Ukraine war briefing: Turkey launches new Ukrainian warship

The Ukrainian first lady, Olena Zelenska, has attended in Turkey the launch of the Hetman Ivan Vyhovskyi, an anti-submarine warship newly built for Ukraine. Ukraine’s defence minister, Rustem Umerov, said: “Corvettes Hetman Ivan Vyhovskyi and [previously launched] Hetman Ivan Mazepa, which were built in Turkey due to Russian aggression, are equipped with cutting-edge weapons and will become a significant addition to our fleet … Ukraine has already broken the dominance of the Russian fleet at sea, destroying dozens of ships. We are actively expanding the capabilities of the Ukrainian navy in the Black and Azov seas.” It is unclear when either warship will be able to reach Ukraine, because the Montreux convention generally prohibits warring parties’ battleships from entering or exiting the Black Sea via the Bosphorus, which Turkey controls.

Russian-occupied Crimea came under attack from missiles and drones on Friday morning, according to reports. The Russian-installed governor of Sevastopol, Mikhail Razvozhayev, said debris fell on the city. Explosions were heard in Saki where there is an airbase and in Yevpatoria, according to news sources including Crimean Wind, a Telegram channel that reliably reports on military activities on the peninsula. Kursk oblast inside Russia also came under air attack, said the governor, Alexey Smirnov.

A mother and her daughter were killed by Russian shelling of Nikopol in the Dnipropetrovsk region of Ukraine’s east, its governor said on Thursday. “They hit the city with a dozen shells,” said Serhiy Lysak, adding that private houses, a fire station, a college, a school and buses were damaged.

The F-16 fighter jets that have started arriving in Ukraine will likely have three core missions, according to analyst Federico Borsari of the Center for European Policy Analysis in Washington. They will seek to intercept Russian missiles and drones; suppress Russian air defences; and bomb Russian troops and ammunition depots. “They will be able to affect some of the dynamics [of the war],” Borsari says.

In the air, the Ukrainian F-16s will be up against Russia’s formidable S-300 and S-400 mobile surface-to-air missile systems that can target multiple aircraft at a time. Russia’s military also has what are estimated to be several hundred operational fighter jets, as well as sophisticated air surveillance radars.

A Shahed drone attack near Kyiv injured exiled Russian lawmaker Ilya Ponomaryov, he said on Thursday. Ponomaryov, 48, fled to Ukraine and gained citizenship after opposing Moscow’s annexation of Crimea. “This thing blew in very forcefully, right in front of the threshold of the house, and loads of shrapnel flew into me,” Ponomaryov said. Until this week Ponomaryov headed the political wing of the Freedom of Russia Legion – ethnic Russians fighting on Ukraine’s side. It announced on Wednesday that it had unilaterally cut ties with Ponomaryov and no longer had a political wing.

The Estonian government said on Thursday it would introduce full customs controls on its border with Russia to combat circumvention of sanctions. “The goods that allow [Russia] to wage war against Ukraine, undermine Europe’s and Estonia’s security shouldn’t be imported there,” said the Estonian prime minister, Kristen Michal. The finance minister, Jurgen Ligi, said: “Third countries are declared as [a] destination point, but we don’t believe it. And life has shown that these goods don’t reach the destination. This cargo includes really ugly things, both military and dual-use goods, large amounts of cash. It’s obvious that these are being smuggled through us.”

The Ukrainian economy minister, Yulia Svyrydenko, arrived in Turkey on Thursday for talks on ratifying their free trade agreement and other economic cooperation. Turkey is among Ukraine’s top five trading partners and the agreement will cancel duties on a significant number of Ukrainian goods. The date of the ratification has not yet been determined by the Ukrainian parliament.