Russia’s FSB Opens Criminal Case Against Journalists From CNN, Ukraine Over Reporting From Kursk Region

Ukrainian forces sank a Russian ferry carrying gas tanks in a missile strike on a port in Russia’s southern Krasnodar area on August 22, Russian officers mentioned.

“As a results of the harm, the ferry sank within the waters of the Kavkaz port,” the Krasnodar area’s operational headquarters mentioned on Telegram.

The headquarters reported earlier that “a railroad ferry with gas tanks within the Kavkaz port was attacked” and that emergency companies had been dispatched. Images circulating on social media confirmed a plume of darkish smoke rising within the space of the ferry crossing.

The port sits within the Kerch Strait separating Russia from Crimea, the Ukrainian peninsula that Moscow illegally annexed in 2014. Ukraine has issued no official touch upon the incident, however Darya Zarivna, a communications adviser to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, posted a photograph on Telegram exhibiting a big hearth on the port and the phrase “Beautiful.”

Fyodor Babenkov, the district head of the Russian city of Temryuk, was quoted by Reuters as saying the ferry was carrying 30 gas tanks. The vessel sustained vital harm on account of the assault, which prompted a fireplace, Babenkov mentioned.

The Russian state-run information company RIA Novosti mentioned 5 individuals had been on the vessel on the time of the assault and had been unaccounted for. The Russian on-line information channel Baza reported that the variety of individuals on board was 15 and all had been lacking.

All port staff had been evacuated, TASS reported citing the Transport Ministry.

Ukraine in current weeks has taken daring steps, together with a shock incursion into Russia’s Kursk area and assaults on gas storage amenities and airfields inside Russia used to conduct assaults on Ukraine’s civilian infrastructure, in an effort to show the tide of the battle.

A drone strike earlier on August 22 on an airfield lots of of kilometers inside Russia was the work of Ukraine’s navy intelligence, safety sources informed RFE/RL.

Zelenskiy, in the meantime, traveled to Ukraine’s Sumy area that borders Kursk for the primary time because the begin of Ukraine’s invasion there on August 6.

The Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) along with the Special Operations Forces early on August 22 struck the Marinovka airfield in Russia’s Volgograd area, positioned 275 kilometers east of the Ukrainian border, SBU sources informed RFE/RL on the situation of anonymity.

After the affect, “plumes of black smoke and a strong detonation” occurred on the airfield floor, the SBU supply mentioned.

The strike focused a storage web site for gas, antitank missiles, and glide bombs, the safety supply mentioned.

Earlier, Russian Telegram channels, citing eyewitnesses, reported a sequence of explosions at Marinovka, and the Astra channel on Telegram posted a video exhibiting what seemed to be a big explosion and plumes of black smoke rising above the airfield.

Volgograd Governor Andrei Bocharov mentioned drone strikes ignited a fireplace at a navy facility within the area however claimed the assault had been repelled.

“As a results of the UAV crash, a fireplace broke out on the territory of a ministry facility. Fire and rescue companies rapidly started extinguishing the hearth,” Bocharov mentioned on Telegram, including that there have been no casualties.

Meanwhile, the airport of regional capital Volgograd, a metropolis of some 1 million individuals 55 kilometers east of Marinovka, restricted the arrivals and departures of economic plane.

Volgograd is the present title of Tsaritsyn, which from 1925 to 1961 bore the title Stalingrad, after Soviet dictator Josef Stalin. Stalingrad grew to become well-known for its repelling a monthslong Nazi siege in 1942-1943 throughout World War II.

The General Staff of the Ukrainian navy mentioned late on August 22 that 135 fight clashes had taken place on the entrance in the course of the day, and that Russia continues to pay attention its most important efforts within the Pokrovsk space, the place it attacked Ukrainian positions 53 instances.

A Russian navy strike killed a 56-year-old man and injured eight others within the Kharkiv area of northeastern Ukraine, the Ukrainian Prosecutor-General’s Office mentioned .The injured included a 15-year-old boy, whereas residential buildings had been additionally broken.

After Zelenskiy met with Ukraine’s high navy commander, Oleksandr Syrskiy, in Sumy, a Russian drone assault killed two civilians and wounded a 3rd.

During his go to to Sumy, Zelenskiy was briefed by Syrskiy on the operational scenario within the space managed by Ukrainian forces in Russia’s Kursk, Ukraine’s presidential administration mentioned in a press release.

Sumy Governor Volodymyr Artyukh informed Zelenskiy that following the beginning of Ukraine’s operation in Kursk, the variety of cross-border shellings and the casualties amongst civilians had dropped drastically, additionally permitting the beginning of infrastructure repairs badly wanted after months of incessant Russian bombardments, the assertion mentioned.

Ukraine’s management has repeatedly said that its daring transfer into Kursk goals to ascertain a buffer zone inside Russia meant to guard Ukrainian civilians from cross-border Russian shelling.

Ukraine has additionally mentioned it’s not pursuing territorial features from Russia.