{"id":467956,"date":"2026-05-04T13:37:17","date_gmt":"2026-05-04T13:37:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/467956\/"},"modified":"2026-05-04T13:37:17","modified_gmt":"2026-05-04T13:37:17","slug":"tenfold-increase-in-drone-attacks-on-ports-ukraine-says","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/467956\/","title":{"rendered":"Tenfold increase in drone attacks on ports, Ukraine says"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Russia sent more than 800 drones against Ukraine&#8217;s port infrastructure in the first four months of 2026, a sharp rise from 75 in the same period last year, Ukraine&#8217;s infrastructure minister has said.<\/p>\n<p>Oleksii Kuleba said more than 900 port infrastructure facilities have been damaged or partially destroyed since the start of Russia\u2019s full-scale invasion, including 177 civilian vessels. He made the comments on the Telegram messaging app.<\/p>\n<p>Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has urged Europe to speak with a unified voice in any future peace negotiations.<\/p>\n<p>Speaking in Yerevan, the capital of Armenia, at an international summit, he said Ukraine was in contact with the United States but stressed the need for &#8220;one common European voice&#8221; at the negotiating table.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;We need to find a workable diplomatic format and Europe must be at the table in any talks,&#8221; he said, also renewing calls for further military assistance, including new packages under the Prioritised Ukraine Requirements List mechanism.<\/p>\n<p>Mr Zelensky said Ukraine needs additional support to defend against Russian ballistic missile attacks.<\/p>\n<p>He was addressing European leaders attending the European Political Community summit, where defence autonomy and ties with Canada &#8211; which is attending the summit for the first time &#8211; were discussed against a backdrop of uncertainty over US military support under President Donald Trump.<\/p>\n<p>Mr Zelensky also said he had agreed with European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen to advance work on a drone procurement and cooperation deal with the European Union. He also met Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico to discuss Ukraine&#8217;s EU accession path, amid differing views within the bloc on relations with Moscow.<\/p>\n<p>Ukrainian authorities reported a Russian missile strike on the town of Merefa in the Kharkiv region, killing five people and injuring 18 others.<\/p>\n<p>Regional officials said residential buildings, shops and public infrastructure were damaged, and the missile used was likely an Iskander-type ballistic weapon.<\/p>\n<p>There was no immediate comment from Moscow, which denies deliberately targeting civilians.<\/p>\n<p>Meanwhile, Russian authorities said a Ukrainian drone struck a residential high-rise in an upscale Moscow district overnight.<\/p>\n<p>Moscow mayor Sergei Sobyanin said the drone hit near Mosfilmovskaya Street, about 10km from the Kremlin, with no casualties reported. Russian air defences intercepted other drones, he added.<\/p>\n<p>The rare strike on the heavily protected capital came days ahead of Russia&#8217;s 9 May Victory Day parade, which will be held without military hardware amid heightened security concerns.<\/p>\n<p>Mr Zelensky said Russia&#8217;s decision not to display equipment showed weakness, suggesting fears that Ukrainian drones could target Red Square.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Russia sent more than 800 drones against Ukraine&#8217;s port infrastructure in the first four months of 2026, a&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":467957,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[41],"tags":[9,10,13,14,6,11,12,15,16,5,7,8,65,66,67],"class_list":{"0":"post-467956","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world","8":"tag-breaking-news","9":"tag-breakingnews","10":"tag-featured-news","11":"tag-featurednews","12":"tag-headlines","13":"tag-latest-news","14":"tag-latestnews","15":"tag-main-news","16":"tag-mainnews","17":"tag-news","18":"tag-top-stories","19":"tag-topstories","20":"tag-world","21":"tag-world-news","22":"tag-worldnews"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/116516581939019308","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/467956","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=467956"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/467956\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/467957"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=467956"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=467956"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=467956"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}