Kyiv

    Russian strikes on Ukraine kill 2 foreign aid workers and target Kyiv

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    KYIV, Ukraine — Two foreign aid workers were reportedly killed in eastern Ukraine on Sunday as Russian shelling hit a van carrying a team of four working with a Ukrainian nongovernmental organization, while dozens of Russian drones targeted Kyiv and wounded at least one civilian.

    The four volunteers from the Road to Relief group, which helps evacuate wounded people from front-line areas, were trapped inside the van as it flipped over and caught fire after being struck by shells near the town of Chasiv Yar, the organization said on its Instagram page.

    Road to Relief said that Anthony Ihnat of Canada died in the attack, while German medical volunteer Ruben Mawick and Swedish volunteer Johan Mathias Thyr were seriously wounded, it said.

    Road to Relief added that it couldn’t trace the whereabouts of the van’s fourth passenger, Emma Igual, a Spanish national who was the organization’s director. Hours later, Spain’s acting Foreign Minister José Manuel Albares told Spanish media that authorities in Madrid had received “verbal confirmation” of the 32-year-old Igual’s death.

    The volunteers were on their way to assess the needs of civilians on the outskirts of Bakhmut, Road to Relief said, in reference to the eastern town that saw the war’s longest and bloodiest battle before falling to Moscow in May. Ukrainian forces have held on to Bakhmut’s western suburbs and are pushing a counteroffensive in the area.

    Also on Sunday, Ukrainian officials reported that Russia launched “dozens” of drones at Kyiv and the surrounding region early in the morning, wounding at least five civilians.

    Ukraine’s air force later said it had brought down 26 out of a total of 33 drones. The head of Kyiv’s military administration, Serhii Popko, reported that debris from Iranian-made Shahed drones fell in several districts of the city and wounded at least one civilian. Popko said there was no risk to the person’s life, and added that most of the wreckage fell in open ground, although one high-rise apartment was damaged.

    Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko later confirmed that one civilian was wounded in the city’s historic center and received help on the spot.

    The governor of the Kyiv region, which surrounds but doesn’t include the capital, also reported that the drone strike wounded four people across the province, one of whom had to be hospitalized. In a Facebook post, Gov. Ruslan Kravchenko said that the drones damaged an infrastructure facility as well as civilian buildings including homes and stores, a hospital, a rehabilitation center, a school and a kindergarten.

    Russia’s Defense Ministry said in the early hours of Sunday that Moscow’s forces earlier destroyed three U.S.-supplied speedboats carrying Ukrainian soldiers that had been traveling toward Russian-occupied Crimea. The claim couldn’t be independently verified. Earlier on Sunday, the ministry said in a separate statement that Russian air defenses shot down eight Ukrainian drones targeting Crimea, as well as another that flew over the Bryansk region bordering Ukraine.

    On Aug. 24, Ukrainian military intelligence said that its special forces landed in Crimea, which Moscow illegally took from Ukraine in 2014, and raised the Ukrainian flag along the peninsula’s western shore before leaving “without casualties.”

    Ukrainian army representatives on Sunday reported further small gains near Robotyne in the southern Zaporizhzhia region, where Kyiv has mounted a counteroffensive, days after Russian-installed authorities acknowledged that Russian forces had left the village.

    Oleksandr Shtupun, a press officer for Ukraine’s Tauride Defense Forces, said on Ukrainian TV that Kyiv’s troops had retaken a further 1.5 square kilometers (0.6 square miles) near Rabotyne, and that heavy fighting is ongoing.

    “The Russians are clinging to every meter of our Ukrainian land … however, the Ukrainian Defense Forces are trying to make it as difficult as possible to supply the Russian army, and in certain areas this is bearing fruit,” Shtupun said, without giving details.

    Hours later, Ukraine’s General Staff said in the latest of its Facebook updates that its forces had “partial success” near Robotyne as well as Klishchiivka, a village 9 kilometers (5.6 miles) southwest of Bakhmut, dislodging Russian troops from their positions. It gave no further details, and the claim could not be verified.

    A Washington-based think tank late on Saturday assessed, citing geolocated footage, that Russian forces had captured territory between Robotyne and two nearby villages: Verbove, some 10 kilometers (6 miles) east, and Novoprokopivka, 5 kilometers (3 miles) to the south.

    The Institute for the Study of War also said in the latest of daily updates that Ukrainian forces had advanced along the border between the Zaporizhzhia region and the Donetsk province farther east, near Novomaiorske village. It acknowledged earlier Ukrainian claims of advances “south of Klischiivka,” but gave no evidence to support them.

    ___

    Associated Press writer Aritz Parra in Madrid contributed to this report.

