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Ukraine Repels Russian Drone Strike, but Debris Damages Odesa Warehouse

A view shows a postal distribution center of Nova Post company hit by Russian missiles, amid Russia's attack on Ukraine, in the village of Korotych, outside of Kharkiv, Ukraine October 22, 2023. REUTERS/Sofiia Gatilova
A view shows a postal distribution center of Nova Post company hit by Russian missiles, amid Russia's attack on Ukraine, in the village of Korotych, outside of Kharkiv, Ukraine October 22, 2023. REUTERS/Sofiia Gatilova
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Ukraine Repels Russian Drone Strike, but Debris Damages Odesa Warehouse

A view shows a postal distribution center of Nova Post company hit by Russian missiles, amid Russia's attack on Ukraine, in the village of Korotych, outside of Kharkiv, Ukraine October 22, 2023. REUTERS/Sofiia Gatilova
A view shows a postal distribution center of Nova Post company hit by Russian missiles, amid Russia's attack on Ukraine, in the village of Korotych, outside of Kharkiv, Ukraine October 22, 2023. REUTERS/Sofiia Gatilova

Ukraine shot down 14 attack drones and a cruise missile fired by Russia at its south and east overnight, but debris from a downed drone damaged a warehouse at the Black Sea port of Odesa, officials said on Monday.
Air defenses brought down nine Iranian-made Shahed drones over the southern region of Odesa, which is home to Ukraine's main Black Sea ports, and no one was reported injured, governor Oleh Kiper wrote on the Telegram messaging app.
There was no comment from Moscow, which denies targeting civilian infrastructure.
Russia has intensified attacks on port and grain infrastructure since quitting a UN-brokered deal in July that had allowed Kyiv to ship its grain via the Black Sea.
Ukraine, a major grain producer, has been trying to establish a new shipping corridor to revive its exports across the Black Sea, traditionally its main route to global markets, despite a de facto Russian blockade.
The regions of Kherson in the south, Donetsk in the east and Sumy in the northeast were also targeted in the attack, the Interior Ministry said.
All 14 drones, including 13 Shaheds, and a cruise missile were shot down in the strike, the air force said, praising air defense systems supplied by the West.
"Western weapons have proven and continue to prove their effectiveness on the battlefield," Mykola Oleshchuk, commander of the air force, wrote in a statement on Telegram.
Russia has carried out frequent air strikes across Ukrainian regions since launching its full-scale invasion in February 2022. Kyiv fears Russia is going to step up attacks on its power grid to cripple infrastructure as winter begins to set in.
President Volodymyr Zelenskiy's office said that Russian shelling hit a thermal power station in Donetsk region on Sunday evening. The Interior Ministry said there had been a large fire.
DTEK, Ukraine's largest private energy company, reported one of its thermal power stations had been shelled by Russia but provided no further details.

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Iran Says Could Abandon Nuclear Weapons But Has Conditions

A sample of the surveillance cameras that monitor the Iranian nuclear facilities presented at a press conference in Vienna. (Reuters)
A sample of the surveillance cameras that monitor the Iranian nuclear facilities presented at a press conference in Vienna. (Reuters)
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Iran Says Could Abandon Nuclear Weapons But Has Conditions

A sample of the surveillance cameras that monitor the Iranian nuclear facilities presented at a press conference in Vienna. (Reuters)
A sample of the surveillance cameras that monitor the Iranian nuclear facilities presented at a press conference in Vienna. (Reuters)

Iran on Saturday hinted it would be willing to negotiate on a nuclear agreement with the upcoming administration of US President-elect Donald Trump, but that it has conditions.
Last Thursday, the UN atomic watchdog's 35-nation Board of Governors passed a resolution ordering Iran to urgently improve cooperation with the agency and requesting a “comprehensive” report aimed at pressuring Iran into fresh nuclear talks.
Ali Larijani, advisor to Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, said Iran and the US are now in a new position concerning the nuclear file.
In a post on X, he said, “If the current US administration say they are only against Iran’s nuclear weapons, they must accept Iran’s conditions and provide compensation for the damages caused.”

He added, “The US should accept the necessary conditions... so that a new agreement can be reached.”
Larijani stated that Washington withdrew from the JCPOA, thus causing damage to Iran, adding that his country started increasing its production of 60% enriched uranium.
The Iran nuclear accord, formally known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), was reached to limit the Iranian nuclear program in exchange for sanctions relief.
The deal began unraveling in 2018, when Washington, under Trump’s first administration, unilaterally withdrew from the accord and re-imposed a sanction regime of “maximum pressure” on Tehran.
In retaliation, Iran has rapidly ramped up its nuclear activities, including by increasing its stockpiles of enriched uranium to 60% — close to the 90% threshold required to develop a nuclear bomb.
It also began gradually rolling back some of its commitments by increasing its uranium stockpiles and enriching beyond the 3.67% purity -- enough for nuclear power stations -- permitted under the deal.
Since 2021, Tehran has significantly decreased its cooperation with the IAEA by deactivating surveillance devices to monitor the nuclear program and barring UN inspectors.
Most recently, Iran escalated its confrontations with the Agency by announcing it would launch a series of “new and advanced” centrifuges. Its move came in response to a resolution adopted by the United Nations nuclear watchdog that censures Tehran for what the agency called lack of cooperation.
Centrifuges are the machines that enrich uranium transformed into gas by rotating it at very high speed, increasing the proportion of fissile isotope material (U-235).
Shortly after the IAEA passed its resolution last Thursday, Tehran spoke about the “dual role” of IAEA’s chief, Raphael Grossi.
Chairman of the Iranian Parliamentary National Security and Foreign Policy Committee, Ebrahim Azizi said, “The statements made by Grossi in Tehran do not match his actions in Vienna.”
And contrary to the statements of Azizi, who denied his country’s plans to build nuclear weapons, Tehran did not originally want to freeze its uranium stockpile enriched to 60%
According to the IAEA’s definition, around 42 kg of uranium enriched to 60% is the amount at which creating one atomic weapon is theoretically possible. The 60% purity is just a short, technical step away from weapons-grade levels of 90%.
Spokesperson and deputy head of Iran’s Atomic Energy Organization, Behrouz Kamalvandi, said on Friday that IAEA inspectors were scheduled to come immediately after the meeting of the Board of Governors to evaluate Iran’s capacity, “with those capacities remaining for a month without any interruption in enrichment at 60% purity.”
Iran’s news agency, Tasnim, quoted Kamalvandi as saying that “the pressures resulting from the IAEA resolution are counterproductive, meaning that they increase our ability to enrich.”
He added: “Currently, not only have we not stopped enrichment, but we have orders to increase the speed, and we are gradually working on that."