Ukraine updates: Russia, Kyiv dispute Black Sea drone attack

A contender for the Republican presidential nomination in the US, Chris Christie, visited Kyiv on Friday and met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

The former New Jersey Governor, who is challenging Donald Trump at the 2024 Republican primaries, said visiting villages like Bucha and Moshchun imparted on him the need for the US to support Ukraine.

"I feel the cruelty, and you feel the inhumanity," Christie said.

"And you look at this, and I don't think there's anyone in our country who would come here and see this and not feel as if these are the things that America needs to stand up to prevent."

This contrasts with the view of  DonaldTrump, the current Republican frontrunner, who has called for US aid to Ukraine to be halted until the Biden Administration cooperates with investigations into the president and his son Hunter Biden's business dealings.

Christie said Zelenskyy spoke about his desire for bipartisan support from the US but did not comment on the upcoming election itself.

"He was very complimentary of President Biden, some of the things that he's advocated for, but also made clear that he thought there was more that needed to be done," he said.

"There was no conversation at all from him about, you know, the race that I'm in." 

China said on Friday that it will send a senior official to Saudi Arabia for high-level talks with Ukraine and around 40 other countries on finding a peaceful settlement to the war.

Chinese Special Envoy for Eurasian Affairs Li Hui will join the meeting of national security advisers and other top officials that is slated to run through the weekend.

The talks will be attended by many western countries as well as countries that have largely remained neutral like India, Brazil and South Africa. Russia was not invited.

"China is willing to work with the international community to continue to play a constructive role in promoting a political solution to the crisis in Ukraine," Foreign Ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin said in a statement.

A anonymous German official told the Reuters news agency that Saudi diplomacy played a large part in convincing China to attend the talks.

Bulgaria will send around 100 Soviet-build armored transport vehicles to Ukraine, officials in Sofia said on Friday.

It will be the first time Bulgaria has delivered such heavy equipment to Ukraine.

The newly-elected, pro-Western government in Sofia has assured Ukraine of more military support than the previous transitional government provided.

The vehicles will be donated from the existing stock of Bulgaria's Interior Ministry. The vehicles are reportedly no longer needed by Bulgarian authorities.

After a Ukrainian naval drone attacked Russian ship in the Black Sea port of Novorossiysk, a spokesperson for Kyiv's intelligence has warned Moscow of further attacks.

"For Ukraine, this is good and just news," HUR military intelligence spokesman Andriy Yusov told Ukrainian state TV's Russian-language foreign channel Freedom.

"This will continue."

Meanwhile, Ukrainian presidential adviser Mykhailo Podolyak also said on Friday that Ukrainian naval drones would completely change "the rules of the game."

Poland has detained a Belarusian man on suspicion of spying for Russia, Polish Interior Minister Mariusz Kaminski said.

"Belarusian Mikhail A. took part in reconnaissance of military facilities and ports. He also carried out propaganda activities for Russia," Kaminski wrote on X social media platform, formerly known as Twitter.

Kaminski said the man was the 16th person to be detained in connection with an organized spy network working for Russia.

The man arrived in Poland in 2021 and maintained contacts with "citizens of the Russian Federation, with whom he was meeting in Saint Petersburg and Crimea," Kaminski said.

The Polish interior minister alleged the spy network was preparing to carry out acts of sabotage against Ukrainian aid efforts, including derailing trains carrying aid for the war-torn country.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said he had "no information" on the matter.

Poland, the largest country on NATO's eastern flank, has raised security concerns due to the possibility of threats from the presence of the Wagner Group in Belarus.

The UK Ministry of Defense said Friday that Moscow's willingness to conduct airstrikes near NATO territory has "evolved" as Russian forces attack a port on the Danube River about 200 meters (about 650 feet) from the Romanian border.

The aim of the attacks, which used Iranian-made kamikaze drones, is to stop international shipping through Ukrainian Danube ports, the ministry added.

"Russia has evolved its risk appetite for conducting strikes near NATO territory," the Defense Ministry wrote in a daily briefing.

A grain silo in the port of Izmail on the Danube was destroyed recently.

Russia canceled an agreement that permitted the export of Ukrainian grain and has since been bombing port infrastructure and storage facilities for agricultural products.

Russia's Defense Ministry said it thwarted an attack on a naval base in the Black Sea.

"Tonight, the Armed Forces of Ukraine, with the use of two unmanned sea boats, attempted an attack on the Novorossiysk naval base of the Russian Armed Forces," the ministry said.

The ministry said Russian forces destroyed the sea drones. 

The attack temporarily paused all ship movement at the Novorossiysk port, according to the Caspian Pipeline Consortium, which operates an oil terminal there.

Novorossiysk, one of Russia's main commercial ports, is also home to a Russian naval base.

Ukrainian intelligence later confirmed the attack, saying it was executed by Ukrainian forces, according to Reuters news agency.

An official told the news agency that a Russian combat vessel was put out of operation during the strike.

"As a result of the attack, the Olenegorsky Gornyak received a serious breach and currently cannot conduct its combat missions," Reuters quoted the unnamed official as saying.

The news come after a Russian attack on a Ukrainian port on the Danube River temporarily suspended all operations at the port earlier this week.

Ukrainian ports on the Danube served as the main alternative shipping route for grain exports for world markets after Russia quit the Black Sea grain deal last month.

The attack destroyed some 40,000 metric tons of grain bound for export.

The Black Sea handled about 95% of Ukrainian grain exports before Russia’s invasion last year and a UN-brokered agreement — the Black Sea Grain Initiative — allowed the safe passage of agricultural products from Ukrainian ports to the rest of the world.

Both Russia and Ukraine have reported increasing drone attacks since the grain deal was scrapped.

Russia has doubled its 2023 defense spending target to more than $100 billion (€91 billion), which is a third of all public expenditure, Reuters news agency reported.

Reuters said the document it reviewed said Russia spent 12% more on defense than planned in the first half of 2023 alone.

Russia spent 600 billion rubles more on defense than the 4.98 trillion rubles it had originally aimed for 2023.

Defense spending in the first six months of 2023 amounted to 5.59 trillion rubles —  37% of the total amount of 14.97 trillion rubles spent in the period, the document showed.

Rising costs of war and higher industrial production helped Russia's modest economic recovery this year, but its economy is under strain as a result of falling export revenues.

Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu visited a combat zone in Ukraine to inspect a command post and meet senior military officers, the army said Friday.

Shoigu "thanked commanders and soldiers... for successful offensive operations" in Lyman in eastern Ukraine.

He was updated on the situation on the front line, the army said, without mentioning the actual day of his visit.

Ukrainian troops have made only incremental gains since launching a counteroffensive in early June, and Putin has repeatedly claimed Ukraine has suffered heavy losses, without offering evidence.

Ukraine has committed thousands of troops on the front line in recent days, according to officials.

rm/sms (Reuters, AP, AFP, dpa)