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US Naval Academy Information, Tickets and Travel (ITT)

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Tickets & Travel

Now Open! MWR Tickets & Travel at NEX (693 Kinkaid Rd.) Bldg. 89 (MWR Tickets & Travel) is closed for renovation. You can also visit our USNA location at USNA, Bancroft Hall (MWF office), on Tuesday and Thursday, 1000-1300.

Price Lists

Prices are subject to change without notice. Call (410) 293-9200 for more information.

Ticket Specials

Tickets & Travel sells a variety of discounted tickets to tourist attractions, movies, shows, and sporting events including the Washington Capitals, Washington Nationals, DC United, Navy Football, and Baltimore Orioles. Additional sporting events are available on request. These tickets must be ordered two weeks in advance. See PDFs of ticket lists in the right column of this page.

Tickets & Travel offers tickets to Florida and California Disney attractions. All tickets are non-refundable. Disney California tickets, Military Salute and DoD tickets are electronic tickets which means we print them on-site.  Our Florida Military Salute tickets are physically in the ticket office and are available immediately.   

Tickets & Travel also has discount tickets to Six Flags America (Largo, Md.), Kings Dominion (Doswell, Va.), Busch Gardens, Water Country USA (Va.), and Hershey Park (Penn.) Sesame Place and others. Call us at 410-293-9200 to check on availability.

Disney Military Appreciation Days

Active and retired U.S. Military personnel can save up to 40% on rooms at select Walt Disney World hotels! Limit 6 tickets per military member. ALL tickets and options are non-transferable. No refunds or exchanges. All Sales Final. Download the Price List for more information. Click here to download the Disney Genie app . 

CURRENT REGULATIONS FOR WALT DISNEY WORLD PARKS:

• Park attendance will be managed through the Disney Park Pass system, which guests will use to make theme park reservations.  To enter a Walt Disney World ® theme park, both a park reservation AND valid admission for the same park on the same date are required for each person in the guest's party ages 3 and up. A park reservation must be made for each day of entry. For multi-day tickets, guests will be required to make a park reservation for each date of their visit.  Before purchasing a Ticket, the guest should check park availability by visiting disneyworld.disney.go.com/availability-calendar
• In addition, before purchasing a Ticket, guests should visit DisneyTravelTradeInfo.com/wdw for important information about park reopening, reservations, limitations on benefits, features, experiences and offerings, new safety measures, and other information.
• Immediately after purchasing a Ticket, the guest should visit https://disneyworld.disney.go.com/plan/my-disney-experience , create a profile (if the guest does not already have a profile), and using the Ticket or confirmation number, link the Ticket to the profile and then make park reservations. We highly recommend that guests make their park reservation as soon as they complete their Ticket purchase, as availability can change until the reservation is finalized.
• No refunds will be issued for any tickets purchased for Walt Disney World

American Forces Travel

American Forces Travel? is a new Morale, Welfare, and Recreation (MWR) program arising from a joint-service initiative combining the efforts of each of the five branches of service (Air Force, Army, Coast Guard, Marine Corps, and Navy) and the Office of the Secretary of Defense, Military Community & Family Policy.

Because the internet is now the most popular way to research and book travel, the Department of Defense chose to evolve its travel offering. MWR has contracted with a world leader in travel, Priceline®, to deliver high-value travel benefits to the U.S. military and DoD community. A key feature of American Forces Travel? is pricing. Priceline® negotiates rates that are typically only available alongside “hidden” features: you can book a hotel room on Priceline® at a discount, for example, if you do so without knowing the name of the hotel upfront. American Forces Travel? goes a step further. Those negotiated rates are available on American Forces Travel? with full visibility to eligible members. It’s the best of both worlds.

While there are many for-profit online leisure travel offerings marketed to the military today, American Forces Travel is the only official DoD online program. American Forces Travel? proceeds will support MWR programs for the military community.

American Forces Travel? provides free access to the site for those who have served their country at  AmericanForcesTravel.com

Waves of Honor Extended at SeaWorld Parks

Free admission for one visit to one park of choice for active duty plus up to three direct dependents. Choice of one park:  Adventure Island, Aquatica San Diego, Busch Gardens Tampa, Busch Gardens Williamsburg, SeaWorld Orlando, SeaWorld San Antonio, SeaWorld San Diego, or Sesame Place

 Guests must go online to https://www.wavesofhonor.com to register.

