(Bloomberg) -- Russia’s defense ministry said Ukrainian forces attacked the Kerch Strait bridge  with seaborne drones — the latest bid to damage to span that connects the annexed Crimean peninsula to Russia’s mainland. All three attempts were repelled and the drones destroyed in Black Sea waters, Russia said. The bridge has been a target of multiple attacks by Ukraine and most recently suffered significant damage in July, when a roadway section buckled. Ukraine hasn’t commented on the latest incident. Russia intercepted 25 drones and two HIMARS missiles in the occupied territories in the past day, the ministry said. 

White House national security spokesman John Kirby on Friday said Kyiv’s forces made “notable progress” this week in their two-month-old counteroffensive. Ukrainian troops continue to take offensive action on the Orikhiv axis in southern Ukraine, where units have reached the first Russian main defensive line, the UK defense ministry said. Kremlin troops “are likely seeking to distract Ukraine from its counteroffensive, thereby forcing it to divide its forces between Orikhiv and Kupiansk” in the northeast, the UK said.

The ambassadors of Russia, Belarus and Iran won’t be invited to this year’s Nobel Prize award ceremony in Stockholm after all, following a backlash, the Nobel Foundation announced following a backlash. 

 

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Coming Up

  • Putin, Erdogan meet in Sochi on Monday

Markets

Wheat traders are watching for movement on Black Sea grain exports when Putin and Erdogan meet on Monday in Sochi. Ukraine is pushing back on an effort by Poland and four other EU countries to extend a ban on its grain. 

Oil prices surged above $85 as a months-long effort by OPEC+ to reduce supplies gripped the physical market and China showed a new resolve to bolster its economy, a key engine of global crude consumption.   

 

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