Ukraine has ended a two-week pause on strikes against Russian oil refineries, according to monitoring channels, targeting the Novokuybyshevsk oil refinery in Russia's Samara region overnight with a drone attack.
According to the Kyiv Independent, monitoring channel Exilenova+ published photos and videos showing a fire at the refinery, as well as witness reports of drones overhead.
Earlier it was reported that Ukraine's military had paused its strikes on refineries in response to weeks of pressure from US president Donald Trump, who blames such attacks for high diesel prices in the States.
On Thursday a Russian drone attack killed 14 people at the main railway station in the Ukrainian city of Dnipro, hitting a platform crowded with people boarding a train, officials said.
And both Russia and Ukraine said that demining operations around the Russian-held town of Oleshky in southern Ukraine had been completed and that an operation to bring aid and allow residents to leave was ready to begin.
Efforts have been underway for several weeks to organise a relief operation for the acutely deprived town's residents, which Russian forces seized soon after Moscow's February 2022 invasion of its smaller neighbour.
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Key Points
- Analysis: Melania Trump’s ‘humanitarian ceasefire’ in Ukraine is a PR stunt
- Ukraine ends pause on strikes against Russian oil refineries
- Ukraine pauses strikes on Russian refineries after pressure from Trump
- Putin says Russia is ‘ready for war’ with Europe in chilling threat
- Russia killed 19 people in one day, Zelensky says
Russia's last major independent paper shuts under Kremlin pressure
15:40 , James ReynoldsThe Russian independent newspaper Novaya Gazeta said on Friday that it was winding up its remaining operations after a campaign of state pressure in which a senior editor has been prosecuted and its financial support and premises have been taken away.
“We have been killed,” the publication, set up with money from the Nobel Peace Prize of the last Soviet leader, Mikhail Gorbachev, said in a statement.
The paper halted its print edition inside Russia in 2022, but had continued to produce online content and operate from its office in central Moscow.
There was no immediate comment from the authorities, which had designated the publication a "foreign agent".
But the Kremlin has said in the past that some censorship is necessary at a time when Russia is locked in what it describes as an existential struggle with the West over Ukraine.
Kremlin says Europe will be needed at some stage of peace talks
15:00 , James ReynoldsKremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said on Friday that European participation will be needed in the planned peace talks with Ukraine and the US.
Peskov said there were no detailed discussions about such participation at present.
The latest: Evacuation of Russian-occupied Oleshky begins with aid convoy on way
14:20 , James ReynoldsResidents in the occupied Ukrainian town of Oleshky began a desperate evacuation on Friday as a localised ceasefire between Moscow and Kyiv held for a third day.
A fleet of 25 buses with at least 750 seats stood ready to withdraw locals seeking to leave, Kyiv's human rights ombudsman, Dmytro Lubinets, said. His Russian counterpart, Yana Lantratova, added that space would also be provided for their pets.
Residents who wanted to leave were given a four-hour window to do so, lasting until 2pm local time (12pm GMT). Several hundred people are understood to have decided to stay.
“Everyone who wishes to leave Oleshky will be given the opportunity to leave safely,” Lubinets said. “At the same time, those who have decided to stay can stay and will receive all the necessary humanitarian support.”
Evacuees were given a choice of evacuating to Ukrainian or Russian-controlled territory, but those headed for Ukraine would have to travel into Russian-held land and take a Russian government plane to Belarus before driving across the border into Chernihiv.
Watch: Russian TV broadcast 'large aid convoy' setting off for Oleshky
14:00 , James ReynoldsFirst person: Apocalypse ‘avo’ on toast and fauxpaella: how I survived on emergency food supplies for a week
13:40 , James ReynoldsWith the government urging Britons to prepare for emergencies and supplies of bottled water and tinned beans running low, food editor Hannah Twiggs put her appetite on the line to find out whether a week of tinned food and no cooking could be remotely bearable
I lived on emergency food for a week – this is what apocalypse paella tastes like
Kremlin says Ukrainian refinery attacks do not affect upcoming peace talks
13:24 , James ReynoldsThe current Ukrainian attacks on oil refineries do not jeopardise the planned trilateral negotiations on peace in Ukraine, Russia's agency Interfax cites Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov as saying.
Ukraine resumed strikes on Russian oil refineries after a pause with the overnight attack on facilities in Samara region, Russia's Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak said earlier on Friday.
