Russian President Vladimir Putin has congratulated Donald Trump on his election victory in his first public comment on the outcome of the U.S. balloting.

Ukrainian officials say two people have died in a missile attack on the Black Sea port city of Odesa.

Russia’s Defense Ministry says officials have been ordered to prepare a response to U.S. drone flights over the Black Sea, in an apparent warning that Moscow may take forceful action to ward off the American reconnaissance aircraft.

Ukraine's navy spokesman says that Ukrainian forces have sunk or disabled a third of all Russian warships in the Black Sea, a major blow to Moscow’s military capability as the war has dragged into a third year.

Ukrainian sea drones have reportedly sunk another Russian warship in the Black Sea, the latest in a series of strikes that has crippled Moscow’s naval capability and limited its operations with the war now in its third year.

Uncrewed, remote-controlled boats have been around since the end of World War II.

Ukraine claims it has sunk another Russian warship in the Black Sea using high-tech sea drones as Kyiv’s forces take aim at targets well behind the war’s front line.

Ukraine’s military says it sank a Russian landing ship in the Black Sea using naval drones, a report that has not been confirmed by Russian forces.

Ukraine is claiming it used sea drones to sink a Russian warship in the Black Sea during a nighttime attack.

Ukrainian warplanes damaged a Russian ship moored in the Black Sea off Crimea, both countries say.

Increasing numbers of ships are streaming toward Ukraine’s Black Sea ports and heading out loaded with grain, metals and other cargo despite the threat of attack and explosive mines.

A Russian missile strike on the Ukrainian port of Odesa has hit a Liberian-flagged freighter, killing a port worker and wounding another, as well as three citizens of the Philippines, crew members on the ship.

Russian President Vladimir Putin says his country has successfully tested a nuclear-powered cruise missile and declared that lawmakers could revoke its ratification of a global nuclear test ban.

Two cargo ships have arrived in one of Ukraine’s ports this weekend, using a temporary Black Sea corridor established by the government.

Russian authorities say a Ukrainian attack on a strategic shipyard in Crimea wounded 24 people, damaged two ships undergoing repairs and caused a fire at the facility.

The Ukrainian military says it recaptured strategic gas and oil drilling platforms from Russia in the Black Sea.

Russian President Vladimir Putin says a wartime deal that allowed Ukraine to export grain safely through the Black Sea won’t be restored until the West meets Moscow’s demands on its own agricultural exports.

Officials say Russia has resumed its targeting of grain infrastructure in Ukraine’s southern Odesa region, using drones in overnight strikes on storage facilities and ports along the Danube River.

Moscow has promised retaliation after Ukrainian drones hit a Russian tanker in the Black Sea near Crimea, the second sea attack involving drones in one day.

Ukraine says its sea drones have struck a major Russian port and damaged a warship.

U_S_ Secretary of State Antony Blinken is challenging all countries to tell Russia to stop using the Black Sea and Ukraine’s grain as “blackmail” and stop treating the world’s hungry and vulnerable people as leverage in its “unconscionable war.”.

The collapse of the Black Sea grain deal and a series of missile strikes on Ukrainian grain silos and ports have left farmers with few options to export their grain — and all of them are getting more expensive.

NATO says it's stepping up surveillance of the Black Sea region as it condemned Russia’s exit from a landmark deal that allowed Ukrainian grain exports through the Black Sea.

The European Union will look at helping fund the costly transportation of grain out of Ukraine after Russia halted a deal that allowed Black Sea exports vital to global food security.

Russian cruise missiles have destroyed farm storage buildings in the Odesa region.

The White House is warning that the Russian military is preparing for possible attacks on civilian shipping vessels in the Black Sea.

Five European Union countries will extend their ban on Ukrainian grain to protect their farmers’ interests.

Ukraine said its forces shot down Russian drones and cruise missiles targeting the Black Sea port of Odesa in what Moscow called “retribution” for an attack that damaged a crucial bridge to the Crimean Peninsula.

Russia has halted a breakthrough wartime deal that allows grain to flow from Ukraine to countries in Africa, the Middle East and Asia where hunger is a growing threat and high food prices have pushed people into poverty.

France’s parliament has approved a boost to military spending spurred on by Russia's war in Ukraine.

The Supreme Court of the Netherlands has ordered that a Dutch museum’s trove of historical treasures from Crimea be sent to Ukraine.

A top U.N. official says he hopes for a breakthrough soon after months of efforts to ensure that Russian food and fertilizer can be shipped to developing countries struggling with high prices.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan says Russia has agreed to extend a deal that has allowed Ukraine to ship grain through the Black Sea to parts of the world struggling with hunger.

The U.S. military has released newly declassified video it says shows a Russian fighter jet harassing and colliding with an American drone over the Black Sea.

Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and Joint Chiefs Chairman Gen. Mark Milley have spoken to their Russian counterparts about the destruction of a U.S. drone over the Black Sea after an encounter with Russian fighter jets.

U.S. and French troops who are in Romania as part of a NATO battlegroup held a military exercise to test the 30-nation alliance’s eastern flank defenses, as Russia’s full-scale invasion of neighboring Ukraine nears its one-year anniversary.

The United Nations’ cultural agency has decided to add the historic center of Ukraine’s Black Sea port city of Odesa to the list of World Heritage sites in danger.

The U.S. ambassador to the United Nations has told Ukrainian farmers that extending a wartime deal to export Ukrainian grains across the Black Sea is a priority.

A mother cried at a cemetery beside a freshly-laid mound of earth.

Funerals for the miners killed in a coal mine explosion in northern Turkey have begun as officials raised the death toll to at least 41 people.

U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres says he spoke to Russian President Vladimir Putin about exporting Russian fertilizer through Black Sea ports to address a growing global food crisis.

Bulgaria's interior ministry says two police officers were killed as they tried to stop a bus containing migrants who had entered the country illegally.

Three more ships carrying thousands of tons of corn have left Ukrainian ports.

The Russian Supreme Court has declared Ukraine’s Azov Regiment a terrorist organization banned in Russia, a designation that may expose Ukrainian prisoners of war held by Moscow to terrorism charges.

Shipping companies aren't rushing to export millions of tons of trapped grain out of Ukraine, despite a breakthrough deal to provide safe corridors through the Black Sea.

U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres says Russian and Ukrainian officials meeting in Istanbul have taken a “critical step forward” to ensure the export of grain from Ukraine's Black Sea ports to help ease the global food crisis.

Russia and Turkey say they support a safe corridor in the Black Sea to export Ukrainian grain to global markets.

The Black Sea port of Odesa is mining its beaches and rushing to defend itself from a Mariupol-style fate.

Sanctions on Russia are starting to wreak havoc on global trade, with potentially devastating consequences for energy and grain importers while also generating ripple effects across a world still struggling to overcome pandemic-induced supply chain disruptions.

The chill of a Cold War hangs over Eastern Europe again.

Turkey’s president has fired the head of the Turkish Statistical Institute, which is responsible for posting official inflation statistics, among other data.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has urged the country’s arms makers to develop even more advanced hypersonic missiles and lasers to maintain the country’s edge in military technologies.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has emphasized the need to strengthen the country’s air defenses amid NATO’s military activities near Russia’s borders.

An Amsterdam appeals court has ruled that a trove of historical treasures from Crimea that have been stored for years at a Dutch museum must be given to Ukraine.

Russian President Vladimir Putin hosted his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan for talks in the Black Sea resort of Sochi on Wednesday.

Russia’s Emergency Situations Ministry says its chief has died during drills.

Rescue workers are continuing to search for 34 people missing following severe floods that ravaged parts of Turkey’s Black Sea coast last week, as excavators clear the sludge and wreckage.

Rescuers have recovered more bodies from the sites of severe flooding that devastated parts of northern Turkey, bringing the death toll to 77.

The death toll in Turkey’s severe floods this week has climbed to at least 62 people Sunday.

Turkey's disaster agency says the death toll from severe coastal flooding and mudslides has climbed to at least 57 people.

The death toll from floods and mudslides in northern Turkey has risen to at least 38 as emergency crews search demolished buildings, swamped homes, and submerged basements for more victims and survivors.

Turkish authorities say the death toll from the severe floods and mudslides that struck the north of the country has risen to 17.

Ukraine and NATO warships and military aircraft have conducted Black Sea drills in a two-week show of their strong defense ties and capability.

The Dutch Defense Ministry says Russian fighter jets repeatedly flew low over a Dutch navy frigate in the Black Sea last week and carried out “mock attacks.”.

