Russia claims 36 drones downed in Black Sea.

The Russian Defense Ministry said on Oct.

29 that its forces have destroyed 36 Ukrainian drones over the Black Sea and northwestern Crimea. Several explosions were heard near Chornomorske and Saky in occupied Crimea late on Oct.

28, according to several Telegram channels. Explosions have been occurring regularly in Russian-annexed Crimea.

The Russian Defense Ministry alleges that these explosions are the result of Ukrainian attacks. Starting in the summer of 2023, there have been a series of increasingly destructive attacks on Russian military facilities on the occupied peninsula. President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Oct.

24 that recent Ukrainian attacks have denied the Russian fleet safe haven and secure maritime corridors in the western part of the Black Sea, as Kyiv's troops look to squeeze Russian-installed  forces out of Crimea.

Development Manager, Canadian Correspondent

Olena Goncharova is a development manager and Canadian correspondent for the Kyiv Independent. She first joined the Kyiv Post, Ukraine's oldest English-language newspaper, as a staff writer in January 2012 and became the newspaper's Canadian correspondent in June 2018. She is based in Edmonton, Alberta.

Olena has a master's degree in publishing and editing from the Institute of Journalism in Taras Shevchenko National University in Kyiv.

Olena was a 2016 Alfred Friendly Press Partners fellow who worked for the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette for six months.

The program is administered by the University of Missouri School of Journalism in Columbia.