Russia says no European part in any peace talks... yet
13:05 , Namita SinghParticipation of European representatives in the planned peace negotiations between Russia, Ukraine and the United `States willbe needed at some stage, Russian agency Interfax quoted Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov as saying on Friday.
Mr Peskov said there were no detailed discussions about such participation at present.
Analysis: Melania Trump’s ‘humanitarian ceasefire’ in Ukraine is a PR stunt
12:41 , Namita SinghOur world affairs editor, Sam Kiley, writes of the evacuation efforts in Oleshky:
“Four years of occupation by Russian troops, cut off from resupply and forced to eat grass in a frontline town, the survivors of Oleshky are now extras in a grandiose public relations operation for Melania Trump and her husband.
“America’s first lady’s brokered deal – with the help of the Pope and hailed by the White House – sees suffering caused by Russia turned into a display by the Kremlin's “humanitarian” leader while his troops resupply and rearm under the umbrella of a “ceasefire”.
“By Monday, the deputy governor of Kherson, the Ukrainian held city on the west bank of the Dnipro, says the killing will start again - and likely be worse.
“’We are very concerned that from Monday the Russians will start shelling Kherson heavily again,’ Oleksandr Tolokonnikov tells The Independent.”
Read the full piece:
Melania Trump’s ‘humanitarian ceasefire’ in Ukraine is a PR stunt
New drone hubs in Europe
12:17 , Namita SinghThe EU is set to sign a defense industry pact with Ukraine by the end of 2026 and draw on Kyiv's war experience to set up new drone technology hubs in Europe by next year, the EU's Economy Commissioner Valdis Dombrovskis has said
"I am pleased to take part in the historic announcement of the first two pilot European Drone Technology hubs, to be established in 2027," Mr Dombrovskis said at a Nato event in Riga.
"In developing drones and counter-drone systems, Europe has one significant advantage: our partnership with Ukraine," Mr Dombrovskis added.
Fresh probe into Slovakia's donation of jets to Ukraine
11:50 , Namita SinghSlovakia's top prosecutor has ordered anew probe into the donation of MiG-29 fighter jets and air defence systems to Ukraine by the country's previous governmen.
Prime Minister Robert Fico and his government, which pursues a more pro-Russian foreign policy and ended military aid for Ukraine, has repeatedly attacked the donation made in 2023.
Mr Fico has claimed the donations left the country dependent on allied air patrolling, and a senior official in his party called it sabotage.
The country's chief prosecutor, Maros Zilinka, said on Facebook on Friday he had ordered a new investigation, claiming the previous one ended prematurely. "In the preparatory proceedings, facts were not established in an extent necessary for a decision," he said.
Bratislava regional prosecutor Rastislav Remeta, said when ending the previous probe in February that the dozen Soviet-era MiG-29 jets and the KUB air defence systems were outdated, not fully operational and lacked pilots and missiles.
He said their donation was no crime. The defence minister at the time, Jaroslav Nad, has denied any wrongdoing.
Kremlin calls Oleshky ceasefire 'an isolated case'
11:24 , Adam WithnallThe Kremlin has downplayed hopes that the local ceasefire in Oleshky could be a template for a broader cessation in hostilities.
The situation in Oleshky was coordinated with the US as an isolated case which should not be extrapolated to the broader peaceful settlement process in Ukraine, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Friday on Russian state TV.
Residents in the occupied Ukrainian town began a desperate evacuation on Friday as a localised ceasefire between Moscow and Kyiv held for a third day.
A fleet of 25 buses with at least 750 seats stood ready to withdraw locals seeking to leave, Kyiv's human rights ombudsman, Dmytro Lubinets, said. His Russian counterpart, Yana Lantratova, added that space would also be provided for their pets.
Read more on the evacuation here:
Evacuation of Russian-occupied Oleshky begins with aid convoy on way
Putin says Russia is prepared for war with Europe
11:00 , Namita SinghRussia supports any steps aimed at restoring relations with European countries, president Vladimir Putin said late on Thursday, adding the outbreak of any conflict would leave a situation with no winners.
Commenting on his phone call this week with the leaders of Norway and Finland, Putin said Russia was prepared for a potential war with Europe, though it did not want one.
"We support any steps... we support any actions aimed at restoring full-fledged and complete relations with European countries," Putin told reporters after hosting a summit with African leaders.
"First of all, we are ready, but we want no war with Europe. And if anyone wants it, let them prepare, but right now they have not achieved their goal — to inflict a strategic defeat on Russia. And if things go too far, there will be no winners at all. Let no one forget that."
