Ukraine war briefing: German defence giant sparks row after comparing Ukraine drone makers to ‘housewives’ | Ukraine

German defence giant Rheinmetall has sought to ease a row caused by its CEO when he likened Ukrainian factories producing drones to “housewives” making weapons in their kitchens. In an interview with the Atlantic, CEO Armin Papperger was asked whether Ukraine’s drone technology could disrupt his industry, which focused more on areas such as artillery and tanks. “This is how to play with Legos,” Papperger said of the drones and went on to compare major drone Ukrainian manufacturers to “housewives”, adding “this is not the technology of Lockheed Martin, General Dynamics, or Rheinmetall”. “They have 3D printers in the kitchen, and they produce parts for drones,” he said, adding: “This is not innovation.” Alexander Kamyshin, an adviser to Volodymyr Zelenskyy, swiftly point out the successes that Ukraine’s drones have had against Russian tanks. Kamyshin said that in his visits to arms factories he had seen “Ukrainian women working equally with men often enough”, adding: “They deserve respect.” The row also spawned the hashtag #MadeByHousewives on Ukrainian social media. On Sunday, Rheinmetall tagged Kamyshin in a post on its X account in which it said. “We have the utmost respect for the Ukrainian people’s immense efforts in defending themselves. Every single woman and man in Ukraine is making an immeasurable contribution.” Ukraine’s prime minister, Yulia Svyrydenko, later on Sunday said “the people of Ukraine deserve not only utmost respect but to be heard – and learned from. Yes, Europe’s defence is powered by Ukrainian ‘housewives’,” she said, also adding the #MadeByHousewives hashtag.

Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy said he discussed a possible security partnership on Sunday with Jordan’s King Abdullah to defend against drone attacks arising from the Iran war. “We discussed a possible partnership in the security sphere and the overall situation in the Middle East and the Gulf region,” Zelenskyy wrote on Telegram. Zelenskiy is seeking support from Gulf states as western military aid faces fresh uncertainty. “From our own experience, we know that without a unified system, it is simply impossible to set up full-fledged protection of people and critical infrastructure,” Zelenskyy wrote. Ukraine, he said, had just such a system as in four years of war “we have had to fight against constant Russian strikes, including the use of Iranian drones”. He said Ukraine was offering expertise in the expectation that “those to whom we are making this proposal can help us strengthen ourselves”.

A Russian strike on the eastern Ukrainian city of Kramatorsk killed three people and injured 13 on Sunday, police said, one of several attacks in frontline areas. Ukraine’s national police said a boy of 13 was among the dead. A statement said Russian forces used glide bombs in the strike on Kramatorsk, which has been a frequent target. Kramatorsk came under a new attack two hours after the initial strike. Other cities hit in Russian attacks included the nearby town of Oleksiievo-Druzhkivka and the city of Sloviansk, farther north. Reuters could not independently verify battlefield accounts.

Russia’s Baltic Ust-Luga port, one of its largest petroleum export hubs, was damaged again on Sunday by a Ukrainian drone attack which sparked a blaze later brought under control, Russian and Ukrainian officials said. Ukraine’s SBU security agency said long-range drones struck an oil terminal at Ust-Luga. It added in a statement that the strike caused “serious damage” and a fire at the port. It follows several Ukrainian drone strikes last week on Russia’s western energy corridor when facilities at the ports of Ust-Luga and Primorsk came under fire, igniting storage tanks and suspending transportation. The recent attacks have caused severe oil supply disruption for Russia, the world’s second-largest oil exporter, and have come just as oil prices exceeded $100 a barrel due to the Iran war. “Additional firefighting resources from the Leningrad region and St Petersburg, including two fire trains, have been involved in extinguishing the fire at the port,” regional governor Alexander Drozdenko wrote on Telegram on Sunday.

A Ukrainian drone attack has killed one person, injured eight, and damaged homes and businesses in the southern Russian city of Taganrog, local officials said. The regional governor said on Sunday that falling drone debris prompted the evacuation of an area hit by falling debris. “Emergency crews are working at the site of the incident, where the debris fell,” Yuri Slyusar, governor of Rostov region on Ukraine’s eastern border, said on Telegram. “Fires and damage have occurred. People have been evacuated.” Taganrog Mayor Svetlana Kambulova, in a subsequent post on Telegram, spoke of widespread damage in the city. Taganrog is a port city at the eastern end of the Sea of Azov east of the border with Ukraine.