Russia-Ukraine war live: US releases footage of drone crash; Poland to transfer four MIG-29 planes to Ukraine | Russia – NewsEverything Fashion

Russian ships have been seen near the area where the US MQ-9 Reaper drone crashed two days ago, Reuters has cited a US official as saying.

They did not appear to have recovered any parts of the drone yet, and it is not clear if they are still in the area.

Washington has said that any recovery efforts relating to the drone would be difficult because of the depth of water in the region.

Video footage released by the US European Command earlier today which it said shows the moment of impact between a Russian fighter jet and a US MQ-9 Reaper drone over the Black Sea “absolutely confirms” that there was a physical collision and dumping of fuel, CNN’s MJ Lee cites a senior US administration official as saying.

The footage, however, does not confirm whether it was the Russian pilot’s intent and whether they meant to strike the US drone’s propeller, according to the official.

Asked whether the Russian pilot intended to strike the US drone’s propeller, the official replied that they didn’t know, but that there was no question that the footage confirmed the fighter jets were engaging in “aggressive flying” and “recklessness”.

The Kremlin has said a decision on whether to retrieve the downed US MQ-9 Reaper drone from the Black Sea will come from the Russian military.

Asked if Russia would try to raise the drone from the seabed to examine it, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov replied:

This is the prerogative of the military. If they deem it necessary to do that in the Black Sea for our interests and for our security, they will deal with that.

Peskov added that he did not know what the defence ministry’s plans were.

Hello everyone. It’s Léonie Chao-Fong here again, taking over the live blog from Martin Belam. Feel free to get in touch on Twitter or via email.

• US European Command on Thursday issued a video which it says shows the moment of impact when a Russian fighter jet struck the propellor of a US MQ-9 Reaper drone over the Black Sea, causing the latter to be ditched into the water. The footage, which lasts 42 seconds, shows aircraft making two extremely close passes to the drone, before the image breaks up.

• Moscow said Wednesday it would try to retrieve the wreckage of a US military drone that crashed over the Black Sea, in a confrontation Washington blamed on two Russian fighter jets. US officials said the debris could be in such deep water that recovery is impossible, and would have no real intelligence value.

• The Russian and US defence ministers and military chiefs held rare phone conversations on Wednesday to discuss the incident. Russian defence minister Sergei Shoigu told his US counterpart Lloyd Austin on Wednesday that operating drone flights near Crimea was provocative and could lead to an escalation, the Russian defence ministry said. Russia, the statement said, “had no interest in such a development but will in future react in due proportion”.

• Denis Pushilin, the Russian-installed leader in occupied Donetsk, told state-owned news agency Tass Thursday that he does not see any signs Ukraine is withdrawing from Bakhmut. He is quoted as saying “In Bakhmut, the situation remains complicated, difficult, that is, we do not see that there are any prerequisites there that the enemy is going to simply withdraw units”.

• Oleh Synyehubov, governor of Kharkiv, reports that the Russian military destroyed and damaged private houses and infrastructure facilities in two settlements in the Kharkiv region overnight.

• Volodymyr Zelenskiy has posted to Telegram to commemorate a year since the Mariupol theatre bombing. Ukraine’s president wrote: “A year ago, Russia deliberately and brutally dropped a powerful bomb on the Drama Theatre in Mariupol. Next to the building was the inscription ‘Children’, which was impossible to overlook. Hundreds of people were hiding from the shelling there. Step by step, we are moving towards ensuring that the terrorist state is fully held to account for what it has done to our country and our people.”

• A Russian soldier who confessed to killing a civilian in Ukraine last year has been sentenced to five and a half years in prison by a military court in Russia’s far east on charges of spreading “fake news” about the army. Daniil Frolkin is the first known soldier to be sentenced by Russia after admitting to killing civilians. The move is widely seen as a way to deter other servicemen from speaking out.

• Both Tass and RIA are reporting that there is a fire at the border department of Russia’s federal security service in Rostov-on-Don. Some news sources are reporting that witness heard explosions or an explosion before the fire began.

• State-owned news agency Tass is reporting that Russia’s education minister Sergey Kravtsov has confirmed that he expects by the beginning of the academic year Russian schools will have a new history textbook for high school pupils with a section on the “special military operation” in Ukraine.

• Poland claims to have broken up a Russian espionage network operating in the country. Defence minister Mariusz Blaszczak on Thursday said “I would like to emphasise the great success achieved by the officers of the internal security agency, because the whole spy network has been unravelled.”

• The British foreign minister, James Cleverly, said on Thursday that the best way to protect Moldova from attack by Russia was to protect Ukraine.

That is it from me, Martin Belam, for now. I will be back later. Léonie Chao-Fong will be here shortly to take you through the next few hours of our live coverage.

Pjotr Sauer

A Russian soldier who confessed to killing a civilian in Ukraine last year has been sentenced to five and a half years in prison by a military court in Russia’s far east on charges of spreading “fake news” about the army.

In an interview with the independent news outlet Istories last August, Daniil Frolkin, 21, said he shot and killed a male civilian in Andriivka, a village near Kyiv that was occupied by Russian forces shortly after the start of the invasion.