Putin said Finnish president Alexander Stubb and Norwegian prime minister Jonas Gahr Stoere had been right to make the call despite criticism from some European capitals that the two were breaking ranks by initiating contact with Moscow.
He said Russia wanted no impediments to navigation in the Baltic Sea and added that restricting communication could lead to a situation similar to that in the Strait of Hormuz since the outbreak of the US-Iranian conflict in February.
"Does someone want the same situation in the Baltic as in the Gulf or the Strait of Hormuz?" Putin said. "I don't know. We don't want that, but we will respond to any challenge."
One dead in Russian missile attack on Kyiv, Ukrainian officials say
10:00 , Namita SinghRussian forces attacked the Ukrainian capital Kyiv with ballistic missiles late on Thursday, killing one person, striking buildings and triggering a fire, officials said.
The capital's military administration said one person had been killed in the attack, launched just before 11pm local time.
Mayor Vitali Klitschko said a strike on warehouses had caused a fire on the east side of the River Dnipro. In a nearby district, falling debris had damaged a building and caused another fire which had been brought under control.
Ukraine ends pause on strikes against Russian oil refineries
09:24 , Adam WithnallUkraine has ended a two-week pause on strikes against Russian oil refineries, according to monitoring channels, targeting the Novokuybyshevsk oil refinery in Russia's Samara region overnight with a drone attack.
According to the Kyiv Independent, monitoring channel Exilenova+ published photos and videos showing a fire at the refinery, as well as witness reports of drones overhead.
Earlier it was reported that Ukraine's military had paused its strikes on refineries in response to weeks of pressure from US president Donald Trump, who blames such attacks for high diesel prices in the States.
Two teenagers among five killed in Russian strikes on Ukraine
09:00 , Namita SinghTwo teenage girls were killed on a central street in Chernihiv in northern Ukraine, and three people died in strikes on residential buildings in the central city of Kremenchuk.
In Chernihiv, in addition to the two dead teenagers, 23 people including four children were wounded in a drone attack on a busy downtown street.
"Ordinary, peaceful people were attacked who were just going to work, going about their daily business, making plans for the day," said Dmytro Bryzhynskyi, head of the city's military administration.
In Kremenchuk, strikes on a residential block and private buildings killed three people and wounded 32, the regional governor said. Russian drones also struck city buses in three separate attacks on southeastern Ukraine's Zaporizhzhia, wounding six, officials there said.
Thursday's strikes came amid renewed efforts to revive US-backed peace talks to end Europe's deadliest conflict since World War Two.
New three-way talks are expected to take place next month, with Ukrainian officials, including top presidential adviser Kyrylo Budanov, urging pressure on Moscow from Kyiv's partners.
Bodies scattered across platform in Dnipro
08:00 , Namita SinghA Russian jet-powered drone had struck a platform at the Dnipro's main station, where a commuter train was preparing to depart, said state railway Ukrzaliznytsia.
Mangled bodies lay scattered across the shrapnel-marked pavement, where patches of bright red blood had pooled up. Police filled black body bags amid the wail of an air-raid siren.
"And for what? What goal are they (Russians) trying to achieve?" said Svitlana Shcherbak, 67, as she sheltered underground at the station.
"I don't understand it at all."Another attack on Dnipro hit a student dormitory, setting it ablaze, regional governor Oleksandr Hanzha said. He added that a day of assaults had cut power to 350,000 households in the city.
Russia's mounting bombing campaign against Ukrainian cities has regularly killed civilians. Moscow has denied targeting civilians.
Russian drone strike kills 14 on Ukrainian rail platform
07:00 , Namita SinghA Russian drone strike killed at least 14 people on a crowded rail platform in the Ukrainian city of Dnipro on Thursday, while five died in daytime strikes on two other provincial cities and a late-evening missile strike killed one person in the capital Kyiv, officials said.
The string of attacks jolted Ukrainian cities as a local truce in the southern region of Kherson raised cautious hopes for a resumption of diplomacy.
"Russia is deliberately hunting civilians: on trains, at stations, in residential buildings," Ukrainian prime minister Sergiy Koretskyi said on the Telegram app.
"There is no justification for this terror, and there never can be."A new missile attack hit districts of Kyiv just before 11pm killing one person, the city's military administration said. Warehouses were set ablaze and falling debris damaged a building on the east side of the Dnipro River.
