Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy signed security and energy cooperation deals with Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev in Baku on Saturday, because nothing says 'diplomacy' like leveraging your hard-won expertise in dodging Iranian drones. After the US-Israeli airstrikes on Iran in late February kicked off the latest Middle East dust-up, multiple nations have been knocking on Ukraine's door for tips on downing those long-range Iranian drones. Zelenskyy said the two countries signed an agreement on military-industrial cooperation, while Aliyev noted that such partnerships have 'wide-ranging perspectives' - which is diplomat-speak for 'we didn't sign anything specific, but let's keep talking.'
Zelenskyy also floated the idea of reviving peace talks with Russia, which the US was mediating until it got distracted by its anti-Iran campaign. He suggested Azerbaijan as a venue, saying, 'We are ready for the next talks [to be] in Azerbaijan if Russia will be ready for diplomacy.' That's a big 'if,' considering Russia spent the weekend pounding Dnipro with missiles and drones for over 20 hours, killing eight people and injuring 49. Regional Governor Oleksandr Hanzha wrote on Telegram that they 'hit deliberately' and 'hit residential areas' - because apparently, subtlety isn't part of the Russian playbook. Two more people were killed in northern Ukraine, bringing the day's death toll to ten.
Ukraine wasn't exactly turning the other cheek: a drone attack on Sevastopol in Russian-annexed Crimea killed one man and wounded three others, according to Moscow-installed Governor Mikhail Razvozhayev. He reported 43 UAVs shot down, but one got through, killing a man born in 1983 while he was inside his vehicle. Three others were hospitalized.
Meanwhile, Russia's parliamentary speaker Vyacheslav Volodin - a close Putin ally - arrived in North Korea on Saturday to commemorate Pyongyang's deployment of troops to help Moscow in Ukraine. North Korea has sent an estimated 14,000 troops, with over 6,000 killed, according to South Korean, Ukrainian, and Western officials. That's a lot of bodies for a country that's supposedly just 'commemorating' something.
And in Romania, a drone crashed in a populated area on Saturday after Russian strikes in neighboring Ukraine, forcing the evacuation of over 200 people. No casualties were reported, but an electricity pole and an outbuilding were damaged, and gas supplies were cut as a precaution. Romania, a NATO member, has seen its airspace violated and drone fragments fall on its territory before, but this was the first time debris caused material damage. Welcome to the club, Romania - membership includes free drone fragments and a side of geopolitical anxiety.