Kiev [Ukraine], April 21: Ukraine and Russia have attacked each other overnight, with Ukrainian drones striking Russian assets in Black Sea ports and Russia hitting several regions across Ukraine, including the capital Kiev.
Ukraine's GUR military intelligence unit claimed attacks on two Russian landing ships and a radar station in Sevastopol Bay in Russian-occupied Crimea. It says the $150mn vessels were successfully hit and the radar equipment destroyed.
In Russia, Ukrainian drones targeted the port of Tuapse, killing at least one person, injuring another, and damaging transport infrastructure, according to regional governor Veniamin Kondratiev.
The strike was the second on the port in three days, hours after a fire from a previous attack was extinguished.
Reporting from Kiev, Al Jazeera's Audrey Macalpine said: "We heard from the Ukraine General Staff of the Armed Forces about an attack on the same oil refinery on April 16 - this is an effort to disrupt Moscow's war funding.
"We know European partners have asked [Ukraine's President Volodymyr] Zelensky to scale back attacks on Russian oil exports. Zelensky did not specify which countries these were, but said he was waiting for sanctions on Russian oil to be reimposed.
"As we know, those sanctions have not been reimposed. In fact, the United States has extended that sanctions waiver until May 16, which allows oil already loaded onto ships to be sold. So, Ukraine's actions may speak louder than its words. While this sanctions waiver is in place, we have seen that Ukraine has continued to strike Russian exports."
Ukraine reported a series of Russian attacks on Ukrainian territory overnight, including in Kiev, Kharkiv, Kherson, Sumy and Zaporizhzhia regions.
Meanwhile, Russian authorities said they thwarted a Ukraine-linked bomb plot against security services and arrested a German woman found with a makeshift bomb in her backpack.
Russia's FSB security agency said the unnamed woman was detained on Monday in the southern city of Pyatigorsk.
In a statement cited by Russia's state-run TASS news agency, the FSB said it had "prevented a terrorist attack planned by the Kyiv regime against a law enforcement facility in the Stavropol region, involving a German citizen born in 1969".
It said the woman had been recruited by a citizen from a Central Asian country, who was working on orders from Ukraine. That man was found and arrested near the targeted site.
According to the FSB, the device contained an explosive charge equivalent to 1.5kg (3 pounds) of TNT and was intended to be detonated remotely. The agency said the blast was ultimately prevented by electronic jamming.
Source: Qatar Tribune