A few hours earlier, Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky had described the attacks as "very cruel" and "deliberate when everyone expects de-escalation steps".
Zelensky warned that Ukraine had intelligence "about preparations by the Russians of new ballistic missile strikes. We need the means to take out all this Russian evil. We are expecting relevant decisions."
Residents given deadline to return to Ukraine-controlled territory
06:00 , Namita SinghResidents wishing to leave and return to territory controlled by the Ukrainian government are expected to exit via Russia-controlled Crimea before crossing into southern Russia and being flown to Belarus from where they will be able to cross the border into Ukraine.
By the middle of Thursday, neither Ukraine nor Russia had reported violations of the ceasefire, due to last until Sunday.
Putin says aid is reaching Oleshky civilians due to ceasefire
05:00 , Namita SinghPresident Vladimir Putin told a gathering with African nations in Moscow that relief supplies would begin reaching Oleshky civilians on Thursday and Friday, "with the support, incidentally, of the first lady of the United States".
The truce applies only to Oleshky and the wider Kherson region, which has suffered years of near-daily drone and artillery attacks. Some 1,500 of the town's prewar population of 24,000 people are believed to live among the ruins, under regular shellfire amid severe shortages of food and medicine.
Ukraine has long accused Russia of refusing to let aid in or people out. Russia says it is Ukrainian mines on the approach roads and Ukrainian shelling that have prevented the delivery of aid or the safe evacuation of residents.
Ukraine pauses strikes on Russian refineries after pressure from Trump – reports
04:36 , Namita SinghUkraine has halted its strikes on Russian oil refineries after pressure from US president Donald Trump, the Wall Street Journal reported on Thursday, citing people with knowledge of the operations.
Ukrainian units carrying out long-range strikes were told in mid-October that the campaign against refineries was effectively on hold once missions already in motion were completed, the Journal reported.
The unofficial pause is expected to last until after the US midterm elections and potentially deeper into November, it added. Russia has meanwhile stepped up attacks on Ukrainian energy and civilian infrastructure.
The news of a pause comes amid renewed efforts to revive US-backed peace talks to end Europe's deadliest conflict since World War Two.
Relations between Trump and Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky have taken a sharp downward turn in recent weeks, with Trump growing increasingly frustrated over Ukrainian strikes on Russian energy infrastructure as diesel prices hit record highs.
Ukraine had refused to halt the strikes, saying its long-range drone campaign is its only viable response to years of Russian bombardment.
That prompted Trump to announce a deal to buy diesel from Moscow and waive sanctions on Moscow authorised by a bill he signed into law in September.
Russia, Ukraine say Oleshky demining operations complete, humanitarian operation to proceed
04:00 , Namita SinghRussia and Ukraine said on Thursday that demining operations around the Russian-held town of Oleshky in southern Ukraine had been completed and that an operation to bring aid and allow residents to leave was ready to begin.
Efforts have been underway for several weeks to organise a relief operation for the acutely deprived town's residents, which Russian forces seized soon after Moscow's February 2022 invasion of its smaller neighbour.
Both sides have praised US first lady Melania Trump for helping broker a truce in a town where at least one resident who escaped said those remaining feared death by starvation.
"Demining operations of routes have been completed for the humanitarian mission in Oleshky," the two sides said in virtually identical statements issued by Yana Lantratova, Russia's human rights commissioner, and Dmytro Lubinets, her Ukrainian counterpart.
"The humanitarian convoy is ready for departure."
The convoy would head for the district hospital and residents wishing to leave would be permitted to go within a specific time frame. Aid packages would then be distributed, the statements said.
The operation aims to address a crisis in a town marooned inside a war zone since 2022. But it is also part of a diplomatic dance where both sides want to show US President Donald Trump that they back his peace efforts, albeit for different reasons.
Lantratova, Russian human rights commissioner, said she was taking four journalists from the conservative US outlet Newsmax to the area. Lubinets made no reference to specific reporters.
Aid mission set to enter Oleshky as a localized Russia-Ukraine truce holds for a third day
03:00 , Dan HaygarthHumanitarian aid is poised to roll into the stricken city of Oleshky, negotiators said Thursday, as a localized ceasefire between Russia and Ukraine stretched into a third day and military units cleared landmines.