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Before planning your next vacation, check with your local MWR Navy Community Recreation Tickets & Travel office for discounted tickets. Ticket & Travel offices offer tickets to parks, museums, movie theaters, special events and theme parks such as Disneyland Resort, Legoland, Sea World, Universal Studios Hollywood, Universal Studios Orlando, and Walt Disney World. Military discounted rates are available to active duty, retirees, DoD civilians, reservists and family members accompanied with a military ID card.

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Plan Your Trip

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Swing by or stay on the Yard for a fun, history-filled day. Find out everything you need to know before you arrive!

Who Can Visit

We are excited to welcome you to the U.S. Naval Academy! There are so many ways to enjoy your time on the Yard. But first, make sure you're familiar with the access requirements to get on the Yard. Anyone 18 years of age or older must present a valid, unexpired government issued driver’s license or identification card and an additional acceptable form of identification such as an SSN card, student ID, birth certificate, or voter registration card. Original, unexpired passports will gain admittance in lieu of the previously stated ID forms AND is required for visitors who are NOT U.S. citizens.

For more information on COVID-19 Mitigation Measures at the U.S. Naval Academy, please visit: https://www.usna.edu/COVID-19/

January - February

• Monday - Friday
• 9:00 a.m. - 4:00 p.m.
• Saturday - Sunday
• 9:00 a.m. - 5:00 p.m.
• USNA Gift Shop open until 5:00 p.m.

March - December

Closed on following:.

• Thanksgiving Day
• Christmas Day
• New Year's Day
• Easter before noon

Note that everyone 18 and older must have a U.S. government-issued photo ID or current passport to enter.

(Effective May 2025) Please note that as a result of the REAL ID Act, some state/territory IDs are not sufficient for access to the Academy. Please check the Current Status of States/Territories to see if your state or territory's ID is compliant with the REAL ID Act. Drivers' licenses and state IDs from states that aren't compliant must be accompanied by an acceptable second form of ID (SSN Card, Certified Copy of a Birth Certificate, U.S. Citizen ID Card, etc.). Visitors who are NOT U.S. citizens MUST present an original unexpired passport for entry.

Before your visit, please check the following Department of Homeland Security (DHS) website for the current list of compliant and non-compliant states and territories.

Visitor Tips:

Payment .

NABSD is cashless and only accepts credit or debit card throughout the Yard.

• Picnicking is not allowed on the grounds of the Academy, but visitors may eat at 1845 Coffee and the Alley Restaurant.
• The Naval Academy Club is open to the public for lunch, weekdays from 11:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m.

Service Animals

• Only service animals are allowed in the Visitor Center, USNA buildings, on tours, and in ceremonial areas.  
• Please be mindful of the ceremonial areas, particularly in front of Bancroft Hall. They are clearly marked with signs. Do not jog, cycle or walk your pets
• Check out and “Like” the Facebook pages for Naval Academy Tourism and Naval Academy Museum , and comment on Trip Advisor .

Come see us in beautiful Annapolis, Maryland! The history is eye-opening and the views are breathtaking. Find out how to get here, what you’ll need to get onto the Yard, where to stay, where to eat, and how to get the most out of your trip.

Prohibited Items

The following items are prohibited from being brought through the USNA gates:

• Weapons/Knives
• Bags larger than a typical purse   (e.g., duffle bags, backpacks, large camera bags)
• Anything considered a threat by a screener

Don’t miss a thing from The Yard

Our blog: on the yard.

What’s Going On in Annapolis This Spring?

There’s no time like springtime on the Yard. As the flowers and plants bloom back to life, the Noon Meal Formation...

The Annapolis Cup: A Hometown Rivalry with Down-Home Revelry

(Revamped for 2024)

Every spring, an extraordinary event draws around 4,000 expectant spectators to Annapolis for "a...

Fun Things for Visitors to Do During Commissioning Week

Commissioning Week is fast approaching! Taking place between May 17th and May 25th this year, this time of reflection,...

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North Korea officials visit Iran in a rare public trip

A North Korean delegation led by the cabinet minister for international trade is visiting Iran, the North's official media said on Wednesday in a rare public report of an exchange between the two countries believed to have secret military ties.

