Ukraine hit Russia's last major Black Sea Fleet stronghold overnight, striking the naval base at Novorossiysk with Neptune missiles, Palianytsia drone-missiles and sea drones — confirming hits on air defenses, piers and port infrastructure over 300 kilometers from the front line. Zelensky called it a "unique operation," while reiterating that the war should still end through diplomacy.
The strike lands right after a separate diplomatic wrinkle over that same port. The Financial Times reported that JD Vance asked Zelensky to lay off tankers linked to the Kazakh-oil-carrying CPC pipeline through Novorossiysk, and Kyiv has reportedly complied. Ukraine says the targets it hit overnight were separate from that arrangement — and the concession was partly about staying in Washington's good graces on Patriot interceptors, which Kyiv hopes to buy by the hundreds before winter.
Meanwhile, fires broke out across occupied Crimea after another overnight drone attack, with satellite imagery showing blazes near Balaklava and at a Russian military facility to the north. Russian-installed officials blamed falling drone debris; the causes couldn't be independently confirmed.
Back in Kyiv, the skies didn't stay quiet for long. The capital took a second drone attack Wednesday, with jet-powered UAVs approaching from the north and east hours after an overnight strike hit regional warehouses. Klitschko told residents to stay in shelters.
Separately, Ukrainian intelligence is warning Russia's drone campaign has real staying power. Moscow has stockpiled roughly 6,200 Geran kamikaze drones, enough to fuel mass attacks of up to 1,000 at a time, while a Tatarstan plant is now churning out around 3,000 Geran-4 and Geran-5 drones a month – faster, harder-to-intercept variants, with the facility set to expand further.
There's also a tech wrinkle in the arsenal: HUR says it found an Nvidia Jetson Orin chip inside Russia's new S-71 Monochrome cruise missile, raising the possibility Moscow is building AI capability into its weapons despite sanctions on exactly this kind of hardware.
And with another wartime winter approaching, Kyiv is already compiling lists of elderly and disabled residents who may need relocation if strikes knock out heating – a lesson from last winter, when many vulnerable residents weren't even living at their registered addresses.
By Alisa Orlova
Geen opmerkingen:
Een reactie posten