A Ukrainian drone attack has hit a building in Moscow, Russian officials have said. The city’s airspace has been closed as a result. The Russian defence ministry also claimed a separate attempted assault on its Black Sea fleet.
Friday 18 August 2023 16:10, UK
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If you’re just joining us this Friday afternoon, today’s main developments so far have been two separate incidents reported inside Russia.
The first was an overnight drone attack on Moscow, which caused a blast that was reportedly heard across the capital’s business district. Russian officials blamed Ukraine and said they had shot the drone down, but videos show plumes of smoke rising afterwards.
Then hours later, a fire was reported at a cargo terminal in the Black Sea port city of Novorossiysk – the same port that Ukraine admitted to attacking a couple of weeks ago. Dozens of Russian firefighters were battling to get it under control.
Some other updates to bring you:
We’ve been putting your questions on the war in Ukraine to our analysts and foreign correspondents.
Today’s question comes from Emmanuel, who asks: “Can Ukraine effectively export grain to the world through neighbouring European territory to avoid Russian blackmail over the Black Sea? If not, what other options are there, other than negotiating with Putin over the Black Sea?”
Here’s what our international correspondent John Sparks said…
Good question Emmanuel, and it’s something that government officials in Ukraine and the rest of Europe are really thinking about right now.
You are probably aware that Russia pulled out of the Black Sea grain initiative last month. The scheme allowed the Ukrainians to export grain through the Black Sea without fear of Russian attack. Food products like wheat have been shipped to countries in Africa and the Middle East that have been experiencing acute food shortages.
Since the collapse of that agreement, the Russians have been pounding Ukrainian ports – and Ukrainian grain stores – in an attempt to damage and destroy the largest sector in the Ukrainian economy. Agricultural products like wheat, corn and sunflower oil form the country’s biggest export.
The Ukrainians have tried using a work around in the form of a couple of ports on the Ukrainian-Romanian border.
These facilities on the Danube River, including one in a town called Izmail, have been used as hubs, where the Ukrainians put wheat and other grains onto barges, before moving them to the Romanian port of Constanța. At that point, the grain is put into ships by the Romanians and sent out via the Black Sea.
However, the Russians are now trying to shut this route down, unleashing multiple Shahed drone attacks on Izmail in particular.
The only option left is also the slowest – and most expensive – and that’s overland by road and rail.
It poses a major headache for the Ukrainians – and their neighbours – with more than 60 million tonnes of grain, seed oils and food products scheduled for export over the next year.
Getting this quantity of material out of the country is going to require completely new infrastructure. New roads and transhipment centres will be key.
But Ukraine is also going to have to build a new railway. The track gauge – or track size – in Ukraine is bigger than EU countries and Ukrainian officials accept that they will need to build a new EU-compatible network if they are going to overcome what is a major challenge.
Russia has banned entry to a group of unnamed Moldovan officials, according to state media.
Russian news agency RIA reported the move, citing the country’s foreign ministry.
Relations between Moscow and Chisinau have deteriorated since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Earlier this week, 22 Russian diplomats flew out of the Moldovan capital over the breakdown in relations.
Moldova’s foreign ministry asked Russia to reduce its embassy presence in Chisinau last month due to fears about alleged Russian attempts to destabilise the small state, which borders Romania and Ukraine.
Witnesses said they heard an explosion as a drone reportedly hit a building in Moscow overnight.
Footage from the aftermath shows smoke rising from the area where the downed drone apparently fell onto the Russian capital’s Expo Centre.
Japan scrambled fighter jets after two Russian aircraft were seen flying between the sea of Japan and the East China Sea – where Russia is currently holding a joint naval exercise with China.
Russia’s defence ministry confirmed today that ships from its fleet and Chinese navy vessels were jointly patrolling the arm of the Pacific Ocean.
It said they had covered more than 6,400 nautical miles since the patrol began.
Both countries reportedly also conducted anti-submarine exercises and repelled a simulated enemy air raid, as well as carrying out rescue training and practising helicopter take-offs.
Activity by Russia’s air force comes a day after Japan said it saw Russian and Chinese naval ships crossing waters between the southern Japanese islands of Okinawa and Miyako.
Air raid alarms are sounding across Ukraine.
An alert warning of potential attacks has come in the last few minutes.
The map below, which can also be viewed here, shows every region is under an alert currently:
Attacks on Moscow aren’t achieving much tactically but are “sending a powerful message”, says military analyst Sean Bell.
He tells Sky News millions of people in the Russian capital will be “increasingly concerned” about repeated drone strikes, which will in turn “raise questions about Putin’s ability to protect the population”.
“People will be getting increasingly angry,” he explains.
Moscow separately claimed it had repelled an attack on its Black Sea fleet hours before the alleged drone attack on its capital.
“Russia claims that it shot their drone out of the water. But as ever at sea, there’s no independent verification,” Bell says.
“Russia always claims that it’s destroyed the drones. If you remember the last two attacks, they said they hadn’t caused any damage. The next day, two ships were limping back into port, listing heavily to one side.”
Though we don’t know the exact details of last night’s attack, Russia advising of another drone attack “show this is quite widespread,” Bell adds.
Oil tycoon Eugene Shvidler has lost a High Court bid to overturn sanctions imposed on him by the UK after Russia invaded Ukraine.
The British-US businessman, with an estimated net worth of $1.6bn, was sanctioned last March over his association with former Chelsea Football Club owner Roman Abramovich.
He also had two private jets seized.
Mr Shvidler’s lawyers had argued that is was wrong to sanction him over his relationship with Mr Abramovich.
Ukrainian advances in the southeast have likely been “tactically significant” and recent success there reflects “a wider degradation of defending Russian forces”, military analysts have said.
The Institute for the Study of War (ISW) said a push forward by Ukrainian troops on the Donetsk-Zaporizhzhia border and in the Zaporizhzhia region may mean they can operate past “the densest” part of Russia’s defensive minefields.
The ISW said Moscow has dedicated “significant effort, resources, and personnel” to hold strategic towns such as Robotyne in Zaporizhzhia and Urozhaine in Donetsk – which Ukraine recently liberated.
“Ukrainian advances in these areas are therefore likely reflective of a wider degradation of defending Russian forces,” it added.
The thinktank said Russia’s “intense effort” to hold the towns means Kyiv’s military has likely had to “thoroughly degrade Russian units before advancing”.
More images have emerged of the damage caused after a Ukrainian drone was allegedly shot down over central Moscow.
Fragments fell on an exhibition building of the capital’s Expo Centre, a local official said.
No one was hurt, but flights were briefly suspended at all four major Moscow airports.
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