Russia-Ukraine War Russia Says Ukrainian Drone Damaged Building in Moscow’s Financial Center

• Share full article
• Donetsk region A tank being checked and loaded with shells. Tyler Hicks/The New York Times
• Mariupol A destroyed building in the southeastern city on the Sea of Azov. Agence France-Presse — Getty Images
• Odesa A new student at a maritime college trying on a uniform. Emile Ducke for The New York Times
• Eastern Ukraine Ukrainian attack helicopters on the go. Bram Janssen/Associated Press
• Kharkiv region A heavily damaged school. Emile Ducke for The New York Times
• Kyiv A Ukrainian soldier is laid to rest. Roman Pilipey/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images
• Donetsk region A training exercise at night. Libkos/Associated Press
• Rivne A former Ukrainian soldier blinded in combat is given eyedrops. Jae C. Hong/Associated Press
• Sviatohirsk A destroyed bridge under repair near a renown 16th-century monastery. Bram Janssen/Associated Press

Russia says a Ukrainian drone damaged a building in Moscow.

A Ukrainian drone hit Moscow’s financial center and damaged a building early Friday, Russia said, one in a series of drone strikes as Ukraine steps up its campaign to bring the war home to the Russian capital and Russian citizens.

Russia’s Defense Ministry said its air defenses had intercepted the drone, but that it then fell on a building in an exhibition center in the capital’s financial district, called Moscow City. The ministry has reported that around 20 drones have targeted Moscow and the surrounding region since the beginning of July.

The attack came as a fire erupted at the freight port in the southern city of Novorossiysk on the Black Sea, disrupting one of Russia’s most important sites for exporting oil and grain. The Russian authorities did not say what caused the blaze.

Together, the episodes sowed early morning chaos at two of Russia’s economic hubs.

Ukraine’s drone attacks within Russia show that Kyiv has developed the ability to strike hundreds of miles behind enemy lines. The strikes have done only minor damage and caused few casualties, but they have forced ordinary Russians to think about the war and, potentially, their own vulnerability, fracturing the air of normalcy that President Vladimir V. Putin has tried to preserve.

Ukraine did not immediately comment on the drone attack in Moscow or on the fire at the Novorossiysk port.

Footage and images published by Russian state news media showed how the wall of one of the buildings in Moscow’s ExpoCenter, the exhibition center, had collapsed as a result of the impact of the drone. The building predates Moscow City, but is connected to that complex of skyscrapers, which have previously been a target of Ukrainian drone attacks .

The Russian authorities said no one was injured in the episode. Flights were temporarily restricted at Moscow’s four airports, according to the state news agency Tass, but the airspace was subsequently reopened.

In Novorossiysk, black smoke billowed out of the freight terminal in footage circulated in Russian news media early Friday, before firefighters managed to subdue the blaze.

The Caspian Pipeline Consortium, which operates the oil terminal in the city’s port, said in a statement that facility remained in working order. It said the fire took place at one of the private cargo yards outside the Caspian Pipeline Consortium complex.

The Russian emergency authorities said that wooden shipping pallets had caught fire and that a 1,300-square-meter area — about 14,000 square feet — of the port was affected. It was unclear whether the fire was the result of an attack. Earlier this month, a Ukrainian maritime drone hit a Russian warship near the Russian Black Sea port.

Ukraine has been increasingly targeting places far from the front lines, reaching deep into Russian territory.

In May, two drones exploded over the Kremlin in an attack that U.S. officials said was probably carried out by one of Ukraine’s special military or intelligence units.

A few weeks ago, another building in Moscow City, one that houses government ministries, was hit twice by drones in 48 hours. Moscow City was built mostly during Mr. Putin’s rule and was heralded as a symbol of Russia’s economic modernization.

Marc Santora and Erin Mendell contributed reporting.

— Paul Sonne

Allied nations will be allowed to send F-16s to Ukraine after its pilots are trained, a U.S. official says.

In a long-awaited move, the United States will allow allies to send American-made F-16 fighter jets to Kyiv once Ukrainian pilots are trained to operate them, a U.S. official confirmed on Thursday. However, the requirement that Ukraine’s pilots be fully trained means that the approvals will not come for months.

Ukraine’s counteroffensive, which began two months ago, has a chance of prevailing without the fighter jets, experts say , but it is likely to be far more difficult.

The time frame for the U.S. approvals is unlikely to surprise Ukraine. A spokesman for Ukraine’s Air Force, Yuriy Ihnat, said on Wednesday that it had become clear the country would not be able to operate or receive F-16 fighter jets this coming fall or winter, confirming that the planes will not play a role in the counteroffensive.

