KYIV: Russia said Saturday its forces destroyed three Ukrainian naval drones being used in an attempt to attack a key bridge linking Russia to Moscow-annexed Crimea, forcing its temporary closure for a third time in less than a year.
One naval drone was destroyed late Friday and two others early Saturday morning, according to Russia’s Defense Ministry. There was no immediate comment from Ukrainian officials.
A key supply route for Kremlin forces in the war with Ukraine, the Kerch bridge has come under repeated attack since Russia launched its full-scale invasion.
An explosion in October, which Russian authorities said was caused by a truck bomb, left three people dead. A further attack on the bridge in July, killing a couple and seriously wounding their daughter, left a span of the roadway hanging perilously.
The bridge connecting Crimea and Russia carries heavy significance for Moscow, both logistically and psychologically, as a key artery for military and civilian supplies and as an assertion of Kremlin control of the peninsula it annexed in 2014.
On Saturday afternoon, one civilian was killed and two wounded during shelling of Russia’s Belgorod region bordering Ukraine, Belgorod Gov. Vyacheslav Gladkov said. Two Ukrainian drones attacked the region's Valuysky district, causing minor damage to a private home and car, while another drone was intercepted by Russian air defense in the Grayvoronsky district.
A woman was also wounded Saturday during shelling of a village in the neighboring Kursk region, also bordering Ukraine, regional Gov. Roman Starovoit said. He blamed Ukraine for the shelling.
Ukrainian authorities, which generally avoid commenting on attacks on Russian soil, didn’t say whether they launched the attacks. Drone strikes and shelling on the Russian border regions are a regular occurrence.
Meanwhile, four people were wounded in the Ukrainian shelling of the eastern Ukrainian city of Donetsk, Moscow-installed mayor Aleksei Kulemzin said Saturday. Donetsk is the regional capital of the eastern Ukrainian province of the same name, which was among the four Ukrainian provinces illegally annexed by Russia in September. The city came under the control of Russia-backed separatists in 2014.
The Ukrainian military said in a regular update Saturday that over the previous 24 hours Russia had launched four missile strikes and 39 airstrikes, in addition to 42 attacks from multiple rocket launchers.
One person was killed and two were wounded during shelling of Ukraine’s southern Kherson region on Saturday, according to Gov. Oleh Prokudin. Farther north, Kryvyi Rih Mayor Oleksandr Vilkul said the anti-aircraft defense in the central Ukrainian city, which is President Volodymyr Zelenskyy's hometown, had successfully thwarted a strike, without specifying the nature of the attack.
U.K. military officials said Saturday that Russia risks splitting its forces in an attempt to prevent a Ukrainian breakthrough in Ukraine’s south. According to British intelligence, Ukrainian forces continued to take offensive action on the Orikhiv axis in southern Ukraine, with units reaching the first Russian main defensive line.
Ukraine’s Deputy Defense Minister Hanna Maliar said Friday that Kyiv’s troops were advancing in the Zaporizhzhia region.
Russian President Vladimir Putin will host Turkish leader Recep Tayyip Erdogan for talks next week, the Kremlin announced Friday, just over six weeks after Moscow broke off a deal brokered by Ankara and the U.N. that allowed Ukrainian grain to reach world markets safely despite the 18-month war.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Putin and Erdogan would meet Monday in Russia’s Black Sea resort of Sochi.
Russia says it thwarted attacks on Crimea bridge, shelling and strikes leave at least 2 dead
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Russia says it thwarted attacks on Crimea bridge, shelling and strikes leave at least 2 dead
- One naval drone destroyed late Friday and two others early Saturday morning, Russia’s Defense Ministry said
- Key supply route for Kremlin forces in war with Ukraine, Kerch bridge has come under repeated attack
India’s space industry gears up for human spaceflight tests, commercial expansion in 2026
- ISRO plans to complete 7 space missions by March, including Gaganyaan mission test
- In 2025, India’s space sector had over 300 startups operating in rocket launches, satellites, analysis
NEW DELHI: After sending its first astronaut to the International Space Station, autonomously docking two satellites, and launching the heaviest payload this year, India’s space industry is preparing for the first uncrewed test of its human spaceflight program in 2026.
In 2025, India’s space program spearheaded by the Indian Space Research Organisation marked several milestones, starting in January, when it became the fourth country to perform space docking — connecting two spacecraft in orbit, which is a capability crucial for future space stations and deep-space missions.
In June, Shubhanshu Shukla, an Indian Air Force pilot, flew to the ISS as part of the Axiom 4 mission. He became the second Indian national in space, after Rakesh Sharma in 1984.
A month later, ISRO, in collaboration with NASA, launched a joint observation satellite to provide high-resolution radar imagery of the Earth, and in December capped the year by deploying the BlueBird Block 2, the heaviest payload ever launched from Indian soil.
It “marked a decisive year for India’s space sector as policy reforms translated into tangible execution across launch, satellite manufacturing, Earth observation, space data, and satellite communications,” said Lt. Gen. AK Bhatt (retd.), director general of the Indian Space Association.
The year also saw new contracts, production lines, launch vehicles moving closer to operational readiness, and growth in India’s $9 billion space economy driven largely by the private industry and public–private partnerships, which Bhatt expected to expand in the coming year.
“The Indian space sector is poised for a transformative 2026, with ISRO’s rigorous seven-mission schedule by March,” he told Arab News.
ISRO last month announced plans to complete seven space missions by March 2026, including the first uncrewed test flight of India’s Gaganyaan human spaceflight program.
Another mission will be EOS‑N1, where ISRO and India’s Defence Research and Development Organisation will launch an Earth observation satellite for strategic and surveillance applications.
The private industry will also have its debut by HAL-L&T launching the first fully indigenously manufactured Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle early next year, which will carry OceanSat-3A, an Earth observation satellite for oceanography and environmental monitoring.
“Complementing this, private innovators like Skyroot Aerospace with its Vikram-I orbital launch in January-February, GalaxEye’s pioneering multi-sensor Drishti satellite in Q1 and Dhruva Space’s LEAP-2 on the HAL-L&T PSLV and Agnibaan rocket by Agnikul in Q3 will further confirm the vitality of our ecosystem,” Bhatt said.
Over the past few years, India has been establishing its position in the global space industry.
In August 2023, ISRO’s Chandrayaan-3 moon rover made history by landing on the lunar surface, making India the first country to land near the lunar south pole and the fourth to land on the moon — after the US, the Soviet Union, and China.
A month later, it launched Aditya-L1 in 2023 — the country’s first solar observation mission, and the world’s second after the US Parker Solar Probe in 2021.
India currently accounts for about 2 percent of the $450 billion global space economy, with its share expected to rise to nearly 8 percent by 2033, driven largely by private companies.
In 2025, the country’s space sector had more than 300 active startups operating in rocket launches, satellites, Earth observation, satellite communications, propulsion, electronics, space monitoring, and data analytics, according to Indian Space Association data.
“As launch capacity improves and satellite constellations scale up, the real value creation is now shifting closer to applications, analytics and decision-making. From agriculture and climate monitoring to infrastructure planning and national security, satellite data is steadily moving from being a niche input to a mainstream business and governance tool,” said Amit Kumar, co-founder and chief operating officer of Suhora Technologies, a space data company that turns satellite imagery and artificial intelligence‑driven analytics into actionable intelligence.
“As we move into 2026, the opportunity lies in translating India’s space capabilities into everyday insights that solve real-world problems at scale.”
