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Azov and Black Sea
Ukrainian drone forces operating far behind the front line in southern Ukraine have hit more than 180 vessels and other sea-borne targets around the peninsula over the past three weeks as part of a widening campaign to isolate Crimea and weaken Moscow’s war effort.
Reuters reported that the unit launched drones every couple of minutes and said it struck a cargo vessel and floating crane in the Black Sea and a power substation in south Crimea, though Reuters could not independently verify the claims.
The attacks are designed to raise the cost for Russia of occupying Crimea and to swing the initiative towards Kyiv in the fifth year of full-scale war in Ukraine, with battalion commander “Ray” of Magyar’s Birds saying, “We work day and night, every day, without time off,”.
The campaign has also been described as “Molochko,” a portmanteau that sounds like the word “milk” but denotes the phrase “Moscow will collapse because of Crimea.”
In parallel, Russia’s strikes have intensified on southern Ukraine, including the killing of 10 sailors after Russian forces struck a Guinea-Bissau-flagged vessel carrying corn from the port of Odesa, according to Ukrainian officials.
Romania drone incursion
Romania said it had not yet identified the origin of a drone that entered its airspace on Friday, after a Romanian F-16 fighter jet shot it down, the first time a NATO member state has done so following dozens of such incursions.
Romania’s army chief of staff, General Gheorghita Vlad, told a news conference that Bucharest had not yet identified the origin or purpose of the drone and said an investigation was under way, while he added it appeared to be a Shahed, saying, “Visually, the pilots reported the drone looked to be a Shahed type.”
President Nicusor Dan wrote on social media that a Romanian pilot shot down the drone at about 11 a.m. (0800 GMT) after it entered the country’s airspace, adding, “The area was uninhabited, so the pilot was able to shoot without any risk.”
The Romanian Defense Ministry said the drone was shot down near the town of Padina in Buzau county in the east of the country and that fragments fell on a wheat field but caused no damage or injuries, with two Romanian F-16 jets and two Italian Eurofighter Typhoons scrambled in response.
The incident came as Romania reported multiple breaches of its airspace by Russian drones since Moscow began attacking Ukrainian ports across the Danube River following its full-scale invasion in 2022.
Shipping and logistics
As Ukrainian drone attacks raised the threat to maritime access, Ukraine’s Minister of Agrarian Policy Taras Vysotskyï told reporters that the entry of ships into Ukrainian ports on the Black Sea is suspended due to the threat of Russian attacks, with the decision taken by shipowners rather than the state.
Vysotskyï said, “Just yesterday, four or five ships were entering the ports. It is not a lot, but traffic existed. Today, ship entries are suspended,” and he added, “It is a decision by the shipowners; the state has not imposed any limitations.”
The same Reuters reporting cited by the Ukraine crisis media center said authorities imposed a temporary ban on ships bound for and leaving the port of Novorossiysk between midnight and 5 a.m. due to Ukrainian drone attacks, while noting the port operates normally outside that time window and grain exports were not affected.
The Ukraine crisis media center also said that following Ukrainian drone strikes, about 10% of Wildberries’ logistics capacity in Russia was damaged or destroyed within a week, covering warehouses in Elektrostal, Kotovsk, Nevinnomyssk, and Krasnodar with a total area of 552,000 square meters.
It further reported that experts interviewed by Kommersant estimated the value of the damaged or destroyed facilities at around 60 billion rubles and said nearly 444,000 square meters of warehouses remain unusable today, about 8% of Wildberries’ total logistics capacity.