“We had high hopes for this aircraft,” he said.

The U.S. decision had been anticipated since May, when President Biden eased his resistance to NATO allies’ efforts to train Ukrainian pilots on F-16s and provide the jets to Ukraine. The official who confirmed the U.S. shift was not authorized to publicly discuss the agreement and spoke on the condition of anonymity.

Some of the pilot training may now occur in the United States, a Pentagon spokesman said on Thursday.

“The U.S. is prepared to support the training effort in coordination with the coalition, and is willing to host training for Ukrainian pilots within the U.S. if the capacity is reached in Europe,” Brig. Gen. Patrick S. Ryder, the Pentagon press secretary, said in a statement.

Ukraine has Soviet-era MIG and Sukhoi fighter jets, but has long argued that F-16s could enable it to achieve air superiority, something neither side has decisively attained since Russia launched its full-scale invasion in February 2022.

“Ukraine has proven that the impossible is indeed possible,” Oleksii Reznikov, Ukraine’s defense minister, wrote on Friday in a post on X, the social-media platform formerly known as Twitter, in which he thanked the United States. “Our military has proven it is filled with fast learners.”

The U.S. transfer approvals, when they come, are expected to go to Denmark and the Netherlands, which are leading a coalition to train the pilots. The Dutch foreign minister, Wopke Hoekstra, on Friday thanked Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken in a post on X for Washington’s “good and swift cooperation.”

A March assessment by the U.S. Air Force suggested the most rapid time frame for full training would be four to six months; other estimates are longer. And time-consuming training on how to maintain the jets will also be necessary.

American officials have said that Ukraine has identified only eight combat pilots who speak English well enough to start training. That is fewer than necessary for a single squadron. About 20 others are being sent to Britain this month to learn English.

The F-16, or Fighting Falcon, first flown in 1976, is used by militaries in dozens of countries for air-to-air combat and air-to-ground strikes.

The F-16 fighter jets are built by the American defense contractor Lockheed Martin and are manufactured in Belgium, Denmark, the Netherlands and Norway. All four countries have signaled their willingness to transfer the planes to Kyiv, according to a senior Ukrainian official.

In May, before Mr. Biden agreed to allow the Ukrainian pilots to be trained on F-16s, the leaders of Britain and the Netherlands announced an international coalition to provide Ukraine with the fighter jets and the training to fly them. Prime Minister Rishi Sunak of Britain said then that the training would begin this summer .

In July, Denmark’s acting defense minister, Troels Poulsen, told reporters that the country hoped to see “results” from the training early next year.

— Eric Schmitt ,  John Ismay and Lauren McCarthy

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A fire broke out at Novorossiysk, a key Russian port on the Black Sea.

A fire that erupted on Friday at the freight port in the southern city of Novorossiysk disrupted one of Russia’s most important trade sites for exporting oil and grain. It was not immediately clear what caused the blaze.

Here is a look at the Black Sea port and its significance for Moscow:

What is Novorossiysk?

The Novorossiysk commercial seaport is one of Russia’s largest by volume and among the biggest in Europe — a major node in the export of Russian grain, oil, and other products to countries around the world.

It has been a hub of international commerce for Russia since the 19th century and the city was also the site of the first Pepsi factory in Russia, opened in the Soviet Union in the early 1970s during the Cold War détente.

Before his illegal annexation of Crimea in 2014, President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia allocated significant resources to the construction of the naval base at Novorossiysk, turning the port into one of the country’s main naval hubs for the Black Sea.

How important is Novorossiysk for Russia’s economy?

The port is a significant export hub for grain, given its proximity to Russia’s biggest grain-producing regions and its location on the Black Sea, which allows for easy exports to Africa, Asia and South America, in addition to Europe.

At a summit with African leaders last month in St. Petersburg, Russia, Mr. Putin promised free grain to a number of African nations — grain that probably would be exported from Russia via Novorossiysk.

What does the fire mean for Russia?

The Russian authorities did not say what caused the blaze on Friday, only that wooden shipping pallets had caught fire and that a 1,300-square-meter area of the port was affected.

But the blaze comes amid heightened tensions in the Black Sea and just weeks after a Ukrainian maritime drone hit a Russian warship in Novorossiysk.

That attack — and the subsequent pause in maritime traffic at the port — prompted wheat futures to rise at the time, an indication of Novorossiysk’s importance to the global grain trade. Russia is the world’s largest wheat exporter.

