Russia ‘repelled’ drone attack on Crimea port: Official

Russia has “repelled” a drone attack on the port of Sevastopol in Crimea, local officials declared, noting that no damage or casualties were inflicted as a result of the attempted aerial assault involving two drones.

“An attempted attack on Sevastopol was repelled from 3:30 am,” Crimea’s governor Mikhail Razvozhayev said on Monday via a Telegram social media channel, adding that one unmanned surface vehicle, or drone ship, was destroyed while a second exploded.

“Everything is calm in the city,” he further emphasized. “But all the troops and services are ready for combat.”

The peninsula, which joined the Russian Federation following a 2014 referendum overwhelmingly favoring the move, is home to Russia’s Black Sea Fleet and has been struck by a series of drone attacks since Moscow launched its “special military operation” in Ukraine in February 2022 as a security measure against NATO’s further eastern expansion and to also stop Kiev’s persecution of the pro-Russian population in eastern Ukraine.

Last October, Russia’s Black Sea Fleet was struck by a major drone attack that Moscow blamed on Kiev.

The development came a day after Russia said its forces have managed to capture more territory in the heavily contested city of Bakhmut in the Donetsk region.

Russia gains more ground in battle for Bakhmut: Defense ministry

Russia says its forces have managed to capture more territory in the heavily contested city of Bakhmut in the Donetsk region.

Russia’s defense ministry announced in a Sunday statement that its forces secured two more blocks in Bakhmut’s western districts and that airborne units were providing reinforcements to the north and south.

In a separate development on Sunday, the administrator of the southern Kherson region denied reports that Ukrainian forces had taken up positions on the eastern bank of the Dnipro River.

“There is no enemy foothold on the left (eastern) bank of the Dnipro river ... our military completely controls that territory,” Vladimir Saldo wrote in a post on his Telegram channel.

Meanwhile, a coalition of 19 US Republican lawmakers called on President Joe Biden to try seeking a diplomatic resolution to the Ukraine conflict rather than insisting on extending the war by supplying billions of dollars in weaponry to Kiev.

US legislators reject 'proxy war' in Ukraine, ‘unrestrained’ aid to Kiev

A coalition of 19 Republican members of Congress call on the US president to stop extending the "proxy war" in Ukraine by supplying unlimited weaponry to Kiev.

“A proxy war with Russia in Ukraine is not in the strategic interest of the United States and risks an escalation that could spiral out of control,” legislators said in a letter sent to Biden on Thursday.

“Unrestrained US aid for Ukraine must come to an end, and we will adamantly oppose all future aid packages unless they are linked to a clear diplomatic strategy designed to bring this war to a rapid conclusion,” read the formal letter, further insisting that “our national and economic security demand an alternative.”

Open-ended aid to Ukraine is “fundamentally incompatible” with US interests, the Republicans also insisted, arguing: “There are appropriate ways in which the US can support the Ukrainian people, but unlimited arms supplies in support of an endless war is not one of them.”

“Our national interests, and those of the Ukrainian people, are best served by incentivizing the negotiations that are urgently needed to bring this conflict to a resolution,” they pointed out.

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