Ukraine News

In a stark address to the U.S. Senate, Senator Roger Wicker (R-Miss.), Chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, delivered a firm warning to American policymakers and defense stakeholders: Russian President Vladimir Putin cannot be trusted to negotiate a legitimate or lasting peace in Ukraine.Speaking amid ongoing peace talks in Riyadh and growing speculation about sanctions relief, Wicker sought to dispel any optimism about the Kremlin’s intentions. “President Putin values peace as little as any piece of shredded paper he would deceitfully sign,” Wicker said.

The United States will evaluate demands made by Russia after Moscow had agreed "in principle" to a U.S.-brokered ceasefire with Ukraine in the Black Sea to allow safe navigation, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said on Wednesday.The U.S. announced separate Black Sea agreements with Ukraine and Russia on Tuesday - following talks in Saudi Arabia - to ensure safe navigation, stop attacks, and prevent the use of commercial vessels for military purposes.Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022. U.S.

Ukraine and Russia accused one another on Wednesday of flouting a truce on energy strikes brokered by the United States, and conditions set by Russia cast doubt over a planned ceasefire in the Black Sea.The United States announced separate agreements with Ukraine and Russia on Tuesday to pause their strikes in the Black Sea and against each other's energy targets, but the rhetoric from Moscow and Kyiv suggested they remained far apart.President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said the U.S. side told Kyiv the deals were effective as soon as they were announced.

The United States reached deals on Tuesday with Ukraine and Russia on a truce in the Black Sea and a pause in attacks on energy facilities, with Washington also pledging to push for the lifting of some financial sanctions against Moscow.The separate agreements are the first formal commitments by the warring sides since the inauguration of Donald Trump, who is pushing for an end to the war and a rapid rapprochement with Moscow that has alarmed Kyiv and European countries.The U.S.

Russia said on Tuesday the U.S. had agreed to help it lift restrictions on food, fertilizer and shipping companies in exchange for agreeing to a maritime security deal in the Black Sea.The United States further said it had also agreed with Russia and Ukraine to implement a ban on military strikes on each other's energy installations.If implemented, the deals would represent the clearest progress yet towards a wider ceasefire that Washington sees as a stepping stone towards peace…

A U.S. delegation will seek progress toward a Black Sea ceasefire and a broader cessation of violence in the war in Ukraine when it meets for talks with Russian officials on Monday, after discussions with diplomats from Ukraine on Sunday.The so-called technical talks come as U.S. President Donald Trump intensifies his drive for a halt to Russia's three-year-old assault against Ukraine. Last week, he spoke with both Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy and Russian President Vladimir Putin.A source briefed on the planning for the talks said the U.S.

NATO member Norway will continue to supply fuel for U.S. Navy ships, the country's defence minister said on Sunday, after a call from a private marine fuel supplier to stop doing so in response to the apparent breakdown in U.S.-Ukrainian relations."We have seen reports raising concerns about support for U.S. Navy vessels in Norway. This is not in line with the Norwegian government's policy," Norway's Defence Minister Tore Sandvik said in a statement."American forces will continue to receive the supply and support they require from Norway…

“Three years after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the volume of dry bulk shipments from the two countries combined is 6% below pre-war levels. However, the past 12 months have seen the countries’ dry bulk shipments develop in complete opposite directions. While Ukraine has seen an 87% y/y jump in shipments, Russia’s have taken a 6% y/y fall. Overall, their combined volume has increased 3% y/y over the last 12 months,” says Filipe Gouveia, Shipping Analysis Manager at BIMCO.The primary reason for Ukraine’s spike in shipments lie in the success of its coastal corridor.

Ukrainian military intelligence said one of its naval drones had destroyed a Russian helicopter and damaged another one in the Black Sea.In a battle near Cape Tarkhankut on Crimea's west coast on Tuesday, a Magura V5 maritime drone equipped with missiles hit a Russian Mi-8 helicopter, Ukraine's GUR spy agency said on Telegram.GUR said it was the first time a Ukrainian naval drone had downed an air target. Reuters could not independently verify the report.There was no comment from Moscow on the helicopter.

Russian drone and missile attacks have damaged 321 Ukrainian port infrastructure facilities since July last year, President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Saturday.Twenty merchant ships belonging to other countries were also damaged by Russian strikes, he added."Overall, Ukrainian food exports provide food for 400 million people in 100 countries around the world," Zelenskiy said. "Food prices in Egypt, Libya, Nigeria, and other countries in Africa directly depend on whether farmers…

“Since September 2024, five merchant ships have been hit by Russian missiles while in Ukrainian ports or waters. These were the first attacks on merchant ships since November 2023 and they could threaten 1% of the world’s dry bulk exports if safety is not improved. The price of war risk insurance has already increased but the impact on exported volumes has so far been limited,” says Filipe Gouveia, Shipping Analyst at BIMCO.Throughout 2024 Ukraine has been exporting dry bulk cargoes from its ports in greater Odesa via a corridor close to its coast.

A Russian ballistic missile attack on Wednesday on the port infrastructure of Ukraine's southern Odesa region killed six people and injured eight, Odesa Regional Governor Oleh Kiper said.The injured were all Ukrainian nationals, Kiper wrote on the Telegram messaging app.