The Caspian Pipeline Consortium, which operates an oil terminal at Novorossiysk, said Friday that the terminal was “operating normally” after the blaze, according to the Russian state news agency Tass.

The U.S. extends and expands a program allowing Ukrainian refugees to stay and work.

The Biden administration extended and expanded on Friday a program designed to provide humanitarian relief to Ukrainians living in the United States without legal documentation, allowing them to stay and work in the country for another 18 months, according to the Department of Homeland Security.

“Russia’s ongoing military invasion of Ukraine and the resulting humanitarian crisis requires that the United States continue to offer safety and protection to Ukrainians who may not be able to return to their country,” Alejandro N. Mayorkas, the homeland security secretary, said in a statement on Friday.

Currently, about 26,000 Ukrainians are in the United States under a “ temporary protected status, ” which is set to expire in October, the department said. The administration extended that status through April 19, 2025, and has opened the benefit to Ukrainians who have been in the United States since Aug. 16. Officials estimate more than 166,000 Ukrainians could benefit from the expanded designation.

Ukraine is one of 16 countries that benefits from the relief. The U. S. government regularly gives 18-month extensions to countries when unsafe conditions impede their citizens from returning.

For example, people from Somalia received this benefit first, in the 1990s, and the United States has continued to issue extensions.

The administration also offers a temporary two-year parole for Ukrainians with sponsors in the United States. Ukrainians currently in the United States are not eligible to apply for that program.

— Eileen Sullivan

The Ukraine war and China’s ties to Russia frame Biden’s summit with South Korea and Japan.

President Biden is hosting a landmark summit with the leaders of Japan and South Korea at Camp David on Friday, aiming to forge a trilateral mutual security arrangement in the face of an increasingly assertive, and increasingly Russia-aligned, China.

Russia and China have drawn closer as the United States and its allies have isolated Moscow over its invasion of Ukraine. Now, many in the region worry that Beijing may be learning lessons from the war that could apply to its long-held desire to politically unify with Taiwan. The island has been self-governing since 1949, but China continues to claim it as its territory.

Russia’s aggression against Ukraine has also forced Japan and South Korea, historically enemies, to face their own vulnerabilities in a region dominated by China. Recent South Korean moves toward rapprochement have helped ease longstanding hostilities that stem most acutely from Japan’s brutal 35-year occupation of the Korean Peninsula.

Biden administration officials said the leaders at the Camp David summit would sign off on a formal “commitment to consult,” an understanding that the three nations would treat any security threat to one of them as a threat to all of them requiring mutual discussion about how to respond. The pledge would not go as far as the NATO treaty’s Article 5, which obligates allies to “take action” in the event of an attack on any member, but it would reinforce the expectation that the three would act in tandem.

The three are also expected to bolster cooperation on ballistic missile defense, expand annual three-way military exercises and develop a framework for security assistance in Southeast Asia and the Pacific Islands. They will also inaugurate the first trilateral hotline so that the leaders can communicate securely in the event of a crisis, according to the officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss agreements before they are formally announced. Annual summit meetings are also expected to be established.

Experts on the region said the three-way accord would not have been possible just a year or two ago, a sign of how much China’s rise has scrambled the equation in the region and how Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has focused thinking about the need for security.

“This consolidation of the alliance relationships is happening now because the external environment is just so uncertain and unstable,” said Victor Cha, a vice president for Asia at the Center for Strategic and International Studies and former Asia adviser to President George W. Bush. “There is nothing like an actual real war, even though it’s in another part of the world, to completely change the way or affect the way leaders think about their own security.”

— Peter Baker

When a Ukrainian tank breaks down at the front, these mechanics get a call.

Behind the thousands of Ukrainian troops assembled along the 100-mile front line for Kyiv’s counteroffensive is a small army of mechanics, engineers and weapon technicians responsible for keeping the country’s growing fleet of Western-made tanks, armored vehicles and other equipment in working order.

They work in forest camps or in disused buildings a few miles from the front line, or as mobile breakdown teams, taking their services to military units where they are deployed to avoid towing equipment on long journeys back to base or even to factories abroad.

“Vehicles are needed at the front now, and this way allows us to get them back quickly to the front line,” said Maj. Valerii Shershen, the head of communications at the Ukrainian logistics command.

Not unlike combat medics who risk their lives daily to bring out the wounded, mechanics have been venturing onto the battlefield, navigating minefields and shell fire, to retrieve and repair broken down or bombed-out vehicles.