Moscow and Kyiv have observed the truce in and around the devastated southern Ukrainian city since Tuesday, but remain otherwise locked in the war that began with Russia’s full-scale invasion more than four years ago. Previous ceasefire talks either failed or the truces quickly fell apart.
“Demining of the designated routes has been completed, and the humanitarian convoy has been assembled and is ready,” ombudsman Dmytro Lubinets, who heads Ukraine's negotiating team, said Thursday. He said aid deliveries were due to begin Friday.
Elsewhere, deadly attacks continued and Ukraine's central bank warned that damage to industrial targets could push the country into a recession.
The planned six-day ceasefire around Russian-occupied Oleshky has brought a rare and welcome stillness for civilians in the nearby city of Kherson, which is held by Ukraine and has also been wracked by the war.
Russian and Ukrainian officials head to Oleshky for aid delivery
Both sides thanked Melania Trump for what the White House called her help in brokering the ceasefire so food and medical supplies can be delivered to about 2,000 people trapped in Oleshky. Pope Leo XIV also pressed for a truce.
In focus: Trump, Susie Wiles and a curious Russian connection
02:00 , Dan Haygarth
Trump, Susie Wiles and a curious Russian connection
Russia to extend diesel export ban, use quotas to fulfil US deal, sources say
01:00 , Dan HaygarthRussia will extend its diesel export ban until the end of the year while allowing some companies to ship fuel under a quota system to meet its new export commitment to the US, two people familiar with the discussions told Reuters.
Moscow and Washington agreed a diesel supply deal after Presidents Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump spoke by phone earlier this month.
The energy ceasefire between Russia and Ukraine announced alongside the agreement has allowed Moscow to increase fuel production. At the same time, fuel shortages earlier this year have prompted the government to maintain tight controls on oil product exports.
Watch: Putin mocked over photo with world's tallest leader
Thursday 29 October 2026 23:59 , Dan HaygarthRecap: Zelensky hails £10billion Ukraine support from Andy Burnham
Thursday 29 October 2026 23:00 , Dan HaygarthPresident Volodymyr Zelensky has hailed an additional £10billion support package from the UK to Ukraine after discussions with Andy Burnham.
The £10billion was announced on Wednesday by chancellor John Healey, who offered the economic and military support in the Budget.
Zelensky hails £10billion Ukraine support from Andy Burnham
In full: Putin says Russia is ‘ready for war’ with Europe in chilling threat
Thursday 29 October 2026 22:00 , Dan Haygarth
Putin says Russia is ‘ready for war’ with Europe in chilling threat
Reeves urges EU to seize Russian assets to pay for Ukraine's defence
Thursday 29 October 2026 21:00 , Dan HaygarthFormer UK chancellor Rachel Reeves hsa said her country and the European Union must work together to seize €210bn of Russian assets to support Ukraine this winter.
In an article for The Times, Reeves, with the former German defence minister Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer, the former French minister for Europe Nathalie Loiseau and the former Canadian deputy prime minister and finance minister Chrystia Freeland, said that taking the frozen Russian assets would ensure Kyiv’s defence into 2029.
BREAKING: Putin says Russia is ‘ready for war’ with Europe in chilling threat
Thursday 29 October 2026 19:05 , Dan HaygarthVladimir Putin said Russia is prepared for a potential war with Europe, though it does not want one.
The Russian president said his country supports any steps aimed at restoring relations with European countries, as he commented on his phone call with the leaders of Norway and Finland.
But in a chilling threat, he said that if tensions were to escalate too far, there would be no winners.
He added that Moscow did not want the Baltic Sea to face a situation similar to that in the Strait of Hormuz.
Russia killed 19 people in one day, Zelensky says
Thursday 29 October 2026 19:00 , Gergana.KrastevaAt least 19 people have been killed in Russian attacks across Ukraine today, Volodymyr Zelensky revealed.
Another 71 people were injured, including 11 children, Dozens of those wounded are now in hospitals.
“Once again, Russia is showing its true attitude towards de-escalation and the efforts by Ukraine, the United States, Europe, and our other partners around the world to end this war and stop the killings,” the President said.
Thank you for your condolences, António. Today, Russia carried out cynical strikes that claimed the lives of 19 people. Another 71 people were injured, including 11 children. Dozens of those wounded are now in hospitals. Our medical professionals are providing care and doing… https://t.co/SjNpUogO7G
— Volodymyr Zelenskyy / Володимир Зеленський (@ZelenskyyUa) October 29, 2026
EU to urge partners to support Ukraine and push for tribunal
Thursday 29 October 2026 18:00 , Gergana.KrastevaEuropean Union's foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas said she would call on partners at the upcoming EU-Canada summit and G20 foreign ministers' meeting in Atlanta to strengthen support for Ukraine.
