Russian, Chinese navies carry out joint drills
The manoeuvres are part of exercises titled 'Maritime Interaction-2025' which are scheduled to end on Tuesday. Interfax said Russian and Chinese sailors would conduct artillery firing, practise anti-submarine and air defence missions, and improve joint search and rescue operations at sea. — Reuters
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Observer
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Ukrainian drones spark fire at Russian Sochi oil depot
An overnight Ukrainian drone attack sparked a fire at an oil depot in Sochi, the Russian resort that hosted the 2014 Winter Olympic Games, around 400 kilometres from the Ukrainian border, authorities said. Ukraine has regularly hit Russian oil and gas infrastructure in response to attacks on its own territory since Russia began its offensive in February 2022. 'Sochi suffered a drone attack by the Kyiv regime last night', the governor of Russia's Krasnodar region, Veniamin Kondratiev, said on Telegram. He said drone wreckage hit an 'oil tank, which caused a fire'. Sochi's mayor, Andrei Proshunin, said there were no victims and 'The situation is totally under control', adding that firefighters were continuing to extinguish the blaze. Images, broadcast by Russian media showed flames and a thick plumes of black smoke rising from the site. Air traffic was briefly suspended at Sochi airport but resumed shortly afterward, Russia's air transport regulator Rosaviatsia said. Ukraine authorities had not commented on the fire. Air strikes on Sochi are relatively rare compared to some other Russian cities. However, Ukrainian drone attacks killed two people there late last month, according to local authorities. Kyiv has said it will intensify its air strikes against Russia in response to an increase in Russian attacks on its territory in recent weeks, which have killed dozens of civilians. The Russian defence ministry said meanwhile that three Ukrainian drones had been intercepted in the Leningrad region, which includes the Baltic seaport of Saint Petersburg. Overnight strikes by Russia inside Ukraine's south and north also left several people injured, authorities said. One missile wounded seven people in a residential district of Mykolaiv, a city near the Black Sea in southern Ukraine, Prime Minister Yulia Svyrydenko said. Three other people were injured in the northeastern Kharkiv region, she added, while local authorities also reported injuries in the Zaporizhzhia and Kherson regions in the south. 'The Russians continue to wage war not against Ukrainian forces, but against Ukrainian civilians', Svyrydenko said. Last week, US President Donald Trump gave his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin a ten-day ultimatum, until next Friday, to end the conflict in Ukraine. The air strikes and fighting have not abated, however and the Kremlin has rejected the idea of a lasting ceasefire in Ukraine, which it sees as a gift to Kyiv's troops. Ukraine said on Saturday it hit military targets and a gas pipeline in drone attacks in Russia, where local authorities said three people were killed and two others wounded. Ukraine's SBU security service said the strikes, carried out by long-distance drones, hit a military airfield in the southwestern town of Primorsko-Akhtarsk. They caused a fire in an areas where drones were stored, the SBU said. It said the strikes also hit a company, Elektropribor, in Russia's southern Penza region, which it said 'works for the Russian military-industrial complex', making military digital networks, aviation devices, armoured vehicles and ships. The governor for the Penza region, Oleg Melnichenko, said on Telegram that one woman had been killed and two other people were wounded in that attack. Russia's defence ministry said its air-defence systems had destroyed 112 Ukrainian drones over Russian territory — 34 over the Rostov region — in a nearly nine-hour period, from Friday night to Saturday morning. An elderly man was killed inside a house that caught fire due to falling drone debris in the Samara region, governor Vyacheslav Fedorishchev posted on Telegram. In the Rostov region, a guard at an industrial facility was killed after a drone attack and a fire in one of the site's buildings, acting Rostov governor Yuri Sliusar said. 'The military repelled a massive air attack during the night', destroying drones over seven districts, Sliusar posted on Telegram. An analysis published on Friday showed that Russia's forces in July launched an unprecedented number of drones, 6,297 of them. The figure included decoy drones sent into Ukraine's skies in efforts to saturate the country's air-defence systems. In Ukraine's central-eastern Dnipropetrovsk region, Russian drone attacks on Friday night wounded three people, governor Sergiy Lysak wrote on Telegram. Several buildings, homes and cars were damaged, he said. — AFP