Since it began in early June, Ukraine’s counteroffensive has suffered heavy casualties, with scores of vehicles damaged and destroyed on dense minefields and under heavy aerial and artillery bombardment.

The losses have been a severe blow to Ukraine and have forced the military command to adjust its tactics . In the meantime, mechanics and engineers have been racing to retrieve the wrecked NATO vehicles, as well as captured Russian equipment, to get them back up and working.

— Oleksandr Chubko and Carlotta Gall reporting from the southern front in Ukraine

A Russian court ordered the Sakharov Center, a prominent human rights hub, to dissolve.

Years before Andrei Sakharov won a Nobel Peace Prize for his humanitarian work, the dissident physicist wrote an essay in The New York Times in 1968 in which he urged readers with rights and privileges to advocate for those who did not.

One of its major tenets was that “intellectual freedom is essential to human society.”

Now, the Sakharov Center, an organization established in Moscow to preserve his memory after he died in 1989 and to protect that very intellectual freedom in Russia, will soon dissolve, after a Russian court said the group was illegally hosting conferences and exhibitions, according to Tass, the Russian state news agency.

The Russian Justice Ministry found a “number of violations” after performing an unscheduled inspection earlier this year, Tass said, and in July asked Moscow City Court to liquidate the center.

The center’s director, Sergey Lukashevsky, condemned the court’s decision on Friday morning.

“Disgusting, but it reflects reality,” he wrote in Russian on Facebook. “The public commission on Sakharov’s legacy and today’s Russian Federation cannot coexist. Because legacy — it is not dusty piles of documents, but living values. And everything that is happening today is exactly the opposite of what Sakharov fought for.”

In 2014, the center was designated as a “foreign agent,” a label the Russian government uses to ostracize and diminish its opposition, effectively branding them enemies of the state. When Russia passed a law last December barring “foreign agents” from receiving any state support, the rental agreements of the center were terminated, and the center was forced to shutter.

Mr. Sakharov, who played a pivotal role in the Soviets’ development of the hydrogen bomb, later issued critical warnings of the consequences of the same nuclear weapons he helped create. He became more outspoken in his criticism of the Soviet establishment, censorship, and global threats from war and society’s destruction of the environment.

When he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1975 “for his struggle for human rights in the Soviet Union, for disarmament and cooperation between all nations,” according to the Nobel website , the Kremlin barred him from leaving the country to collect the award.

After Mr. Sakharov died in Moscow in 1989, the center was established in 1996 and had since served as a hub to discuss relevant historical issues, human rights, and humanitarian problems to “aid the creation of civil society in Russia,” according to its website . Part of the center includes a museum dedicated to the history of oppression and resistance to the Soviet Union, and the legacy of Mr. Sakharov.

Valeriya Safronova contributed reporting.

— Gaya Gupta

Turkey offers a mild warning to Russia over its boarding of a cargo ship in the Black Sea.

Days after a Russian naval ship fired warning shots and sent armed officers aboard a Turkish-owned cargo ship in the Black Sea, Turkey’s government took its first official notice of the act, reposting on Thursday a mildly worded caution issued by an agency that is under the presidential communications office.

The message, reposted by the Turkish presidency on X, formerly known as Twitter, pointed out that while the ship, the Sukru Okan, had a Turkish owner, it was not flying a Turkish flag. The ship was under the flag of Palau, a small Pacific island nation.

“In international law, what matters is the flag,” said the message, originally posted by the Center to Combat Disinformation, underscoring Turkey’s lack of interest in regarding the boarding as an affront to one of its nationals.

“Following the intervention on the ship, the counterparts in the Russian Federation have been appropriately warned to avoid such actions, which could escalate tensions in the Black Sea,” the statement read.

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey, unusually for the leader of a NATO member , has worked to keep close ties to President Vladimir V. Putin since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine began 18 months ago. Two weeks ago, Mr. Erdogan’s office reported that the two had spoken by phone and that Mr. Putin would be visiting Turkey at an unspecified time.

The ship’s boarding came in the days after Russia terminated an international deal that had for a year enabled Ukraine to export grain through the Black Sea. Russia then warned that any ship in or near Ukrainian waters would be considered potentially hostile.

Turkey, along with the United Nations, played a pivotal role in brokering the deal. Since the agreement ended last month, Russia has conducted strikes on Ukrainian ports and has since destroyed hundreds of thousands of tons of Ukrainian grain.

