Ukraine Update….169 days into the Russian move on the Ukraine…Ukraine Drone offense…

• Ukraine urged Austria to disavow Russian Ambassador Mikhail Ulyanov after he called for “No mercy to the Ukrainian population,” Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesman Oleg Nikolenko tweeted. Ulyanov’s tweet was a response to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky thanking President Biden for military aid. After deleting the tweet, Ulyanov said he meant that Ukraine showed “no mercy from their side to the Ukrainian population” because of its reliance on American weapon supplies to Ukraine and what he described as Ukraine’s rejection of peace talks. He rejected any attempt to link his original tweet to genocide against Ukrainians and said his words were misinterpreted.
• Russian-held Crimea reported drone attacks, including an attempted attack on the headquarters of Russia’s Black Sea fleet, on Fridayand Saturday. The governor of Sevastopol said Russian forces had shot down the drone approaching the headquarters, claiming it then crashed and caught fire. The claims could not be independently verified. There was no official confirmation from the Ukrainian side, although Ukrainian officials shared video that appeared to show smoke rising from the headquarters. Ukrainian fighters have undertaken a spate of recent attacks on Crimea, annexed by Russia in 2014.
• “Russian authorities are visibly increasing security measures in Crimea, indicating growing worry … about the threat of Ukrainian strikes on rear areas previously believed to be secure,” says the Institute for the Study of War, a U.S. think tank. Russian state media has also reported that Moscow replaced its acting commander of the Black Sea Fleet in Crimea this week, appointing Vice Admiral Viktor Sokolov. An attack on Russia’s Saki air base this month “put more than half of Black Sea fleet’s naval aviation combat jets out of use,” an intelligence official told Reuters.
• Russia’s President Vladimir Putin said he supported allowing U.N. experts to inspect the Zaporizhzhia plant “as soon as possible” and agreed to provide the “necessary assistance,” during a call with French President Emmanuel Macron. However, Moscow has rejected broader requests to withdraw its military from the site, and has accused Ukraine of shelling the facility and preparing to cause a “radiation leak” there — claims Ukraine and the United States have likened to a “false flag” operation.
• Zelensky accused Russia of “blackmail with radiation” in a nightly address to the nation. He also expressed support for U.N. inspectors to visit the plant, and said his officials were “working out the specific details of the mission.” Ukraine’s military has accused Russia of likely planning “a large-scale terrorist attack” on the facility that it would blame on Ukraine. The head of the U.N. nuclear watchdog called the situation “highly volatile and fragile.”

• Nine people were injured, including four children, in Mykolaiv, after Russian strikes on a tower block on Saturday, the regional governor said. Earlier, Zelensky said that residents of Kharkiv, Mykolaiv and cities in Donbas have been “subjected to constant brutal shelling by Russia,” and he offered his support in a nightly address to “all those who experience this constant horror of the destruction of life.” He vowed not to “leave any of these strikes unanswered.”
• Overnight, Russian rocket attacks hit “critical infrastructure facilities in the city” of Kharkiv, its regional governor said Saturday. No fatalities were recorded, said Oleh Synyehubov, but homes and commercial buildings were damaged. Britain’s Defense Ministry has said that Ukraine’s second-largest city has been one of the most consistently shelled since the war began but that Russia’s military “has not made any major efforts to advance in the Zaporizhzhia or Kharkiv sectors.” It added that the past week “has seen only minimal changes in territorial control along the front line.”
• Russian forces have been shown to be “much more vulnerable than they thought they were,” a U.S. senior defense official, asked about the impact of recent attacks on Crimea, said at a press briefing. The official, speaking on the condition of anonymity under ground rules set by the Pentagon, declined to comment on specific attacks, but said “Crimea is Ukraine” and that the United States is “providing Ukraine with support capability … but also intelligence so that they can defend themselves on the territory of Ukraine.”….

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