Ukraine, Russian attack with 147 drones. Moscow: '62 Kiev aircraft shot down'
EU High Representative for Foreign Policy Kallas returns to Schroeder's proposal as negotiator: 'It's a Russia trap'
While discussing Ukraine's accession to the European Union, the conflict between Kiev and Russia flared up again with cross-drone attacks. In the night Russian forces attacked Ukraine with a Kinzhal airborne ballistic missile and 147 drones of various types.
The Kiev Air Defence shot down 138 drones, although missile attacks and nine UAVs were recorded in seven different locations. This was reported by the Ukrainian Air Force quoted by Ukrainska Pravda. The Kinzhal missile was launched from the Lipetsk region of Russia. Aircraft, anti-aircraft missile units, electronic warfare systems, unmanned systems units and mobile fire groups of the Ukrainian Defence Forces were deployed to repel the attack.
In parallel, Moscow reports that last night the Russian army intercepted and destroyed 62 Ukrainian drones. According to a Russian Defence Ministry note published on the Max platform, 'air defence warning systems intercepted and destroyed 62 Ukrainian fixed-wing drones flying over the Belgorod regions, Bryansk, Voronezh, Nizhnij, Novgorod and Tambov, the Republic of Crimea and the Azov Sea'.
On the diplomatic side, after Moscow suggested that Europe choose as mediator its long-time ally, former German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder, EU High Representative for Foreign Policy Kaja Kallas says: "I find it a trap that Russia wants us to fall into, that we are discussing who should talk to them and that they are already choosing who is suitable and who is not. Let us not fall into this trap. Negotiation is always a team effort. There are positives and negatives, there is a strategy, the way you sit at the table. That is why substance is much more important than who' negotiates.
Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani, arriving at the informal meeting of EU foreign ministers in Cyprus, returned to dwell on Kiev's EU membership: "The government" of Italia "is in favour". The problem is 'that of the timing, we are studying at European level what is the best formula. There are many proposals on the table, but I repeat: Ukraine is fine, we will help them, but it is important not to put the accession of the Balkans, which represent a priority for us, in a corner'.