The Russian boarding of the ship, carried out last weekend, was seen as a deterrent to commercial shipping. This week, Ukraine tested Russia’s control of the Black Sea, as a container ship under a Hong Kong flag with German and Chinese co-owners left Odesa on Wednesday for Istanbul via a protected corridor. The nearly 1,000-foot-long vessel, the Joseph Schulte, had been stranded in the port since the start of the war. On Thursday, it safely arrived in Turkish waters.

— Nikita Richardson and Gulsin Harman

Putin didn’t disclose his plans until a ‘few days’ before Russia invaded Ukraine, Lukashenko says.

Belarus’s authoritarian leader, a close ally of President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia, claimed in an interview released on Thursday that he and Mr. Putin had not discussed Russia’s plans for Ukraine until a “few days” before the full-scale invasion, and that when they did, Mr. Putin asked him to “watch my back.”

The Belarusian leader, Aleksandr G. Lukashenko, made the claims in an interview with a pro-Russian Ukrainian journalist.

According to the Belarusian state news agency Belta , Mr. Lukashenko said he and Mr. Putin “never had any talks about Russia taking any action against Ukraine” until they met at the Russian leader’s country residence shortly before the invasion in February 2022. By that time, Russia had spent months deploying thousands of troops to Belarus, arming them with tanks and artillery, fighter jets and helicopters, and advanced rocket systems, and had massed an invasion force at the Ukraine-Belarus border.

“So Vladimir Putin said: ‘If anything happens …’ I asked: ‘Listen, what can happen?’” Mr. Lukashenko recalled. He said Mr. Putin replied, “Well, if anything happens, watch my back, please.”

Mr. Lukashenko is deeply dependent on the Russian leader for financial, fuel and security assistance to maintain his own grip on power. While he has so far refrained from adding his own forces to the war in Ukraine , he agreed to allow Russia to station tactical nuclear weapons in Belarus earlier this year, and in June he made a deal to halt a short-lived rebellion by Wagner mercenary group fighters that allowed them to relocate to Belarus .

Mr. Lukashenko also claimed in the interview, Belta reported, that Ukraine’s military intelligence service had been in direct contact with Belarus as recently as “several months ago,” but that President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine had ordered the communications to stop. Mr. Zelensky’s office did not immediately comment on the matter.

Mr. Lukashenko’s interview was released the same day he hosted the defense minister of China, Li Shangfu, in a show of trilateral diplomacy with a fellow — and far more powerful — Russian ally.

Mr. Li arrived in Minsk after delivering a speech in Moscow earlier this week at a security conference that focused on bolstering Russia’s military alliances outside of the West.

China has used Western efforts to isolate Moscow over its invasion of Ukraine as an opportunity to become Russia’s most important economic and geopolitical partner. Mr. Lukashenko sought to strengthen Belarus’s own relationship with China on Thursday, saying he hoped Mr. Li’s visit would not be the last.

“I am very grateful to you for your support in military-technical and military cooperation,” Mr. Lukashenko told Mr. Li, according to Belta. “In this regard, we rely on our friends, first of all, the Russian Federation and China.”

— Anushka Patil

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Ukraine again reported bringing war deep into Russia with attacks on Moscow and border region

Investigators examine a damaged skyscraper in the “Moscow City” business district after a reported drone attack in Moscow, Russia, early Sunday, July 30, 2023. (AP Photo)

A view of the damaged building in the “Moscow City” business district after a reported drone attack in Moscow, Russia, early Sunday, July 30, 2023. (AP Photo)

Investigators examine an area next to the damaged skyscraper in the “Moscow City” business district after a reported drone attack in Moscow, Russia, early Sunday, July 30, 2023. (AP Photo)

A view of the damaged skyscraper is shown in the “Moscow City” business district after a reported drone attack in Moscow, Russia, early Sunday, July 30, 2023. (AP Photo)

A view of the damaged skyscraper in the “Moscow City” business district after a reported drone attack in Moscow, Russia, early Sunday, July 30, 2023. (AP Photo)

An investigator examines an area next to the damaged skyscraper in the “Moscow City” business district after a reported drone attack in Moscow, Russia, early Sunday, July 30, 2023. (AP Photo)

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Ukraine brought the war far from the front line into the heart of Russia again Sunday in drone penetrations that Russian authorities said damaged two office buildings a few miles (kilometers) from the Kremlin and a pig breeding complex on the countries’ border.