    ___

    Follow AP’s coverage of the war in Ukraine: https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine

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  • Proximity of Russian attacks on Ukraine’s Danube ports stirs fear in NATO member Romania

    Proximity of Russian attacks on Ukraine’s Danube ports stirs fear in NATO member Romania

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    BUCHAREST, Romania — The discovery of drone debris on Romanian territory this week has left some local residents fearing that the war in neighboring Ukraine could spread into their country, as Russian forces bombard Ukrainian ports just across the Danube River from NATO-member Romania.

    Moscow aims to disrupt Ukraine’s ability to export grain to world markets with a sustained campaign of attacks targeting Ukrainian Danube ports, and has attacked the port of Izmail four times this week, Ukrainian officials say.

    Across from Izmail, pieces apparently from a drone were found near the Romanian village of Plauru, Romanian Defense Minister Angel Tilvar said Wednesday. It was unclear if Romanian authorities had determined when or from where the drone was launched, and Tilvar said the debris didn’t pose a threat, but the development has left citizens in the European Union nation feeling uneasy.

    Daniela Tanase, 46, who lives in Plauru with her husband and son, told The Associated Press that the drone strikes on Izmail this week have woken her up, and that villagers “are scared” of the persistent Russian attacks.

    “In the first phase (of the war) things were calmer, but now it has come to our territory,” she said. But added: “For now, we haven’t thought of leaving the area — we hope it will pass.”

    Tilvar visited Plauru and nearby areas Wednesday after confirming the drone findings to a local news channel, and Romania’s Defense Ministry said he told local authorities there would be additional measures to secure “the airspace at Romania’s borders.”

    Romanian President Klaus Iohannis demanded an “urgent investigation.” If the debris were confirmed to have been from a Russian drone it would be an “inadmissable” violation of Romania’s sovereignty and territorial integrity, Iohannis said at the Three Seas Initiative summit in Bucharest this week.

    Mircea Franc, the owner of a guesthouse in the area of Chilia Veche near Ukraine’s Kiliia port in the Danube Delta region, said he’s seen “fireballs” in the sky this week on the other side of the Danube River and that it has left villagers shaken.

    “Last night … there were drones cruising on the other side of the river and the day before yesterday there were many, they are the first in our area since the war started,” he said on Thursday. “The atmosphere in the village is indeed one of panic … and the fear is worst at night.”

    Speaking at the EU parliament on Thursday, NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said that the 31-nation alliance has been informed by Romania about the finding of drone pieces and that the episode “demonstrates the risks of incidents and accidents.”

    “We don’t have any information indicating any intentional attack by Russia and we are awaiting the outcome of the ongoing investigation,” Stoltenberg said.

    For Franc, the guesthouse owner, the close proximity of the war is already having a negative impact on his business since tourists are now “very reluctant to come here,” he said, adding that some local families have moved away from the area out of fear.

    “We are worried because nobody can guarantee that (a drone) won’t fall on our side of the river,” he said. “For the last two nights, three-quarters of the village hasn’t been sleeping. Beyond trying to calm us down, the authorities can’t do much about it.”

    ___

    Stephen McGrath reported from Sighisoara, Romania. AP journalist Lorne Cook contributed from Brussels.

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  • Elon Musk sabotaged Ukrainian attack on Russian fleet in Crimea by turning off Starlink, new book says

    Elon Musk sabotaged Ukrainian attack on Russian fleet in Crimea by turning off Starlink, new book says

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    Elon Musk secretly ordered his engineers to disable Starlink satellite communications near the coast of Russian-occupied Crimea last year to sabotage a planned Ukrainian drone strike.

    Musk was worried the drone submarine attack, which was targeting the Russian naval fleet in Sevastopol, would escalate tensions and potentially lead to a nuclear war, according to an extract from historian Walter Isaacson’s upcoming biography “Elon Musk.”

    Musk on Thursday evening painted a slightly different picture to the one described by Isaacson. He said satellites in those regions were never turned on in the first place and he simply chose not to activate them.

    The extract, published by the Washington Post on Thursday, shows Musk’s journey from eager supporter to reluctant ally of Ukraine.

    Isaacson writes that Musk reportedly panicked when he heard about the planned Ukrainian attack, which was using Starlink satellites to guide six drones packed with explosives towards the Crimea coast.

    After speaking to the Russian ambassador to the United States — who reportedly told him an attack on Crimea would trigger a nuclear response — Musk took matters into his own hands and ordered his engineers to turn off Starlink coverage “within 100 kilometers of the Crimean coast.”

    This caused the drones to lose connectivity and wash “ashore harmlessly,” effectively sabotaging the offensive mission.

