Turkey’s foreign minister Hakan Fidan on Saturday called for a cessation of military operations affecting commercial shipping in the Black Sea, citing an escalation in attacks targeting civilian vessels in the region. He noted that strikes have progressed from targeting military installations to affecting all commercial shipping indiscriminately, with Turkish-flagged ships among those struck.
Russia’s Defence Ministry stated on Saturday that its forces continued operations against Ukrainian military infrastructure, striking port facilities and cargo vessels in Odesa and Mykolaiv. The ministry said Russian operations targeted military warehouses containing communications equipment and struck multiple vessels carrying military supplies for Ukrainian forces.
Ukraine denied responsibility for a drone incident near Bulgaria’s border with Romania on Saturday, after an unmanned aircraft exploded near a strategic natural gas pipeline. Bulgaria’s defence ministry indicated the drone matched types used by Ukrainian forces and summoned the Ukrainian ambassador for discussions on Monday. Ukraine’s foreign ministry stated it did not intentionally direct assets toward Bulgarian territory and attributed the incident to consequences of Russia’s invasion.
President Volodymyr Zelenskyy warned that Ukraine faces a winter without operational thermal power plants following overnight Russian strikes that left four dead, including a child, in the Kyiv region. He reported that combined Russian missile strikes and frontline shelling killed 13 people over the preceding 24 hours during his visit to Belgrade. Zelenskyy described Moscow’s operations as deliberately aimed at degrading Ukrainian living conditions.
Meanwhile, drones were detected above a western German military installation housing components for Patriot air-defence systems on Saturday, prompting an investigation. The facility near Mechernich stores military equipment in an underground depot spanning approximately 30,000 square metres at a depth of 130 metres, part of Germany’s military supply infrastructure supporting allied operations.
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