The attacks, which Ukraine didn’t acknowledge in keeping with its security policy, reflected a pattern of more frequent and deeper cross-border strikes the Kyiv government has launched since starting a counteroffensive against Russian forces in June. A precursor and the most dramatic of the strikes happenned in May on the Kremlin itself, the seat of power in the capital, Moscow.

Sunday’s was the fourth such strike on the capital region this month and the third this week, showing Moscow’s vulnerability as Russia’s war in Ukraine drags into its 18th month.

The Russian Defense Ministry said three drones targeted the city in an “attempted terrorist attack by the Kyiv regime.” Air defenses shot down one drone in Odintsovo in the surrounding Moscow region, while two others were jammed and crashed into the Moscow City business district.

Photos and video showed that a drone had ripped off part of the facade of a modern skyscraper, IQ-Quarter, located 7.2 kms (4.5 miles) from the Kremlin. When the drone hit, sparks, flames and smoke spewed from the building, with debris falling on the sidewalk and street. Windows were blown out, and metal window frames were mangled. A security guard was injured, Russia’s state news agency Tass reported, citing emergency officials. Russia’s Ria-Novosti news agency reported the building’s tenants included several government agencies.

Flights were temporarily suspended at Moscow’s Vnukovo airport, and the airspace over Moscow and the outlying regions was temporarily closed.

President Vladimir Putin, who was in his hometown of St. Petersburg at the time of the attempted attacks for meetings with African leaders and a naval celebration, was briefed, his spokesman said.

Ukrainian officials didn’t acknowledge the attacks but President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in his nightly video address: “Gradually, the war is returning to the territory of Russia — to its symbolic centers and military bases, and this is an inevitable, natural and absolutely fair process.”

A Ukrainian air force spokesman also didn’t claim responsibility but said the Russian people were seeing the consequences of Russia’s war in Ukraine.

“All of the people who think the war ‘doesn’t concern them’ — it’s already touching them,” spokesperson Yurii Ihnat told journalists Sunday.

“There’s already a certain mood in Russia: that something is flying in, and loudly,” he said. “There’s no discussion of peace or calm in the Russian interior any more. They got what they wanted.”

Ihnat also referenced an early Sunday drone attack on Crimea, Ukrainian territory which Russia occupied and illegally annexed in 2014. The Russian Defense Ministry announced it had shot down 16 Ukrainian drones and neutralized eight others through electronic jamming. No casualties were reported.

Zelenskyy has vowed to take back all land Russian forces have occupied, including Crimea, and his efforts have been strengthened by the receipt and deployment of increasingly advanced Western weapons.

In the earlier attacks on Moscow, Russia’s Defense Ministry reported shooting down a Ukrainian drone outside the city on Friday. Four days earlier, two drones struck the Russian capital , one of them falling in the center of the city near the Defense Ministry’s headquarters along the Moscow River about 3 kilometers (2 miles) from the Kremlin. The other drone hit an office building in southern Moscow, gutting several upper floors.

In another attack on July 4, the Russian military said air defenses downed four drones on Moscow’s outskirts and jammed a fifth that was forced down.

Russia has also blamed Ukrainian forces for attacking border areas, and on Sunday, the governor of one such region, Bryansk, said a Ukrainian strike damaged a pig breeding complex and injured three people.

In Ukraine, the air force reported Sunday it had destroyed four Russian drones above the Kherson and Dnipropetrovsk regions. Information on the attacks could not be independently verified.

Meanwhile, a Russian missile strike late Saturday killed two people and wounded 20 in the city of Sumy in northeast Ukraine. A four-story vocational college building was hit, the Ukrainian Interior Ministry said. Local authorities said that dormitories and teaching buildings were damaged in the blast and a fire that followed.

While the attacks continued on the war front, so did the war of words. Dmitry Medvedev, the deputy secretary of Russia’s Security Council, issued his latest nuclear war threat in a Telegram post Sunday. In it, he claimed Russian forces were preventing a nuclear war. He contended that if Ukraine, with NATO countries’ support, succeeded in its counteroffensive, including if “they seized part of our land,” then Russia would “go for the use of nuclear weapons.” Western leaders have repeatedly warned of the dangers of making such statements.

Associated Press writer Andrew Katell in New York contributed to this report.

Follow AP’s coverage of the war in Ukraine: https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine