Russia announces dropping a Ukrainian march in Moscow

  Russian Ministry of Defense announced today, Friday, that it had thwarted an attack by a Ukrainian drone on Moscow, in return, a US intelligence report accused China of providing Moscow with military and dual-use technology to use in its war on Kyiv.

This development comes as Ukraine announced - yesterday, Thursday - that its forces had recaptured a village in Donetsk Province (east of the country), amid ongoing violent battles with Russian forces, while Russian President Vladimir Putin spoke of heavy losses incurred by Ukrainian forces as part of its weeks-long counterattack...

Russian Ministry of Defense said today, Friday, that the air defense system thwarted a "terrorist attack" by a drone on the Moscow region, stressing that there were no damages or injuries.

Earlier, Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin announced that the Russian defense forces had intercepted a drone that attempted to attack Moscow.

At the beginning of this July, 5 Ukrainian drones were shot down in the Russian capital, and Russia had previously announced that it had thwarted a Ukrainian attack with a drone over the Kremlin building.

Since the start of its counterattack on the fourth of last June, Ukrainian forces have regained villages and towns in Donetsk (east) as well as in Zaporizhia province (southeast), but progress has been slow due to the minefields and strong fortifications that the Russians have built in the past few months.

Ukrainian president recently acknowledged that the counterattack is proceeding at a slower pace than expected, but he spoke yesterday evening, Wednesday, about very good results being achieved on the battle fronts, without providing details about that.

On the other hand, the Russian president described the Ukrainian counter-attack as a failure.

On the sidelines of the Russian-African summit in St. Petersburg, the Russian president acknowledged yesterday, Thursday, the increased pace of battles with the Ukrainian forces, especially on the Zaporizhzhia axis.

Putin said - in statements to reporters - that those forces suffered great losses during their recent offensive, adding that Ukraine had not achieved any success anywhere on the front.

In simultaneous statements to Al-Jazeera, the spokeswoman for the Ukrainian Southern Operations Command, Natalia Homniuk, said that her country can secure a passage for the export of grain if the parties agree to that, adding that Ukraine can target any ship that it deems a threat to it.

After targeting the bridge linking Russia with Crimea for the second time in less than a year, Russian forces have launched a series of attacks in the past few days on targets located within the range of grain export ports in southern Ukraine, particularly in Odesa.

A spokeswoman for the Ukrainian Southern Operations Command said on Thursday that Russia has strengthened its blockade of Ukrainian ports since its withdrawal from the grain agreement.

Source: Agencies