Drone strike on Russian fleet halts Navy Day festival in Crimea; Zelenskyy calls for Donetsk region evacuations: Ukraine live updates

A drone attack at the headquarters of Russia's Black Sea Fleet wounded six people and shut down a festival marking Navy Day in the Crimean peninsula city of Sevastopol, the mayor said Sunday.

"There were no fatalities, six people were injured, two in moderate condition, the rest are in stable condition," Mayor Mikhail Razvozhaev said on social media.

The Black Sea Fleet’s press service said the drone appeared to be homemade and described the explosive device as “low-power." Crimean authorities raised the terrorism threat level for the region to “yellow,” the second-highest tier.

Sevastopol is about 100 miles south of the Ukrainian mainland and has been under Russian control since 2014, when the Kremlin illegally annexed Crimea. Russian forces also control much of the mainland coast area along the Black Sea. There was no immediate information on where the drone came from.

Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has vowed to take Crimea back from Russia. His top aide said the drone strike was a reflection of Russia's weak air defenses.

“Did the occupiers admit the helplessness of their air defense system? Or their helplessness in front of the Crimean partisans?" Oleksiy Arestovich said on Telegram.

USA TODAY ON TELEGRAM: Join our Russia-Ukraine war channel to receive updates

Latest developments:

►Russian rockets hit a school in Kharkiv and a bus station in Sloviansk, among other strikes. In southern Ukraine, one person was reported killed and six injured in shelling in a residential area in Mykolaiv, local officials said.

►The British Ministry of Defense points to Belarus' role as a Russian ally in the war, saying in Sunday's intelligence update that at least 20 missiles were launched from Belarusian territory into northern Ukraine on Thursday. The ministry also deems Belarus authoritarian President Aleksandr Lukashenko "almost wholly dependent on Russia.''

►Anatoly Chubais, who resigned as a high-ranking adviser to Russian President Vladimir Putin and left Russia shortly after the invasion of Ukraine, was reported to be in intensive care in a European hospital on Sunday for a neurological disorder.

►Russia’s state-owned natural gas corporation said it has halted shipments to Latvia because of contract violations. Gas giant Gazprom said the shipments were stopped because Latvia broke “terms for extraction of gas.'' The statement likely referred to a refusal to meet Russia’s demand for gas payments in rubles.

Wealthy businessman killed in what Ukrainian official calls targeted attack

One of Ukraine’s wealthiest men and his wife were killed in their Mykolaiv home by a Russian missile strike that an Ukrainian official said was carefully targeted.

Oleksiy Vadatursky, who headed a grain production and export business and once was given the "Hero of Ukraine'' award for his contributions to the country, died alongside his wife, Raisa, in an early Sunday morning attack, regional Gov. Vitaliy Kim said.

Their killing comes just as Ukraine is about to resume exporting grain under a deal with Russia brokered by the United Nations and Turkey.

The southern port city of Mykolaiv came under heavy bombardment overnight, but presidential adviser Mykhailo Podolyak said Vadatursky, 74, was specifically targeted. Vadatursky’s agribusiness, Nibulon, includes a fleet of ships for sending grain abroad.

It “was not an accident, but a well-thought-out and organized premeditated murder,'' Podolyak said. "Vadatursky was one of the largest farmers in the country, a key person in the region and a major employer. That the exact hit of a rocket was not just in a house, but in a specific wing, the bedroom, leaves no doubt about aiming and adjusting the strike.”

Zelenskyy announces mandatory evacuation from Donetsk region

As Russian forces and separatists try to completely take over the Donetsk region, Ukrainian officials are calling for citizens to evacuate from Ukrainian-held parts of the province. President Volodymyr Zelenskyy announced a mandatory evacuation and urged people to leave the region and to persuade their loved ones still there to go, according to CNN and Reuters.

"The sooner it is done, the more people leave Donetsk region now, the fewer people the Russian army will have time to kill," he said in his nightly video address Saturday.

Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk warned that the region will face severe heating problems this winter because of the destruction of gas mains and said people should evacuate before the cold sets in.

New Russian maritime policy targets US, NATO

Russian President Vladimir Putin on Sunday signed a Maritime Doctrine that claims U.S. efforts toward dominance in the world's oceans and NATO’s mounting activity are major security threats to Russia. The new policy, posted on the Kremlin’s legal information web portal, cites the global U.S. influence on issues related to the use of transportation lanes and energy resources.

The policy calls for developing Russia's shipbuilding industry in the Far East, in particular for building "large-tonnage vessels" for use in the Arctic as well as advanced aircraft carriers for the navy.

Strategic goals of the policy include raising Russian navy’s combat capabilities to protect Russia's national security and its national interests.

Low expectations for UN conference on nuclear nonproliferation

Nuclear nonproliferation agreements are difficult under the best of circumstances. The current conditions, with Russia waging war in Ukraine and at times reanimating fears of nuclear confrontation, are far from ideal.

That's what awaits representatives from more than 110 countries as they convene starting Monday at a major U.N. conference on the landmark Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty. The gathering was supposed to take place in 2020, on the treaty's 50th anniversary, but was postponed because of the pandemic.

The four-week meeting aims to generate a consensus on next steps, but expectations are low for a substantial – if any – agreement.

“It is a very, very difficult moment,” said Beatrice Fihn, the executive director of the Nobel Peace Prize-winning International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons, referring to Russia's aggression and nuclear saber-rattling. “How governments react to the situation is going to shape future nuclear policy.”

Ukraine condemns Russia for latest act of 'terrorism'

Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy called for Russia to be recognized as a state sponsor of terrorism, citing the "deliberate mass murder" of Ukrainian war prisoners via shelling in the separatist eastern region of Donetsk.

Dozens of Ukrainians held as prisoners of war were reportedly killed in a missile strike Friday – an attack for which Russia and Ukraine blame each other. Separatist authorities and Russian officials said at least 53 people died and 75 were injured in Olenivka, a settlement controlled by the self-proclaimed Donetsk People's Republic. The prisoners were captured after Mariupol fell in May.

"Russia has proven with numerous terrorist attacks that it is the biggest source of terrorism in today's world," Zelenskyy said.

Contributing: The Associated Press

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Ukraine live updates: Drone strikes Russian forces in Crimea