BAKU, Azerbaijan (AFP/REUTERS) — Five Azerbaijanis were killed and three wounded in a drone attack on two foreign cargo ships in the Sea of Azov, Azerbaijan’s foreign ministry said on Friday.
Citing an official Russian communication to Baku, the ministry said 25 Azerbaijani citizens were among the crews of the two vessels, which it said were not owned by Azerbaijan.
Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Galuzin blamed Ukraine for the attack, in comments quoted by Russian state media.
Ukrainian drones struck five ships in the ports of Mariupol and Berdyansk and in coastal waters of Russian-occupied territories overnight, the Ukrainian drone forces commander said on Friday, according to Reuters.
Robert Brovdi said on the Telegram app that the drone forces hit dry cargo ships and a tanker that were involved in “stealing” Ukrainian grain and transferring military cargo and fuel, with the names of the vessels painted over and their radars turned off.
Meanwhile, the International Atomic Energy Agency on Friday said it has negotiated a temporary local ceasefire between Ukraine and Russia, the sixth since late last year, allowing repairs to a power supply line to Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant (ZNPP) “to prevent the threat of a nuclear accident,” the IAEA said in a post on X, Reuters reports.
In the coming days, technicians from both sides will begin repairing war-related damage to the 750-kilovolt Dniprovska power line after extensive demining of the area, it said, according to Reuters.
The power line was disconnected more than two months ago, leaving Europe’s largest nuclear power plant reliant on a single 330 kV line to supply the electricity needed to cool its six shutdown reactors, the post said.
The ZNPP had lost access to this line several times in recent weeks, the IAEA said, forcing it to operate its emergency diesel generators.
Agence France-Presse reports that Russia fired hundreds of drones at Ukraine between late Thursday and early Friday, killing seven people and destroying a factory that produces milk products for children, authorities said.
Images published by Ukraine’s state emergency service showed the ruins of a building bearing the logo of Ukrainian dairy producer “Yagotynske for Kids,” its facade partly destroyed and flames visible on one floor.
“The enemy attacked a peaceful civilian food industry enterprise,” Kyiv region governor Mykola Kalashnyk said in a post on Telegram.
“Unfortunately, the number of people killed as a result of the hostile attack... has increased to four people,” he said in a later post.
Separate strikes on Ukraine’s central Dnipropetrovsk region killed two people, regional governor Oleksandr Ganzha said, while a drone strike in the southern Zaporizhzhia region killed one woman, according to the Ukrainian state emergency service.
Russia fired at least 216 drones at Ukraine between late Thursday and early Friday, as well as two missiles, according to the Ukrainian air force.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky proposed a meeting with Vladimir Putin in an open letter to the Russian leader late Thursday, saying it was only the leaders who could resolve “key issues.”
