Ukraine-Russia war latest: Kyiv shoots down Putin’s jet-powered Shaheds with new state-of-the-art interceptor drones

Turkey has sent an offer to Ukraine and Russia to end their fighting in the Black Sea and is awaiting their responses, Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan said on Saturday.

He added that the priority was getting grain out from the region.

Speaking to broadcaster NTV, Fidan also said there were initiatives to end the war altogether, but that it seemed difficult to generate a lasting solution to the conflict at this stage.

Violeta Artemchuk, coordinator of the Donbas SOS human rights group who was among those who signed the statement, said members of local election commissions were going house to house, escorted by Russian troops and security agents, to force people to vote.

Moscow-appointed authorities exert pressure on residents, threatening those who work in the public sector with dismissal if they fail to vote and making pensions and other social payments conditional on participating, Artemchuk said.

“For instance, if a person with a disability or a pensioner relies on social assistance and does not take part in the ‘voting,’ they could be added to a list of individuals deemed ‘disloyal’ to the so-called authorities and subsequently deprived of their benefits or humanitarian assistance,” she said.

Volodymyr Fesenko, a political analyst with the Kyiv-based Penta Center, emphasised that “elections held at gunpoint are a farce”.

“The very fact that voting takes place amid endless shelling and bombing reflects the Kremlin’s attitude toward the people and the electoral process in the occupied territories,” Fesenko told The Associated Press.

“It’s nothing short of a mockery. Any electoral procedures conducted by the Russian occupation authorities have nothing to do with democracy,” he said.

Kyiv has attacked one of Russia’s jet-powered Shahed drones with a new interceptor drone, Volodymyr Zelensky said.

The Ukrainian president shared footage of the drone tracking down a Russian Shahed before exploding on impact, in what he said was a successful interception.

“There is a good result from the Security Service’s military counterintelligence in defending against jet-powered ‘shaheds’,” Mr Zelensky said.

“A new interceptor drone has been developed and has already been successfully deployed. Step by step, we are moving forward to give Ukraine greater protection,” he added.

Kyiv has previously raised the alarm about the use of Moscow’s new jet-powered drones which can travel up to 600 kilometres per hour — triple the speed of the piston-powered Shaheds deployed in earlier stages of the conflict.

Authorities in Kyiv have called the voting in those territories illegal and urged foreign governments and international organisations not to recognize the election.

They warned Ukrainians that taking part in organising the vote could carry criminal liability.

A coalition of nine Ukrainian human rights groups called on residents of the Russia-held territories to stay away from the polls.

“We urge residents of the temporarily occupied territories, above all, to protect their lives and health and to look after their own safety,” the coalition said in a statement.

“Holding Russian elections in the temporarily occupied territories is an attempt to use the electoral process to legitimize the Russian occupation and the attempted annexation of Ukrainian territories.”

European Commission spokesperson Christian Wigand said the voting in Russian-held regions represented “another blatant violation of international law.

The European Union does not, and will never recognize either the holding of these, so-called elections, sham elections, in the temporarily occupied territories of Ukraine or their results.”

Pictures show people casting their ballot for Russia’s parliamentary election.

Mounting defence expenditure is widening Russia’s budget deficit and increasing strain across its wartime economy, as business and consumer sentiment weakens and economic growth slows.

Economists note, however, that these difficulties do not point to an immediate financial meltdown or economic collapse. High global oil prices linked to the Iran war continue to shore up essential export revenues, allowing the state to fund its four-and-a-half-year-old invasion of Ukraine – for now.

In addition, low unemployment rates and generous government spending in poorer regions are helping to suppress domestic discontent.

Russia is not aware of the possibility that Washington may want to sign deals with Moscow before the Ukraine conflict is over, Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov told the RIA state news agency on Saturday.

The New York Times reported ⁠this week, citing two ​people close ⁠to the peace ‌talks, that the White House is now considering signing business ‌deals with Russia ‌before it stops fighting in Ukraine.

“I don’t know anything about such signals, and it would be strange to receive them, because we still hear exactly the opposite stance, namely, ‘Let’s agree on Ukraine and move forward, and everything else later,’” Ryabkov told RIA.

“Everything ‌else, as ⁠they say, will be ⁠attached. This also applies to economic ‌aspects, economic ​projects, too.”

Russia’s parliamentary election has triggered a diplomatic row with Moldova over its objections to the Kremlin’s plan to open 15 polling stations for Russian nationals in the separatist Transdniestria Region.

Moscow says 220,000 ⁠residents of pro-Russian Transdniestria, a sliver of land which broke away from Moldova in 1990 at the end of Soviet rule, hold Russian passports and are entitled to vote on Sunday ⁠in the election for the ​State ⁠Duma.

Transdniestria is not ⁠internationally recognised, not even by Moscow, though a Russian military contingent of ‌some 1,500 troops, ​which Russia sometimes describes as ‌peacekeepers, remains stationed there despite demands ​from Moldova for them to leave.

Moldova’s pro-Western government, which wants to join the European Union by 2030 and denounces the Kremlin’s war in Ukraine, says Russians may vote only in a single polling station in the Russian embassy in the capital Chisinau.

It contests the 220,000 figure and opposes any polling station in Transdniestria, where it ‌has no control over procedures.