Attacks on Crimea bridge thwarted,Russia says

MOSCOW/KYIV - Russia said on Saturday its forces had destroyed three Ukrainian naval drones being used in an attempt to attack a key bridge linking Russia to the Crimean Peninsula.

One naval drone was destroyed late on Friday and two others early on Saturday morning, according to Russia's Defense Ministry. There was no immediate comment from Ukrainian officials.

Traffic on the Crimea bridge resumed after a brief suspension early on Sunday, the operator of the bridge said on the Telegram messaging app.

The bridge has been a target of increased air and sea drone attacks in recent months.

An explosion in October, which Russian authorities said was caused by a truck bomb, left three people dead. Another attack on the bridge in July, killing a couple and seriously wounding their daughter, left a span of the roadway hanging perilously.

On Saturday afternoon, one civilian was killed and two wounded during the shelling of Russia's Belgorod region bordering Ukraine, Belgorod Governor Vyacheslav Gladkov said. Two Ukrainian drones attacked the region's Valuysky district, causing minor damage to a private home and car, and another drone was intercepted by Russian air defense in the Grayvoronsky district.

Ukrainian authorities, which generally avoid commenting on attacks on Russian soil, did not say whether they launched the attacks, The Associated Press reported. Drone strikes and shelling on the Russian border regions are a regular occurrence.

Black Sea deal in focus

On Saturday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said on X, formerly Twitter, that two more ships had passed through a "temporary" Black Sea shipping corridor established since the grain export deal collapsed in July.

Zelensky did not identify the vessels involved or say when they had completed their passage. Officials on Friday said two vessels had cleared the corridor,bringing to four the number that have used it.

On Friday, a Ukrainian deputy prime minister said the two vessels passed through the corridor from the port of Pivdenny: one flagged in Liberia, the other in the Marshall Islands. The vessels were carrying pig iron and iron concentrate.

Russian President Vladimir Putin was scheduled to meet his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Monday in the Black Sea resort of Sochi as Ankara and the United Nations seek to revive the grain export deal.

Russia quit the deal in July after it had been in effect for a year.Russia and Ukraine signed separately with Turkiye and the United Nations the Black Sea Grain Initiative in Istanbul in July last year, which allowed Ukraine to export its grain and other agricultural products from its Black Sea ports. The deal was extended several times.

Agencies - Xinhua