Ukraine's Navy confirmed on Friday that it had destroyed a ferry in the Russian port of Kavkaz that was used to deliver fuel and weapons to occupied Crimea.Local authorities had earlier said the ferry was set ablaze and damaged in Thursday's attack on the port in Russia's southern Krasnodar region."Another undoubtedly military objective has been destroyed. Its purpose was to provide fuel for the invaders. The ferry sank and this port (Kavkaz) is not usable until the ferry is removed…

Ukraine's navy and military intelligence have attacked and damaged a former offshore gas platform used by Russian forces in the Black Sea, the navy spokesman said on Saturday."The occupiers used this location for GPS spoofing to make civilian navigation dangerous. We cannot allow this to happen," Dmytro Pletenchuk said on Facebook.He posted a video taken at night showing an explosion on an offshore platform and the ensuing fire. He said that a half a day before the attack, Russian forces had stationed equipment and military personnel on the platform."There were no civilians there.

Maritime charity Stella Maris is committing funding “for as long as it takes” to provide urgent support to the thousands of seafarers in Ukraine and those regularly making the perilous journey to and from its Black Sea ports.Seafarers working on vessels that have to navigate Russian threats through the Black Sea face numerous challenges, not least mental health issues associated with life-threatening risks.And in Ukraine itself, seafarers have not been able to work for more than two years because of the country’s wartime rules…

A spokesperson for Ukraine's navy said on Wednesday that Russia had pulled all its vessels out of the Sea of Azov, a body of water connected to the Black Sea."There are no longer any Russian naval vessels in the Sea of Azov," the spokesperson, Dmytro Pletenchuk, wrote on Facebook.Ukrainian naval officials have said in recent months that successful attacks on targets in Russian-annexed Crimea and elsewhere in the Black Sea had forced the Russian navy to rebase its ships elsewhere.(Reuters - Reporting by Ron Popeski and Oleksander Kozhukhar; Editing by Leslie Adler)

Britain added 11 new shipping sanctions under its Russia sanctions regime related to the war in Ukraine, an official notice showed on Thursday.The government said the sanctions on ships including Zaliv Amurskiy and SCF Pechora relate to the carrying of oil or oil products from Russia to a third country.The ships are believed to have the flags of Panama, Gabon and the Cook Islands, the government notice said.Last month, Britain imposed its first sanctions targeting vessels in Russian…

The mayor of the Russian Black Sea port city of Novorossiisk issued a sea drone alert on Thursday morning, he said on the Telegram messaging app.Mayor Andrei Kravchenko urged locals to stay away from the shoreline. Ukrainian sea drones have in the past attacked Russian ships near the port, disrupting traffic.Novorossiisk is Russia's largest Black Sea port and a key outlet for crude oil and oil product exports in Russia's south.

The Russian navy's Black Sea Fleet has been forced to rebase nearly all its combat-ready warships from occupied Crimea to other locations, and its main naval hub is becoming ineffectual because of attacks by Kyiv, Ukraine's navy chief said.Vice-Admiral Oleksiy Neizhpapa said Ukrainian missile and naval drone strikes had caused heavy damage to the Sevastopol base, a logistics hub for repairs, maintenance, training and ammunition storage among other important functions for Russia."They were established over many decades, possibly centuries.

Russian strikes killed two people and wounded 26 on Thursday in Ukrainian regions stretching from the south to the east and northeast, local authorities said.A missile strike in southern Odesa region killed a woman, injured seven people and damaged port infrastructure, regional governor Oleh Kiper said on Telegram.In northeastern Kharkiv region, a second woman was killed and a man wounded in a strike by a Russian guided bomb on the village of Ruska Lozova, according to regional governor Oleh Syniehubov.Nine others…

Istanbul-based tanker operator Palmali has become the top shipper for Ukraine's Black Sea-borne sunflower oil exports, one of the country's key export products, and plans to expand further, its chairman Mubariz Mansimov said.Azeri-born Mansimov said Palmali was the most active operator in the increasingly dangerous Black Sea, and plans to expand its presence in Ukraine by placing an order for 10 more cargo carriers and starting trading operations early next year. Since pulling out of the U.N.-brokered deal that guaranteed safe shipment of Ukrainian food products in July…

Ukraine rained 15 cruise missiles on Russia's shipyard in the Crimean port city of Kerch on Saturday, damaging one ship, Russian defence ministry said, in an attack that could further undermine Moscow's striking capabilities.Thirteen of the missiles were destroyed in the air, while one hit a ship, the Russian defence ministry said in a typically laconic statement when reporting on Ukraine's strikes on Russian territory or infrastructure. It did not give the ship's name.Ukraine's top Air Force commander said the Russian Navy stationed there one of its most modern ships…

Russia has hit six civilian ships, 150 port and grain facilities and destroyed over 300,000 tonnes of grain since Moscow quit a deal allowing safe Black Sea exports of Ukrainian grain, the Kyiv government said on Friday.In a statement, it said 21 vessels had been already loaded with grain for exports and used a new "humanitarian" grain corridor in the Black Sea announced by Kyiv in August. It said a total of 25 ships had entered Ukrainian ports for loading.(Reuters - Reporting by Olena Harmash; editing by Mark Heinrich)