Romania’s Foreign Ministry summoned the chargé d’affaires of Russia’s embassy in Bucharest for a meeting after officials found drone fragments similar to those used by Russian forces near Romania’s border with Ukraine.
Here’s the latest on the war and its ripple effects across the globe.
The G-20 declaration noted that the Black Sea Grain Initiative was crucial for delivering grain to developing nations, especially those in Africa. The declaration called for the “full, timely and effective implementation” of the deal — which seeks safe passage for fertilizer and grain from three Ukrainian ports — though Moscow pulled out of the deal in July.
Romanian Foreign Ministry state secretary Iulian Fota protested the violation of his country’s airspace in his meeting with Russia’s chargé d’affaires, according to a statement shared with The Washington Post on Sunday. President Klaus Iohannis previously said in a statement that the incursion signified “an absolutely unacceptable violation of the sovereign airspace of Romania, a NATO ally.”
Two international volunteer aid workers were reportedly killed in Ukraine’s Donetsk region after Russian forces opened fire on their vehicle. Road To Relief, which assists in the evacuation of civilians from the front line, said in an Instagram post that Canadian national Anthony “Tonko” Ihnat was killed in the attack, while Spanish Foreign Minister José Manuel Albares said Sunday that he had received “verbal confirmation” of the death of Spanish national Emma Igua, 32. The aid organization said “the vehicle flipped over and lit on fire” after it was hit directly near city of Chasiv Yar, and that the attack severely injured two other volunteers.
Groups of Russian drones swarmed Kyiv from multiple directions overnight, Serhiy Popko, the head of the capital’s military administration, said on Telegram Sunday. According to the update, the attack injured one person and damaged an apartment in a high-rise building, cars, and power lines. Ukraine’s air force said it destroyed 26 of the 33 Iranian-made Shahed drones used in the attack. The Post could not immediately verify the report.
Russia said it destroyed eight drones over Crimea. The Russian Defense Ministry said air defenses stopped the apparent attack in the early hours on Sunday. Russia illegally annexed the Crimean peninsula from Ukraine in 2014.
Zelensky adviser Mykhailo Podolyak criticized SpaceX CEO Elon Musk for cutting off Starlink satellite internet services to Ukrainian submarine drones last year. The drones were launching an attack on a Russian fleet based in Crimea. Musk has defended his decision, saying he did not want SpaceX to be “explicitly complicit in a major act of war and conflict escalation.”
Russia is enlisting local volunteers to defend an airfield in the northwestern Pskov region, Britain’s Ministry of Defense said. Volunteers will patrol in groups of 50, acting as a deterrent against operators piloting drones in the immediate vicinity, the ministry said Sunday. Last month, a swarm of drones targeted the Russian site, reportedly destroying two cargo planes. “The use of volunteers highly likely indicates a shortage of trained security personnel within Russia,” the update said.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said that Japan and Ukraine agreed to begin drafting a bilateral agreement on security guarantees. “I am confident that our partnership — between Ukraine and Japan — will become a global example,” he said in his nightly address. Over the weekend, Japanese Foreign Minister Yoshimasa Hayashi met with Zelensky and Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba.
In time of war, Russia turns up aggression on transgender citizens: As Russian President Vladimir Putin wages war on Ukraine, he has taken aim at another group within his own country: transgender people.
Putin has framed the invasion of Ukraine as a war against “Satanists,” liberal Western values, and “parent number one and parent number two,” Robyn Dixon reports. And in July, he signed an astonishingly repressive law dissolving transgender people’s marriages, barring them from adopting children and preventing them from changing their gender in state documents.
His venom is echoed by many, from state television propagandists to politicians. And as the war has ground on, Russia has witnessed increasingly harsh measures against these groups.