A top Kremlin official says that a revised version of Russia’s national security strategy says that it may use forceful methods to respond to unfriendly actions by foreign countries.

Russia’s defense minister has ordered troops back to their permanent bases after a massive exercise in Crimea but said that they should leave their heavy weapons behind for another exercise in western Russia.

Russia has insisted that it has the right to restrict foreign naval ships’ movement off Crimea, rejecting Ukrainian complaints and Western criticism.

The Kremlin says it fears the resumption of full-scale fighting in eastern Ukraine and could take steps to protect endangered civilians there.

Turkish authorities have detained 10 former admirals after more than 100 retired navy officers issued a midnight statement that government officials said evoked Turkey’s history of military coups.

As Romania battles against a surge of COVID-19 infections authorities announced on Thursday March 25, 2021, that Easter celebrations in the deeply Christian country will physically go ahead this year. AdThe Easter Service is one of the most important dates in the Christian calendar. On the night of the Resurrection, Romanian Orthodox worshipers attend a service at midnight when they receive the Holy Light. “Preventing physical Easter in an Orthodox country in times when people need safety but also hope is not one of those." The prime minister also said he used Thursday's meeting to urge religious authorities to support Romania’s vaccination campaign, which has delivered more than 2.6 million vaccines shot so far.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan addresses his ruling party's supporters in the Black Sea city of Rize, Turkey, Monday, Feb. 15, 2021. Erdogan laid into the United States, accusing it of supporting Kurdish militants on Monday, days after Turkish troops found the bodies of 13 Turkish soldiers, police and civilians abducted by Kurdish insurgents in a cave complex in northern Iraq. (Turkish Presidency via AP, Pool)ISTANBUL – Turkey’s president says mutual interests with the United States outweigh their differences and has called for more cooperation with President Joe Biden's new U.S. administration. AdErdogan said Saturday the U.S. did not give Turkey the “desired support and solidarity” in fighting the PKK and linked groups, demanding a “clear stance” from Turkey’s allies. He also repeated the frustration over the continued U.S. residency of Fethullah Gulen, a Muslim cleric accused of orchestrating the bloody 2016 coup attempt.

Turkish soldiers carry the national flag-draped coffin of Turkish soldier Er Sedat Sorgun, one of thirteen soldiers, police and civilians who had been abducted by Kurdish insurgents and found killed in northern Iraq, during the funeral in the city of Erzurum, Turkey, Monday, Feb. 15, 2021. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan vowed on Tuesday to expand cross-border operations against Kurdish militants in northern Iraq, following the killings. (IHA via AP)ANKARA – Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan vowed on Tuesday to expand cross-border operations against Kurdish militants in northern Iraq, following the killing of 13 Turkish soldiers, police and civilians who had been abducted by Kurdish insurgents. Turkey has long been seeking to form a secure zone along its borders with Iraq and Syria to force Kurdish insurgents away from the frontier. Tens of thousands of people have been killed since the PKK began an insurgency in Turkey’s majority Kurdish southeast region in 1984.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan addresses his ruling party's supporters in the Black Sea city of Rize, Turkey, Monday, Feb. 15, 2021. U.S. State Department spokesman Ned Price said Blinken expressed condolences for the deaths of the hostages and “affirmed our view that PKK terrorists bear responsibility." AdErdogan said 51 PKK militants were killed during the latest offensive and vowed to press ahead with cross-border offensives. “We have the power, capability and determination to come down hard on the terrorists everywhere," Erdogan said. Three Turkish troops also died during the operation to free the hostages and three others were wounded, the defense ministry has said.

People enjoy the beach in the Black Sea in Odessa, Ukraine, Saturday, July 4, 2020. Tens of thousands of vacation-goers in Russia and Ukraine have descended on Black Sea beaches, paying little attention to safety measures despite levels of contagion still remaining high in both countries. (AP Photo/Sergei Poliakov)SOCHI Tens of thousands of vacation-goers in Russia and Ukraine have descended on Black Sea beaches, paying little heed to public health measures despite the numbers of reported coronavirus cases remaining high in both countries. While popular vacation destinations in Europe are still closed to visitors from Russia and Ukraine as European nations move carefully to lift restrictions on foreign visitors, Black Sea resorts in Russia and Ukraine are filled to capacity from domestic tourism. Now, Russian sun-lovers are left with the narrow pebble beaches of Sochi or Crimea as their only beach vacation options.