    Ukraine’s reaction was immediate: Officials frantically called Musk and asked him to turn the service back on, telling him that the “drone subs were crucial to their fight for freedom.”

    But Musk was unwavering. He argued that Ukraine was “going too far and inviting strategic defeat” and that he did not want his satellites used for offensive purposes.

    This was the beginning of a well-documented cooling of relationships between Ukrainian forces and the billionaire entrepreneur, who had been helping keep Ukraine online since the beginning of the Kremlin’s full-scale invasion through his Starlink satellites, as Ukrainian infrastructure was severely damaged by Russian attacks.

    But as Ukraine moved on the offensive, Musk started restricting the Ukrainian military’s use of Starlink in Russian-controlled regions and for drone control, while also warning he would stop financially supporting of the service. His argument was the same: He wanted to prevent the conflict from escalating into a world war.

    “There was an emergency request from government authorities to activate Starlink all the way to Sevastopol,” Musk said on X (formerly Twitter). “The obvious intent being to sink most of the Russian fleet at anchor. If I had agreed to their request, then SpaceX would be explicitly complicit in a major act of war and conflict escalation.”

    Russia’s former President Dmitry Medvedev on Thursday praised Musk’s choice to shut down Starlink during Ukraine’s strike attempt.

    “If what Isaacson has written in his book is true, then it looks like Musk is the last adequate mind in North America,” Medvedev wrote on Musk’s X. “Or, at the very least, in gender-neutral America, he is the one with the balls.”

    “Elon Musk,” a biography by historian, professor and former Time magazine editor Isaacson, is set to be released on September 12.

    This story has been updated with comments from Elon Musk.

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    Claudia Chiappa

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  • Russia attacks a Ukrainian port before key grain deal talks between Putin and Turkey’s president

    Russia attacks a Ukrainian port before key grain deal talks between Putin and Turkey’s president

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    KYIV, Ukraine — Two people were hospitalized following a 3½-hour Russian drone barrage on a port in Ukraine’s Odesa region on Sunday, officials said.

    The attack on the Reni seaport comes a day before Russian President Vladimir Putin is due to meet with his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan to discuss the resumption of food shipments from Ukraine under a Black Sea grain agreement that Moscow broke off from in July.

    Russian forces fired 25 Iranian-made Shahed drones along the Danube River in the early hours of Sunday, 22 of which were shot down by air defenses, the Ukrainian air force said on Telegram.

    Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy ’s chief of staff, Andriy Yermak, described the assault as part of a Russian drive “to provoke a food crisis and hunger in the world.”

    Russia’s Defense Ministry said in a statement that the attack was aimed at fuel storage facilities used to supply military equipment.

    Putin and Erdogan’s long-awaited meeting is due to take place in Sochi on Russia’s southwest coast on Monday.

    Turkish officials have confirmed that the pair will discuss renewing the Black Sea grain initiative, which the Kremlin pulled out of six weeks ago.

    The deal — brokered by the United Nations and Turkey in July 2022 — had allowed nearly 33 million metric tons (36 million tons) of grain and other commodities to leave three Ukrainian ports safely despite Russia’s war.

    However, Russia broke away from the agreement after claiming that a parallel deal promising to remove obstacles to Russian exports of food and fertilizer hadn’t been honored.

    Moscow complained that restrictions on shipping and insurance hampered its agricultural trade, even though it has shipped record amounts of wheat since last year.

    The Sochi summit follows talks between the Russian and Turkish foreign ministers on Thursday, during which Russia handed over a list of actions that the West would have to take in order for Ukraine’s Black Sea exports to resume.

    Erdogan has indicated sympathy with Putin’s position. In July, he said Putin had “certain expectations from Western countries” over the Black Sea deal and that it was “crucial for these countries to take action in this regard.”

    Elsewhere in Ukraine, two people were killed and two others were wounded during Russian shelling Sunday on the village of Vuhledar in the Donetsk area.

    Artillery fire hit eight settlements across the region, Ukraine’s National Police wrote on Telegram.

    Ukrainian prosecutors also announced Sunday that they had opened a war crimes investigation into the death of a police officer killed by Russian shelling on the town of Seredyna-Buda on Saturday afternoon.

    Two other police officers and one civilian were wounded during the attack, which hit Ukraine’s north-eastern Sumy region.

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    Follow the AP’s coverage of the war at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine

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  • Russian military says Ukrainian drones targeted 5 Russians regions in biggest drone attack on Russian soil in 18 months

    Russian military says Ukrainian drones targeted 5 Russians regions in biggest drone attack on Russian soil in 18 months

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    Russian military says Ukrainian drones targeted 5 Russians regions in biggest drone attack on Russian soil in 18 months

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