RAccording to official reports, Russia foiled three maritime drone attacks on the Crimean bridge overnight. The Defense Ministry in Moscow announced on its Telegram channel early Saturday that the Ukrainian naval drones had been found and destroyed in good time in the waters of the Black Sea. Accordingly, the first attack took place on Friday evening, followed by two more on Saturday Moscow time. The information could not be independently verified.
Russia has been waging a war of aggression against Ukraine for the past 18 months. Recapturing the Black Sea peninsula of Crimea, which was annexed from Russia in 2014, is a key goal of Ukraine’s national security. The bridge from the Russian mainland to Crimea is crucial for supplying Russian troops on the peninsula and in southern Ukraine. So the bridge was repeatedly attacked by Kiev.
According to satellite images, Russia is protecting part of the bridge with a barrage of ships. According to observers, it is supposed to act as a defense against possible Ukrainian attacks by maritime drones.
Denmark cuts number of Russian diplomats in Copenhagen
Meanwhile, Denmark wants to expel ten Russian diplomats. The number of employees at the Russian Embassy in Denmark will in the future correspond to the number of employees at the Danish Embassy in Moscow, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Copenhagen announced on Friday. A maximum of five consuls and 20 other staff members should be allowed to work at the embassy in Copenhagen.
Moscow sees the Danish decision as “another manifestation of its hostile attitude toward our country,” Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said in a statement. “Necessary conclusions” will now be drawn, he explained.
In the shadow of the ongoing war, the new school year began on September 1 in Ukraine and Russia. In the eastern Ukrainian city of Kharkiv, which is frequently shelled, schoolchildren gathered at subway stations for safety reasons. Media in the big city of Kryvyi Rih published pictures of first-graders in a bomb shelter.
In total, the new school year has started for about 3.7 million Ukrainian children and youth, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said in his evening video address. “September 1 will be a day when our entire country will be peaceful and secure,” he promised.
Kremlin President Putin announced that he will meet with Chinese President Xi
Russian President Vladimir Putin has announced that he wants to meet Chinese President and Party Leader Xi Jinping soon. “Very soon we will hold events, there will be a meeting with the President of the People’s Republic of China,” Putin said in a meeting with children and youth on the occasion of the start of school.
He did not give an exact time or any other details for the meeting with Xi Jinping. However, the Kremlin had already announced a few weeks earlier that Putin would visit China for the Silk Road Summit in October.
Amid a growing crackdown on Kremlin critics, Russia also classified Nobel Peace Prize laureate Dmitri Muradov as a “foreign agent”. The renowned journalist is the editor-in-chief of Novaya Gazeta, the Kremlin’s main media outlet, working in exile abroad. The 61-year-old has been awarded the 2021 Nobel Peace Prize for his courageous fight for freedom of expression.
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