A Russian military drone crashed in eastern Latvia on Saturday, the country’s president, Edgars Rinkevics, said on Sunday in a statement on X.
Iran has denied reports it supplied Russia with ballistic missiles, saying it didn’t provide military support to either side in the Russia-Ukraine war.
Ukraine’s new foreign minister, Andrii Sybiha, has cultivated deep contacts in Nato states during postings to Ankara and Warsaw, conducting his first phone call as a top diplomat in fluent Polish.
Russian drone crashes in Nato member Latvia, says its president
Latvia and Romania each reported incidents involving Russian drones during another UAV (unmanned aerial vehicle) barrage fired at Ukraine over the weekend, a sign of increasing aerial threats posed to countries in the region.
A Russian military drone crashed in eastern Latvia on Saturday, the country’s president, Edgars Rinkevics, said on Sunday in a statement on X.
The drone crossed into Latvian airspace from neighbouring Belarus before crashing in the Rezekne municipality, the Latvian defence ministry said on its website. Rezekne is about 55km west of the Russian border and about 700km north of Ukraine.
Latvia’s foreign ministry summoned Russia’s charge d’affaires to discuss the incident and said it planned to increase the protection of its land borders, airspace and territorial waters.
Earlier on Sunday, Romania’s foreign ministry issued a statement urging Russia to abide by international law after a drone violated its air space the previous night.
Romania issued an alert message to citizens in the counties of Tulcea and Constanta near the border and scrambled two F-16 fighter jets as a precaution. Its government also informed Nato allies and remains in close contact with them, it said.
Russia unleashed a barrage of 23 explosive-laden Shahed drones against Ukraine overnight in addition to four cruise missiles. Ukraine was able to down one missile and 15 drones, the country’s Air Force said on Telegram.
As winter draws closer in Ukraine, Moscow’s forces have stepped up aerial attacks on energy infrastructure there, regularly sending dozens of drones to attack its territory. They circle above Ukraine and have sometimes crossed into the airspace of neighbouring countries, including Romania and Poland.
Such incidents have sparked debate within Poland on whether to start shooting down Russian military objects that enter into its airspace. So far, Poland, also a Nato member, has been reluctant to do that due to concerns about the potential damage from falling debris.
Belarus, Russia’s close ally which also neighbours Ukraine, reported downing foreign drones for the first time last week, yet avoided naming the country which sent them.
Saturday’s incident is the first known to have involved Latvia.
“The number of such incidents is increasing along the eastern flank of Nato and we must address them collectively,” said Rinkevics on X. Diplomats from Nato countries are expected to discuss the incidents in the coming days.
Iran denies reports it supplied Russia with ballistic missiles
Iran has denied reports it supplied Russia with ballistic missiles, saying it doesn’t provide military support to either side in the Russia-Ukraine war.
“The fundamental and stated approach of the Islamic Republic of Iran regarding the Ukraine conflict remains consistent and unchanged,” the state-run Irna news agency reported, citing Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesperson Nasser Kanaani. “The repeated claims of sending ballistic missiles to Russia are driven by political goals and motives of some Western countries and are completely baseless.”
Bloomberg reported on Friday that Iran had sent ballistic missiles to Russia, defying months of warnings by US and European officials. Tehran is alleged to have provided Russia with hundreds of drones during Russia’s 2½-year war against Ukraine, but the transfer of the missiles marks deeper involvement in Moscow’s war.
Earlier, Iran’s permanent mission to the United Nations said Tehran viewed the supply of arms to conflicting parties as “inhumane” and urged other countries not to do so.
Ukraine’s new foreign minister is Zelensky’s latest power play
Ukraine’s new foreign minister has cultivated deep contacts in Nato states during postings to Ankara and Warsaw, conducting his first phone call as a top diplomat in fluent Polish.
But his most important qualification may be proximity to Ukraine’s wartime power centre. Andrii Sybiha, who succeeded Dmytro Kuleba in a sweeping Cabinet overhaul on Thursday, worked in President Volodymyr Zelensky’s office under the powerful chief-of-staff, Andriy Yermak, during the first two years of Russia’s full-scale invasion.
While Kuleba was a familiar face in European capitals, tending to Ukraine’s ambitions to join the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation and the European Union, Yermak took on much of the diplomatic heavy lifting. Zelensky’s most trusted aide has overseen negotiations for security guarantees, maintained the crucial relationship with Washington and overtures to the so-called Global South.
The increasing concentration of power in the presidential office under Yermak has raised concerns among some allies, who have criticised what they say is a lack of transparency, including abrupt personnel changes across the government, Bloomberg reported last month. In an interview, Zelensky dismissed those complaints, while Yermak insisted he was mainly a coordinator.
And while Zelensky had signalled that a government overhaul was coming, last week’s shakeup came with little explanation and left Western allies guessing. It followed a pattern of Zelensky elevating those closest to his inner circle, including Sybiha, a well-regarded senior diplomat who has managed a range of portfolios.
Read more: Ukraine’s allies worry about the power of Zelensky’s top aide
“It’s not the style of this president to take other people on board,” said Yuriy Yakymenko, president at the Razumkov Centre think tank in Kyiv. “He thinks that his decisions are the best, there is no place for discussions — so there is certain conservatism.”
Sybiha (49) proved his capability under Yermak. He worked with his contacts in Ankara while in the presidential office to help negotiate a deal to lift a Black Sea blockade to restore crucial grain exports. Sybiha was involved in the grain deal from its inception, according to an official familiar with the talks who spoke on condition of anonymity.
The Cabinet reorganisation takes place as Russian forces make grinding gains in the eastern Donetsk region. Missile and drone strikes are also scaling up including an attack that killed more than 50 people in the central city of Poltava last week. In a statement on Facebook laying out his priorities, Sybiha said foreign policy would be determined by the “realities of war.”
“Task number one for Ukrainian diplomacy — from ambassador to attaché — is ensuring Ukraine’s defence capability,” Sybiha wrote. “Weapons, weapons, weapons.”
That objective, reinforced by Zelensky during a visit to Germany to meet allied defence ministers on Friday, is followed by Kyiv’s ambitions for Nato and EU accession and its peace blueprint, which has entailed an effort to win over nations such as China, India, Brazil and South Africa.
The latter, a project championed especially by Yermak, has proven a challenge. A meticulously planned summit in Switzerland in June drew more than 100 countries and delegations but fell short when several delegations from the Global South declined to sign on to the final communique, admonishing that Russia had to be involved in the process.
Sybiha’s ties with Turkey, which this month made formal its bid to join the BRICS group of emerging-market nations, will be an asset in forging ahead with the blueprint. The diplomat has climbed the ranks of Ukraine’s foreign service since graduating from Ivan Franko National University of Lviv in 1997. After stints within the ministry in Kyiv as well as the embassy in Poland, he became ambassador to Turkey in 2016.
Former Defence Minister Oleksii Reznikov said that Sybiha was esteemed within the administration for his formidable knowledge, especially regarding relations with Turkey.
US, UK spy chiefs warn of deepening Iran-Russia military links
Iran would signal a “dramatic escalation” of support for Russia by providing ballistic missiles to aid its war in Ukraine, Central Intelligence Agency Director William Burns said.
Burns and his UK counterpart, Richard Moore, warned during a joint appearance in London that military cooperation between the two countries was deepening.
Bloomberg reported on Friday that Iran sent ballistic missiles to Russia, defying months of warnings by US and European officials. At a Financial Times event in London on Saturday, Burns declined to confirm that the transfer had taken place.
“Should Iran ship ballistic missiles of any kinds, close-range or other kinds, it would be a dramatic escalation of that defence partnership,” he said.
If they were used on the battlefield in Ukraine, “it will become very obvious,” said Moore, head of the UK’s MI6 foreign intelligence service. “This stuff lands, it explodes, it kills civilians, it destroys their energy infrastructure. This is what Iran is choosing to do, it’s choosing to help Russia do these types of things.”
Burns said the defence relationship between Moscow and Tehran was a “two-way street.”
“Russia has the ability to do a number of things that help perfect Iran’s ballistic missiles that make them more dangerous for use against our friends and partners across the Middle East,” he said.
Burns said US President Joe Biden’s administration would continue to send weapons to Ukraine, but added that the risk of escalation with Russia shouldn’t be taken lightly.
He said there was a moment in the fall of 2022 when “there was a genuine risk of the potential use of tactical nuclear weapons,” but that the US and its allies shouldn’t be intimidated by what he called Moscow’s sabre-rattling.
Burns said he visited his Russian counterpart, Sergey Naryshkin, at the end of 2022 to “make very clear” the consequences of that kind of escalation.
Burns and Moore both criticised what they said was a campaign of sabotage by Russia’s intelligence services in Western countries, paying local criminals to carry out acts of arson and criminal damage in Europe.
“The fact they’re relying on criminal elements shows they’re a bit desperate,” Moore said. “I think Russian intelligence services have gone a bit feral, frankly.”
Zelensky, Meloni meet at Lake Como, look towards Ukraine’s rebuilding
Zelensky and Italian leader Giorgia Meloni agreed to work towards a conference in Italy next year focused on the post-war reconstruction of Ukraine, even as a ceasefire with Russia remains elusive.
“We talked about cooperation and preparation for a conference in 2025,” Zelensky said in Cernobbio, Italy, after meeting Meloni at the annual Ambrosetti Forum on the shores of Lake Como. “Yesterday, I also met with the CEOs of several Italian companies,” he added in an interview with the Italian broadcast RAI.
Zelensky urged Italy to provide Ukraine with long-range weapons and air defence, taking up the key theme from his speech to the Ukraine Defense Contact Group at Ramstein Air Base in southwest Germany on Friday.
Ukraine has repeatedly urged Western allies to allow its troops to strike inside Russia with long-range weapons to destroy military jets used to attack with missiles and glide bombs — even as the US Defense Department said such deep strikes would have “little strategic value”.
Read more: Deep strikes into Russia have limited value, says Pentagon
“There are many things we are working with Ukraine, including the post-war reconstruction conference in 2025 and hospitals,” said Meloni. “The only thing we cannot do is abandon Ukraine to its own destiny.”
Russian ammunition depot ablaze after Ukrainian drone strike
Ukraine said its drones struck an ammunition depot in Russia’s Voronezh region as Zelensky again urged allies to allow the use of longer-range weapons to strike at military targets.
Ukrainian Security Service drones hit the warehouse in Soldatskoe overnight, according to a person familiar with the matter who wasn’t authorised to speak publicly. Ukraine was aware of four areas of drone impact that triggered fires, the person said.
Posts on social media showed flames appearing to billow from a facility in the area, more than 100km from the Ukrainian border, and referred to a series of blasts.
A state of emergency was declared in Voronezh’s Ostrogozhsky district, where a fire started after a drone was shot down and fell near explosive objects, causing detonations, the region’s governor said on Telegram on Saturday morning.
Residents of one settlement were evacuated and the scale of the damage would be assessed once the detonations subsided, said the governor.
Findings by Ukrainian intelligence showed that the depot had been actively used to supply Russian forces fighting Ukraine, according to the person. DM