Russia launched drone attacks on Ukrainian Black Sea ports on Tuesday, striking two civilian ships arriving to load wheat, while Ukraine targeted Russian port infrastructure and Moscow with drone attacks of its own. Diplomatic efforts to end the conflict are intensifying, with a planned summit next week in France.
Black Sea Attacks and Global Food Security
The Ukrainian navy and government officials reported waves of drones attacked the Black Sea ports of Pivdennyi and Chornomorsk. The Panama-flagged civilian vessels Emmakris III and Captain Karam were hit as they arrived to load wheat, threatening the lives of civilians and undermining global food security, according to the navy. They characterized the attacks on civilian objects as a deliberate war crime.
Oleksiy Kuleba, the Ukrainian deputy prime minister, said oil storage tanks were also hit, but both ports continued to operate. Ukraine is a major agricultural producer and exporter.
Russian Strikes and Allegations
A French presidential source stated that Russia’s continued and intensifying strikes on Ukraine are “an act of defiance” against the US plan to end the war. Moscow’s allegations of a Ukrainian drone attack against a residence of Vladimir Putin are not backed “by any solid proof,” the source added, even after cross-checking information with partners.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said his negotiating team connected with the American team regarding the alleged attack on Putin’s residence at Valdai, and determined it was “fake.” Zelenskyy stated that partners can verify this with their technical capabilities.
Ukrainian Counterattacks
A Ukrainian drone attack damaged port infrastructure and a gas pipeline in Russia’s Black Sea port of Tuapse on Wednesday, regional administration officials said. No injuries were reported. Tuapse and its refinery are key Black Sea outlets for oil products that Ukraine targets because they are exported to finance the war or used directly to power the Russian military.
Ukraine also launched drone attacks on Tuesday targeting Moscow, parts of western Russia and annexed Crimea, injuring one person near the capital, Russian authorities reported.
Diplomatic Efforts and Sanctions
Zelenskyy announced Ukraine will convene a meeting with leaders of Kyiv’s allies next Tuesday, January 6, in France. This summit will be preceded by a meeting of their security advisers, planned for this Saturday, January 3, in Ukraine.
Germany accepted €10 million to drop its investigation of Russian billionaire Alisher Usmanov for alleged EU sanctions violations, prosecutors said. The agreement was made on the basis of the “presumption of innocence.” Usmanov, a close ally of Putin and head of the International Fencing Federation, had been accused of using frozen funds to pay for security monitoring of his properties in Germany. A separate money laundering case against Usmanov was settled in November after he paid €4 million.
The US removed sanctions from Alexandra Buriko, the former chief financial officer of Russia’s state-owned Sberbank, according to the US treasury department website. Buriko resigned from Sberbank shortly after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022 and successfully argued for the sanctions’ removal, stating she had severed ties with the bank. She and the US government had been in negotiations to resolve the case.
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