23:29
Yesterday
Romania summons Russian envoy about new drone pieces
Romania has summoned the Russian chargé d’affaires to Bucharest after further drone fragments were found in the Danube Delta near the border with Ukraine. The government is once again protesting strongly against the violation of airspace and territory, although Prime Minister Marcel Ciolacu, like NATO, does not see an attack on the country.
According to Ciolacu, they are probably debris from drones without armaments or explosives that were shot down by Ukrainian anti-aircraft defenses not far from the Danube River, which forms the border with Ukraine in a region in eastern Romania.
Yet the latest discovery of drone fragments is further from the places near the Danube bank where they were found twice before, and deeper into Romanian territory. The Ukrainian Ministry of Defense reports that the suspected drone fragments were traced from the air near the towns of Nufaru and Victoria on Wednesday. They are located approximately 15 kilometers from the border, on a branch of the Danube.
Ukraine reported that two ports on the Danube, Izmajil and Reni, were bombarded by Russians during the night from Tuesday to Wednesday.
23:27
Yesterday
Heavy sentences for three Ukrainian soldiers
Three Ukrainian soldiers have been sentenced prison sentences of 24 to 29 years by the pro-Russian separatists. The separatists accused the Ukrainians of mistreating civilians, the Russian Investigative Committee said in a press release.
Two soldiers of the Azov regiment were sentenced to 29 years in a penal colony “cruel treatment of civilians” and “manslaughter or attempted manslaughter in a group motivated by political or ideological hatred”. They were accused of shooting at four civilians and killing three in the southern Ukrainian city Mariupol, the port city where that regiment fought heavily. According to the investigative committee, they acted on orders from Azov.
Another member of the regiment was sentenced to 24 years in prison. The separatists found him guilty of it firing anti-tank missiles on a building next to a food distribution point, near Mariupol in March 2022. However, he is said to have not hit a civilian. He was convicted in absentia and is being tracked down, the investigative committee said.
The so-called ‘supreme court’ of the self-declared Donetsk People’s Republic convicted the soldiers. The area has been standing since 2014 under the control of the separatists. Moscow claimed the annexation of the area last year.
Such convictions are now common. At the end of August, five Ukrainian soldiers of Azov were sentenced to 20 years in prison for injuring civilians.
23:25
Yesterday
Up to 30,000 Jewish pilgrims expected in the Ukrainian city of Uman
Despite the Russian invasion, the Ukrainian city of Uman is expecting up to 30,000 Jewish pilgrims for the Jewish New Year festival, also known as Rosh Hashanah. The deputy mayor, Oleh Hanich, said this on Ukrainian TV on Wednesday.
The vice mayor based his findings on data from the tourism sector. According to the city representative, there were also so many Orthodox pilgrims in peacetime before the corona pandemic. In the first year of the war, in 2022, 23,000 Hasidic Jews traveled to Uman.
This year’s New Year’s party takes place from Friday to Sunday. Increased security measures will be in place. Alcohol may not be sold in the city for two weeks. Fireworks are also prohibited. In Cherkasy Oblast – as in most regions of Ukraine – a nightly curfew of several hours applies.
According to Hanitsj, the Ukrainian agents receive the support of Israeli colleagues.
On Sunday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned against traveling to Uman because there are too few bomb shelters. The city has been bombarded with missiles and attacked by drones several times since the Russian invasion began 18 months ago.
Tens of thousands of deeply religious Jews travel every year for the Jewish New Year celebration in Ukraine to visit Rabbi Nachman’s grave in Uman. Before the war, the city had more than 80,000 inhabitants.