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Sea Drone Alert Ends in Russia's Key Black Sea Port

A Ukrainian serviceman belonging to the attack drones battalion of the Achilles, 92nd brigade, launches a mid-range reconnaissance type drone, Vector, for flying over positions of Russian troops, amid Russia's attack on Ukraine, in a Kharkiv region, Ukraine June 19, 2024. REUTERS/Inna Varenytsia
A Ukrainian serviceman belonging to the attack drones battalion of the Achilles, 92nd brigade, launches a mid-range reconnaissance type drone, Vector, for flying over positions of Russian troops, amid Russia's attack on Ukraine, in a Kharkiv region, Ukraine June 19, 2024. REUTERS/Inna Varenytsia
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Sea Drone Alert Ends in Russia's Key Black Sea Port

A Ukrainian serviceman belonging to the attack drones battalion of the Achilles, 92nd brigade, launches a mid-range reconnaissance type drone, Vector, for flying over positions of Russian troops, amid Russia's attack on Ukraine, in a Kharkiv region, Ukraine June 19, 2024. REUTERS/Inna Varenytsia
A Ukrainian serviceman belonging to the attack drones battalion of the Achilles, 92nd brigade, launches a mid-range reconnaissance type drone, Vector, for flying over positions of Russian troops, amid Russia's attack on Ukraine, in a Kharkiv region, Ukraine June 19, 2024. REUTERS/Inna Varenytsia

The mayor of the Russian Black Sea port city of Novorossiisk issued a sea drone alert on Thursday morning which lasted for more than two hours, while a group of unmanned Ukrainian boats was destroyed near Crimea.
Mayor Andrei Kravchenko urged residents to stay away from the city's shoreline in his initial message on the Telegram app. Ukrainian sea drones have in the past attacked Russian ships near the port, disrupting traffic, said Reuters.
Novorossiisk is Russia's largest Black Sea port and a key outlet for crude oil and oil product exports in the south. It also loads oil from Kazakhstan and Azerbaijan and handles grain, coal, fertilizers, timber as well as food and chemical cargoes.
Separately, the TASS news agency cited the Russian defense ministry as saying 10 Ukrainian sea drones had been destroyed as they approached Crimea, and 33 air drones had been destroyed over the peninsula overnight.

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Russia Condemns ‘Irresponsible’ Talk of Nuclear Weapons for Ukraine

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov attends a press conference of Russian President Vladimir Putin speaks at the BRICS summit in Kazan, Russia October 24, 2024. (Reuters)
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov attends a press conference of Russian President Vladimir Putin speaks at the BRICS summit in Kazan, Russia October 24, 2024. (Reuters)
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Russia Condemns ‘Irresponsible’ Talk of Nuclear Weapons for Ukraine

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov attends a press conference of Russian President Vladimir Putin speaks at the BRICS summit in Kazan, Russia October 24, 2024. (Reuters)
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov attends a press conference of Russian President Vladimir Putin speaks at the BRICS summit in Kazan, Russia October 24, 2024. (Reuters)

Discussion in the West about arming Ukraine with nuclear weapons is "absolutely irresponsible", Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Tuesday, in response to a report in the New York Times citing unidentified officials who suggested such a possibility.

The New York Times reported last week that some unidentified Western officials had suggested US President Joe Biden could give Ukraine nuclear weapons before he leaves office.

"Several officials even suggested that Mr. Biden could return nuclear weapons to Ukraine that were taken from it after the fall of the Soviet Union. That would be an instant and enormous deterrent. But such a step would be complicated and have serious implications," the newspaper wrote.

Asked about the report, Peskov told reporters: "These are absolutely irresponsible arguments of people who have a poor understanding of reality and who do not feel a shred of responsibility when making such statements. We also note that all of these statements are anonymous."

Earlier, senior Russian security official Dmitry Medvedev said that if the West supplied nuclear weapons to Ukraine then Moscow could consider such a transfer to be tantamount to an attack on Russia, providing grounds for a nuclear response.

Ukraine inherited nuclear weapons from the Soviet Union after its 1991 collapse, but gave them up under a 1994 agreement, the Budapest Memorandum, in return for security assurances from Russia, the United States and Britain.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said last month that as Ukraine had handed over the nuclear weapons, joining NATO was the only way it could deter Russia.

The 33-month Russia-Ukraine war saw escalations on both sides last week, after Ukraine fired US and British missiles into Russia for the first time, with permission from the West, and Moscow responded by launching a new hypersonic intermediate-range missile into Ukraine.

Asked about the risk of a nuclear escalation, Peskov said the West should "listen carefully" to Putin and read Russia's newly updated nuclear doctrine, which lowered the threshold for using nuclear weapons.

Separately, Russian foreign intelligence chief Sergei Naryshkin said Moscow opposes simply freezing the conflict in Ukraine because it needs a "solid and long-term peace" that resolves the core reasons for the crisis.