Live: Russia says it shot down Ukrainian drones southwest of Moscow

Issued on: 16/08/2023 – 07:12

3 min

6:35am: Russia says it shot down three drones southwest of Moscow

Russia’s defence ministry says it shot down three Ukrainian drones southwest of Moscow, in the latest aerial attacks near the capital.

Ukraine launched the attack at 5am local time (0200 GMT) using “three unmanned aerial vehicles on objects in the Kaluga region”, the ministry said on Telegram.

“All UAVs were detected and destroyed in a timely manner by Russian air defence systems,” the ministry added.

Kaluga’s governor said the drones were shot down in the south of the region, a few hundred kilometres southwest of Moscow, adding that there were “no consequences for people and infrastructure”.

The air attack is at least the fifth this month over the Kaluga region that Russia says it has thwarted.

5:50am: US asks Iran to stop selling drones to Russia

The US is pushing Iran to stop selling armed drones to Russia as part of discussions on a broader “unwritten understanding” between Washington and Tehran, the Financial Times has reported citing people briefed on the matter.

The Biden administration has raised the issue with Iranian officials at indirect talks in Qatar and Oman this year, the paper said, citing people briefed on the matter.

“The discussions have been taking place alongside negotiations on a prisoner exchange deal that led to Tehran transferring four Iranian-US citizens from prison to house arrest last week,” the British daily added.

2:55am: Ukraine says Russian drones threatened Danube port

Ukraine’s air force said a large group of Russian army drones entered the mouth of the Danube river overnight and headed towards the Izmail river port near the border with Romania.

The governor of southern Odesa region, Oleh Kiper, asked residents of Izmail district to take shelter at around 1:30am local time (22:30 GMT) and cancelled the air raid alert one hour later.

Ukraine’s Danube ports accounted for around a quarter of grain exports before Russia pulled out of a UN-backed deal to provide safe passage for the export of Ukrainian grain via the Black Sea. They have since become the main route out, with grain sent on barges to Romania’s Black Sea port of Constanta for shipment onwards.

A Russian attack on the Izmail port sent global food prices spiralling in early August.

Key developments from Tuesday, August 15:

Three people were killed in western Ukraine’s Volyn after overnight air strikes, the region’s governor said, adding that the strikes targeted an industrial area in the city of Lutsk. 

The attacks came a day after President Volodymyr Zelensky announced he had visited Ukrainian troops clawing back territory from Russian forces along the country’s eastern front line.

Also on Tuesday, Russia’s central bank made a large interest rate hike of 3.5 percent, a move designed to fight inflation and strengthen the ruble after the country’s currency reached its lowest value since early in the war with Ukraine. 

Read yesterday’s live blog to see how the day’s events unfolded.

(FRANCE 24 with AFP, AP and Reuters)