Observer
4 hours ago
- Observer
Russian, Chinese navies carry out joint drills
MOSCOW: The Russian and Chinese navies are carrying out artillery and anti-submarine drills in the Sea of Japan as part of scheduled joint exercises, the Russian Pacific Fleet was quoted as saying on Sunday. The drills are taking place two days after US President Donald Trump said he had ordered two nuclear submarines to be positioned in 'the appropriate regions' in response to remarks by former Russian president Dmitry Medvedev. However, they were scheduled well before Trump's action. Interfax news agency quoted the Pacific Fleet as saying Russian and Chinese vessels were moving in a joint detachment including a large Russian anti-submarine ship and two Chinese destroyers. It said diesel-electric submarines from the two countries were also involved, as well as a Chinese submarine rescue ship. The manoeuvres are part of exercises titled 'Maritime Interaction-2025' which are scheduled to end on Tuesday. Interfax said Russian and Chinese sailors would conduct artillery firing, practise anti-submarine and air defence missions, and improve joint search and rescue operations at sea. — Reuters
Times of Oman
12 hours ago
- Times of Oman
Trump slams Democrats for "delay" tactics, backs Republican "warriors" in Senate confirmation fight
Washington: US President Donald Trump lashed out at Senate Democrats for allegedly stalling the confirmation of his nominees and applauded Senate Republicans for their continued efforts to push forward appointments, The Hill reported. "Very proud of our great Republican Senators for fighting, over the Weekend and far beyond, if necessary, in order to get my great Appointments approved, and on their way to helping us MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN," Trump posted on Saturday on Truth Social. According to The Hill, Trump accused Democrats of attempting to obstruct the process. "They are doing everything possible to DELAY these wonderful and talented people from being" confirmed, the president said. Trump further took a swipe at Senate Democrats by invoking historical figures, stating, "If George Washington or Abraham Lincoln were up for approval, the Dems would delay, as long as possible, then vote them out. The Democrats want our Country to fail, because they have failed." He also thanked Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) and "our Republican Warriors in the Senate," urging them to "Fight and WIN. I am with you all the way!!!" Speaking to reporters, Thune said that recess appointments to address the backlog of over 160 nominees -- primarily for lower-level roles -- were "on the table." "I think everything is on the table," Thune said, adding, "Fixing the rules, not just for now, but for the long term, would be a better solution for it. But at this point right now, I wouldn't say we're taking any options off the table," The Hill quoted him as saying. GOP lawmakers have shown willingness to negotiate with Democrats to facilitate confirmations but are also preparing to consider alternative paths if a deal falls through. "If we can't then we will have to resort to other options and we've got a lot of support for doing that," Thune told Politico, noting that virtually unanimous Republican backing would be needed to change Senate rules. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) defended the Democrats' stance, stating, "Historically bad nominees deserve historic levels of scrutiny." "We have never seen nominees as flawed, as compromised, as unqualified as Trump's," Schumer posted on X. "And they know that," The Hill reported. The Hill also cited sources confirming that Schumer's and Thune's offices were in talks during the week, with the New York senator sending a counterproposal on Friday. Trump, in another Saturday post, claimed that Schumer was demanding over $1 billion in funding to be unfrozen in return for confirming "a small" number of Trump's "highly qualified" nominees. "This demand is egregious and unprecedented, and would be embarrassing to the Republican Party if it were accepted. It is political extortion, by any other name," Trump wrote, The Hill reported. In his closing salvo, Trump urged Republicans to reject any such deal: "Tell Schumer, who is under tremendous political pressure from within his own party, the Radical Left Lunatics, to GO TO HELL! Do not accept the offer, go home and explain to your constituents what bad people the Democrats are, and what a great job the Republicans are doing, and have done, for our Country," Trump said, signing off with "have a great RECESS and, MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!!!"