She would also urge to advance accountability through "The "Special Tribunal and Claims Commission".
"Russia must be accountable," she said in a post on X.
Russia’s deadly attack on the Dnipro train station is yet another brutal assault on Ukrainian civilians. It makes abundantly clear that Moscow is not interested in peace.
— Kaja Kallas (@kajakallas) October 29, 2026
I extend my deepest condolences to the victims and their families.
At the EU-Canada Summit and the G20…
Putin calls Elon Musk ‘genius’ weeks after Starlink access slowed down for Ukraine
Thursday 29 October 2026 17:24 , Dan HaygarthVladimir Putin hailed Elon Musk as a “genius” and said he was in contact with the tech billionaire as Russia develops its answer to his Starlink satellite internet system.
Read in full below:
Putin calls Elon Musk ‘genius’ weeks after Starlink access slowed down for Ukraine
In pictures: Game of Thrones actor visits Kyiv and sleeps in metro
Thursday 29 October 2026 17:11 , Gergana.Krasteva
Any Ukrainian attacks duding public holiday "could affect" negotiations
Thursday 29 October 2026 16:00 , Gergana.KrastevaAny large-scale attack on Russia on its National Unity Day “would affect” the outcome of the three-way negotiations with Ukraine and the US, the Kremlin has warned.
Foreign policy aide Yuri Ushakov told state TV channel Vesti: “If there are any exceptionally large-scale bombardments during public mass events, then that will probably affect our mood in some way too. That's only logical.”
Russia marks the public holiday on November 4.
Earlier today, Zelensky said that he hoped that a trilateral meeting between peace negotiators would take place in Abu Dhabi between November 6 and November 10.
First pictures emerge from operations in Oleshky
Thursday 29 October 2026 15:00 , Gergana.Krasteva
Three killed and 15 injured in Russian drone strike
Thursday 29 October 2026 14:00 , Gergana.KrastevaThree people have been killed and another 15 injured after a Russian attack on the Ukrainian city of Kremenchuk.
Vitalii Diakivnych, head of the Poltava Regional Military Administration, said a drone hit an apartment building earlier today, causing a large fire.
Death toll from Dnipro train strike jumps to 14
Thursday 29 October 2026 13:30 , Gergana.Krasteva
The death toll from the Russian strike on a commuter train in Dnipro has risen to 14.
Volodymyr Zelensky described the attack - as well as two others in Ukraine - as “deliberate strikes against civilians, brazen in their cruelty”.
“Just a few hours ago, the Russians struck a residential neighborhood in Chernihiv with a drone and killed two girls,” he wrote in a post on X.
“They were only 15 years old. In Kremenchuk, a Russian Shahed struck an apartment building. Tragically, three people were killed.
“My condolences to all those who lost their loved ones. In these three attacks alone, 56 people have been reported injured, including 10 children.”
Ship sinks after sea drone attack off Bulgarian coast
Thursday 29 October 2026 13:00 , Gergana.KrastevaA Greek container ship has sunk after being struck by naval drones off the coast of NATO member Bulgaria.
Footage shared by Maritime.bg shows one of three sea drones hitting the Liberian-flagged CONTSHIP JET, loaded with 421 containers.
The attack happened as the vessel passed through Bulgaria's Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) - but outside its territorial waters - en route from Haifa in Israel to Constanța in Romania.
The crew of 14 Filipinos and four Ukrainians were rescued, Contships Management said.
At least six ships have been attacked by drones off Bulgaria this month, and about two dozen seafarers are feared dead, according to government statements.
Ukraine, Russia and US could hold peace talks in Abu Dhabi next month, Zelensky says
Thursday 29 October 2026 12:00 , Shweta SharmaUkrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky said he hopes peace negotiators from Ukraine, Russia and the United States will meet in Abu Dhabi between 6 and 10 November to discuss ways to end the war.
Zelensky said Kyiv wanted European countries to be involved in the negotiations, stressing the need for unity among Ukraine's allies and increased pressure on Moscow to bring an end to the conflict.
The proposed meeting comes amid renewed diplomatic efforts to negotiate an end to Russia's war in Ukraine, although a firm date for the talks has yet to be confirmed.
