UKRAINE WAR INCHES TOWARDS DIRECT NATO-RUSSIA FIGHTING

Romania’s Ministry of National Defense reported August 16 that a Spanish F-18 jet, which was part of a NATO air patrol mission in Romania, had engaged a drone that allegedly entered Romanian airspace and shot it down.

In reporting this news, [Al Jazeera] quoted NATO military spokesman Martin O’Donnell saying that NATO is prepared to defend itself, suggesting that the drone had been Russian: “Additional details regarding Sunday’s incident remain under investigation, but the drone appears to be Russian,” he said.

Zero evidence has been provided to justify such an allegation.

Meanwhile, the war between Ukraine and Russia continues to escalate, at both ends. Russia’s Ministry of Defense said it destroyed 822 drones across the country overnight. Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin wrote on social media early on Sunday that the city was targeted with 600 drones and “201 drones were destroyed in Moscow region.”

Russia, for its part, continued with heavy drone and ballistic missile attacks against military targets in Kiev and other parts of the country.

Furthermore, the ports of Odessa, Chernomorsk, and Yuzhny, Ukraine’s three largest commercial ports, have been rendered inoperable since July 22, TASS reported. “Ukraine has lost some $1.75 billion in export revenues due to downtime at sea ports since July 22, calculations by TASS show,” they reported.

“Meanwhile, traffic via ports of the Danube River, mostly Ukraine’s Izmail, or transit via Moldova to Romania’s Constanta cannot make up for the closure of Odessa ports as cargo handling potential there is smaller, with navigation along the Danube faltering amid a continued heatwave in Europe. As a result, Ukrainian farm exports have dwindled by approximately 60%, or a monthly value of more than $2 billion. Iron ore and metals exports worth around $700 million a month have almost fully stopped: up to 90% of those were routed via Odessa ports.”