Ukraine: Russian drone debris found in Romania as Nato rules out ‘intentional attack’

Russia‘s RIA state news agency on Friday broadcast a video in which a Russian citizen said he had blown up a military officer in his car in Moscow earlier this week at the behest of the SBU Ukrainian security service.

Reuters could not independently verify the handcuffed man’s assertions and there was no immediate comment from Ukraine.

The Kommersant newspaper reported on Wednesday that a car bomb had injured an officer from Russia‘s military intelligence agency in northern Moscow. Other media said the injured man was a regular military officer.

Russia‘s interior ministry said at the time that two people had been injured in the blast and that a criminal case had been opened. CCTV footage showed a Toyota Land Cruiser parked outside what looked like a residential complex exploding into a fireball.

Turkish authorities said late on Wednesday they had arrested a Russian citizen suspected of the attack in Bodrum after he had flown in from Moscow.

On Friday, Russia‘s FSB security service said in a statement that the man, whom it named as Yevgeny Serebyrakov, had been brought to Russia from Turkey and handed over to investigators.

The Pentagon has found $2bn worth of additional errors in its calculations for ammunition, missiles and other equipment sent to Ukraine, increasing the improperly valued material to a total of $8.2bn, a US government report has revealed.

Last year’s calculations by the Pentagon revealed a $6.2 billion error after the staff used “replacement value” instead of “depreciated value” to tabulate the billions in materials sent to Ukraine. The error created a path for billions more to be given to Ukraine.

The US Department of Defence has faced challenges in accurately valuing defence articles sent to Ukraine due to unclear accounting definitions, a new Government Accountability Office report showed.

The Pentagon told the GAO that since then, $2bn more in overstatements have been found. As a result, an additional $2bn worth of arms can be sent to Ukraine to cover the amount of aid approved by the Biden administration.

In one example cited in the GAO report, 10 vehicles were valued at $7,050,000 when the supporting documentation showed they should have been valued at zero, their net book value.

The GAO has recommended that Congress clarify the definition of value in the context of defence articles under Presidential Drawdown Authority.

Usyk, 37, who defeated Britain’s Tyson Fury in May to become the first undisputed heavyweight boxing champion in nearly 25 years, was speaking at an event in London to mark the departure of the ‘Vehicles for Ukraine’ convoy.

The vehicles have been donated to Ukraine through London’s ultra-low emission zone (ULEZ) scrappage scheme for humanitarian and medical aid and they set off for the war-torn country on Thursday from the capital.

Usyk, accompanied by Ukraine ambassador Valerii Zaluzhnyi, said via an interpreter: “I’m really thankful to all the British that they are with us, now for the third year, and I’m really grateful to people. Glory to Ukraine.”

Romania said it found Russian drone fragments on its territory yesterday after Moscow troops fired 38 long-range drones into Ukraine overnight, though Nato said it saw no sign of an intentional attack on the alliance’s territory .

Ukraine’s Air Force destroyed 25 Russian drones, its chief said on Telegram. Three drones “were lost after crossing the state border with Romania”, he added.

Romania’s defence ministry said it had found fragments of a Russian Geran 1/2 drone near the village of Plauru across the Danube River from Ukraine‘s southern port town of Izmail that came under attack for the second night in a row.

However, a Nato spokesperson said there was no indication of an intentional attack on the alliance’s territory. “While Nato has no information indicating any intentional attack by Russia against Allied territory, these acts are irresponsible and potentially dangerous”, a spokesperson said in a statement.

Two Finnish F-18 fighter jets, part of Nato air policing missions in Romania, were scrambled to monitor the attack, the ministry added.

Searches for other fragments were continuing and all locations where drones might have fallen “were outside residential areas and no infrastructure elements were damaged”, it said.

Romania shares a 650km (400mile) border with Ukraine and has had Russian drone fragments stray into its territory repeatedly over the past year.

Gubad Ibadoghlu was driving home with his wife in northern Baku, Azerbaijan, when several cars rammed into them.

The senior fellow at the London School of Economics (LSE) was in town to visit his ailing mother, who could no longer walk.

Two dozen plainclothes officers rushed out of the vehicles and beat the couple, who had been chased out of the country six years earlier by an administration that Professor Gubad’s supporters say was angered by his anti-corruption efforts.

Ukraine’s foreign minister Dmytro Kuleba visited Hong Kong and called on its leader John Lee to prevent Russia from using Hong Kong as a way to circumvent Western sanctions imposed on Moscow for its full-scale war in Ukraine.

Hong Kong and China are identified by the US government as key routes for Russia to source materials for its military, including semiconductors and drone parts.

“Dmytro Kuleba called on the Hong Kong administration to take measures to deprive Russia and Russian companies of the opportunity to use Hong Kong to circumvent restrictive measures imposed for Russian aggression against Ukraine,” the Ukrainian ministry said in a statement.

The Hong Kong government said in an email response to Reuters that it “implements and strictly enforces United Nations Security Council’s sanctions”.

According to previously undisclosed US Commerce Department data reported by Reuters, Hong Kong remains a global sanctions evasion hotspot, although semiconductors and other restricted goods shipped through China and Hong Kong fell by a fifth this year.

China, the world’s second-largest economy, positions itself as neutral on the Ukraine war, but declared a “no limits” partnership with Russia days before the 2022 invasion. It has also provided diplomatic backing and helped keep Russia’s wartime economy afloat.

US and Canadian fighter jets intercepted Russian and Chinese nuclear-capable bombers after they were detected near Alaska.

The Russian Tu-95MS “Bear” strategic bombers and Chinese Xi’an H-6 bombers were spotted in the Alaska Air Defense Identification Zone – but did not enter US or Canadian airspace, US authorities said.

It comes after Chinese and Belarusian troops joined forces for a joint military drill near its border with Nato member Poland earlier this month.

Russia won’t be able to maintain the scale of its attacks Gen Oleksandr Pivnenko, the commander of Ukraine’s National Guard, said in an interview with Ukrinform.

He said: “The enemy’s offensive capabilities are not unlimited, considering the losses they suffer.”

“In another month and a half, they will not be able to conduct active assaults in many directions at once and will switch to defense.”