Ukraine-Russia battle newest: Drone assaults on Ukrainian ports proceed regardless of Black Sea ceasefire deal

Russia’s foreign minister says the US will need to enforce the new deal allowing cargo ships to pass through the Black Sea.

“We will need clear guarantees,” Sergei Lavrov told the Russian state Channel One television.

“And given the sad experience of agreements with just Kyiv, the guarantees can only be the result of an order from Washington to Zelensky and his team to do one thing and not the other.”

Mr Lavrov said Russia wanted this not only to be able to make a profit but to also help improve food security in Africa and the Global South.

“We want the grain and fertiliser market to be predictable, so that no one tries to ‘ward us off’ from it,” he said.

Ukraine’s President has welcomed the progress on a ceasefire but says Russia’s actions over the next few days will show the world whether the Kremlin is serious about peace.

Volodymyr Zelensky warned that any action taken by Russia to go against the new agreement to stop targeting ships in the Black Sea should be met with force.

“How Russia behaves in the coming days will reveal a lot – if not everything. If there are air raid alerts again, if there is renewed military activity in the Black Sea, if Russian manipulations and threats continue – then new measures will need to be taken, specifically against Moscow,” he said in his nightly video.

The president said Russia was already “actively deceiving” mediators and lying about its actions.

“Moscow always lies. And it depends on the world – on all those who truly need peace – whether Moscow will be allowed to lie again,” Mr Zelensky said.

“We in Ukraine will do everything to ensure that the agreements work out and that there are no strikes. But the Russians must know and must realise: if they carry out strikes, they will face a strong response and they will bear the responsibility.

Mr Zelensky pointed out that Ukraine had come to a 30-day ceasefire agreement, but it was Russia that refused to accept it.

“It is Russia’s stance that is prolonging this war,” he said.

Ukraine’s military says it shot down 56 of the 117 Russian drones that were deployed across the fighting fronts.

The General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine said the drones came from several different directions, including Kursk and Crimea

The Ukrainian army said it successfully shot down 56 of the drones in the south, north, east and centre of Ukraine. A further 48 drones were lost, but Ukraine said no consequential damage was caused.

Volodymyr Zelensky has accused Russia of “manipulation” after Moscow said it would only agree to stop firing on ships in the Black Sea if other conditions are met.

The US said earlier on Tuesday that it had secured separate agreements from both Ukraine and Russia to a truce that would protect key shipping routes.

But the Kremlin has now said the agreement will not come into effect unless Russia receives sanctions relief first, and the links between some Russian banks and the international financial system are restored.

Mr Zelensky has said his understanding was that the truce agreements did not require sanctions relief to come into force and would take effect immediately, calling the Kremlin’s statement an attempt to “manipulate” the deals.

As one of the first steps to ending the war in Ukraine, members of the US delegation have sought to have Moscow and Kyiv halt their attacks on each other’s energy facilities and assets in the Black Sea.

But it is still not immediately clear when either agreement will take effect.

“They are already trying to distort agreements and, in fact, deceive both our intermediaries and the entire world,” Mr Zelensky said in his nightly video address.

“How Russia behaves in the coming days will reveal a lot – if not everything. If there are air raid alerts again, if there is renewed military activity in the Black Sea, if Russian manipulations and threats continue – then new measures will need to be taken, specifically against Moscow,” he said.

Russia launched an overnight drone attack on the Ukrainian port of Mykolaiv that provides the war-hit nation with access to the Black Sea, officials said.

The mayor of Mykolaiv said there were emergency power outages early today in the city, following a report by the region’s governor that seven drones were destroyed overnight over the region.

It was not immediately clear whether the power cuts were precautionary or a result of the overnight attack on Mykolaiv.

Russia also attacked Volodymyr Zelensky’s hometown Kryvyi Rih overnight, in an assault which sparked fires and damaged buildings but caused no deaths, the head of the city’s military administration said.

“Apparently, this is how the occupiers ‘want peace’,” wrote Oleksandr Vilkul, the head of the military administration, on Telegram.

He described it as the biggest drone attack on the city since the war began.

“Most importantly, there were no deaths or injuries.”

Emergency power outages have been imposed in the Ukrainian port city Mykolaiv after overnight Russian attacks, its mayor said.

Mayor Oleksandr Senkevych said the southern port city was subject to an air raid alert shortly after midnight, then around 2am and 3am, and again at 7.40am local time.

At least seven Shahed drones were destroyed over the region, according to the regional governor Vitaliy Kim.

Russia has refused to return the occupied Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant back to Ukraine, calling Europe’s largest nuclear plant a “Russian facility”.

“The return of the station to Russia’s nuclear sector has been a fait accompli for quite some time,” the Russian foreign ministry said yesterday.

“Transferring the Zaporizhzhia plant to the control of Ukraine or another country is impossible,” it said in a statement.

Russia forcefully captured Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant within days of launching a full-scale military invasion into Ukraine in February 2022 and has since maintained control over the facility, stationing its own staff there.

While Russia illegally declared the region as a whole annexed in the autumn of 2022, its largest city, Zaporizhzhia, remains under Ukrainian control.

The nuclear facility has repeatedly come under drone attacks from both sides and the UN nuclear watchdog has warned against any attacks that could endanger the plant’s reactors.

Last week US president Donald Trump suggested Volodymyr Zelensky consider transferring ownership of Ukraine’s power plants to the US for their own protection.

Ukraine and Russia would likely both prefer prolonging the war over settling for an unfavourable peace deal, according to an unclassified US intelligence assessment.

A report by the US director of national intelligence Tulsi Gabbard has stated that Vladimir Putin and Volodymyr Zelensky “for now probably still see the risks of a longer war as less than those of an unsatisfying settlement,” reported Bloomberg.

According to the intelligence report published yesterday, both leaders likely understand the risks of a prolonged war and impacts like continued economic disruptions for Moscow under the pressure of sanctions that could harm Russia, including through “undesired escalation with the West”.

A protracted war would also impact Kyiv’s standing on the battlefield, as well as potentially its future negotiating position, the assessment said.

Russia’s defence ministry says its forces destroyed at least nine Ukrainian drones overnight, including two over the waters of the Black Sea.

The statement comes just hours after the US said it had struck deals with Ukraine and Russia to pause their attacks over the Black Sea region and against each other’s energy facilities.

The officials did not mention when the Black Sea deals would come into effect.

It was not immediately clear how many drones were launched over Russia overnight and there were no immediate reports of hits on Black Sea or energy targets.