KYIV, Ukraine — Ukraine's Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba on Thursday called on Hong Kong to prevent Russia and Russian businesses from using the region to circumvent sanctions.
Kuleba met with Hong Kong leader John Lee as part of a visit to China. He called on the administration to prevent Russia from using Hong Kong to circumvent restrictions resulting from Russia's war in Ukraine, according to a statement from the Ukrainian Foreign Affairs Ministry.
''These restrictive measures are necessary to weaken Russia's potential to wage war and kill people in Ukraine," the statement said. ''The minister stressed that Russian machinations should not tarnish Hong Kong's reputation as a highly developed liberal economy based on unwavering respect for the rule of law.''
In a separate development, debris from what was believed to be a Russian drone landed in a rural area of Romania, the country's Defense Ministry said Thursday, in the latest apparent incident of drone wreckage from the war in neighboring Ukraine falling onto the NATO member's soil.
In Ukraine, meanwhile, the country's president announced that authorities have detained an 18-year-old suspect in connection with the shooting death of a former lawmaker who was an advocate for the use of the Ukrainian language instead of Russian.
Since the war started in February 2022, Romania has confirmed drone fragments on its territory on several occasions.
The debris of what the Defense Ministry called a drone of Russian origin was found following Russian attacks on Ukraine's port infrastructure near the border.
A statement said the fragments were discovered by a team of specialists in an uninhabited area near the village of Plauru in Tulcea county, which is across the Danube River from the Ukrainian port of Izmail.