“I tell him: “Get down on your knees.” And I just put a bullet through his forehead. killed one person,” Frolkin told Istories in a phone conversation published by the outlet.

Istories identified the dead man as 47-year-old Ruslan Yaremchuk.

“I, a military serviceman from military unit 51460, Guards Private First Class, Frolkin Daniel Andreevich, confess to all the crimes I committed in Andreevka, to shooting civilians, stealing from civilians, taking their phones,” Frolkin added.

Frolkin was part of the 64th Motor Rifle Brigade, a notorious unit based in the Khabarovsk region that has been accused of committing war crimes in Bucha.

Vladimir Putin has previously awarded the 64th Motor Rifle Brigade the honorary title of “guards” and praised the unit for its “great heroism and courage”.

Frolkin is the first known soldier to be sentenced by Russia after admitting to killing civilians. The move is widely seen as a way to deter other servicemen from speaking out.

Read more of Pjotr Sauer’s report here: Russian soldier who confessed to killing Ukrainian civilian jailed over ‘fake news’

US European Command has issued a video which it says shows the moment of impact when a Russian fighter jet struck the propellor of a US MQ-9 Reaper drone over the Black Sea, causing the latter to be ditched into the water.

The footage, which lasts 42 seconds, shows aircraft making two extremely close passes to the drone, before the image breaks up.

The video was released with the following caption:

Two Russian Su-27 aircraft conducted an unsafe and unprofessional intercept with a US air force intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance unmanned MQ-9 aircraft operating within international airspace over the Black Sea on 14 March 2023. Russian Su-27s dumped fuel upon and struck the propeller of the MQ-9, causing US forces to have to bring the MQ-9 down in international waters.

The video also came with the note “This declassified video has been edited for length, however, the events are depicted in sequential order.”

Russia’s defence ministry maintained earlier in the week that its fighters “did not use airborne weapons and did not come into contact” with the US drone.

On Wednesday, Russian ambassador to the US, Anatoly Antonov, called the incident a “provocation”, and said that “We are concerned about the unacceptable activity of the US military in the immediate vicinity of our borders,” accusing the US of supplying intelligence to Kyiv”. The US had summoned the ambassador over the incident.

The MQ-9 Reaper is a large unmanned aircraft 11 metres long with a wingspan of over 22 metres. The US air force says its primary use is as “an intelligence-collection asset”.

Defence secretary Lloyd Austin and Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Gen Mark Milley have spoken to their Russian counterparts about the destruction of the drone.

The British foreign minister, James Cleverly, said on Thursday that the best way to protect Moldova from attack by Russia was to protect Ukraine.

Reuters reports that asked by reporters whether Britain planned on sending military support to Moldova, Cleverly said: “We strongly believe that one of the best ways of protecting Moldova from physical attack is helping the Ukrainians defend themselves against Russia.”

Earlier the Kremlin said it regretted Moldova’s “unjustified prejudice” against Moscow, and that Russia remained open to good relations.

Amy Hawkins is the Guardian’s senior China correspondent:

Ukrainian soldiers have downed a Chinese-made drone near the city of Sloviansk in eastern Ukraine. The unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) was launched from Russian-held territory on Friday night, before being shot down from a low altitude by Ukrainian forces in the early hours of Saturday.

The UAV was a Mugin-5, a commercial drone made by Chinese company Mugin Limited in Xiamen on China’s east coast. The company confirmed to CNN that the downed UAV was their airframe, saying that it was “deeply unfortunate”.

The UAV, which is available to buy for about $15,000 on Chinese e-commerce websites, had been retrofitted to carry a bomb, which the Ukrainian forces were able to destroy.

Mugin Limited said that it condemned the use of its products for military purposes and had stopped selling to Russia or Ukraine at the start of the war. But in January Russian officials claimed that they had also shot down a Mugin-5 which had been launched by Ukrainian forces.

Denis Pushilin, the Russian-installed leader in occupied Donetsk, has told state-owned news agency Tass that he does not see any signs Ukraine is withdrawing from Bakhmut. He is quoted as saying “In Bakhmut, the situation remains complicated, difficult, that is, we do not see that there are any prerequisites there that the enemy is going to simply withdraw units.”

He claimed, however, that Ukrainian forces were finding it difficult to supply ammunition, food or reinforcements, as the road into Bakhmut from the Ukrainian side is “even more significantly under the fire control of the Wagner mercenary group.”

The claims have not been independently verified.

Poland claims to have broken up a Russian espionage network operating in the country.

Broadcaster RMF reported on Wednesday that Polish security services had detained six people suspected of spying for Russia. According to the broadcaster the group had been planning sabotage activities.

Defence minister Mariusz Blaszczak today said “I would like to emphasise the great success achieved by the officers of the internal security agency, because the whole spy network has been unravelled” on Polskie Radio 1. “This is undoubtedly proof that the Polish services work for the security of our country in a very efficient manner,” he added.

Reuters was unable to independently confirm the report.