RENTON, Wash. (AP) — The Seattle Seahawks and safety Julian Love have reached agreement on a three-year extension that could be worth up to $36 million.
Love’s agent, Drew Rosenhaus, confirmed the agreement to The Associated Press on Wednesday following the first day of Seahawks training camp. The deal will keep the safety tied to Seattle through the 2027 season.
Love, 26, signed a two-year deal with Seattle before the 2023 season after spending his first three years with the New York Giants. He quickly emerged into a critical piece of the Seahawks' defense, in part because of his ability to play multiple positions in the secondary.
Love started 12 of 17 games and finished with career highs in solo tackles (85), interceptions (four) and was selected to the Pro Bowl. He was the NFC defensive player of the week for Week 15 of last season after having nine tackles and two interceptions in a win over Philadelphia.
Love has regularly been considered one of the players with a chance to thrive in the defensive system of new Seattle coach Mike Macdonald, in part because of his versatility.
“(Julian) in particular, a guy that will be able to move around, change some different spots. You don’t see that yet, but he’ll be a guy we’ll be able to move around and utilize in a pretty sweet way,” Macdonald said during offseason workouts in May.
Macdonald also praised Love’s leadership and presence on the field.
“On the field he has elite poise, and that’s something we’re chasing. If something doesn’t go our way let’s keep our poise, play the next play. The game is slow to him, so to be able to communicate at a high level shows you what it should feel like when he’s out there,” Macdonald said.
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FILE - Seattle Seahawks safety Julian Love (20) runs during an NFL football game against the Arizona Cardinals, Sunday, Oct. 22, 2023 in Seattle. The Seahawks and Love have reached agreement on a three-year extension that could be worth up to $36 million. (AP Photo/Ben VanHouten, File)
KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Two NATO members said Sunday that Russian drones violated their airspace, as one reportedly flew into Romania during nighttime attacks on neighboring Ukraine while another crashed in eastern Latvia the previous day.
A drone entered Romanian territory early Sunday as Moscow struck “civilian targets and port infrastructure” across the Danube in Ukraine, Romania's Ministry of National Defense reported. It added that Bucharest had deployed F-16 warplanes to monitor its airspace and issued text alerts to residents of two eastern regions.
It also said investigations were underway of a potential “impact zone” in an uninhabited area along the Romanian-Ukrainian border. There were no immediate reports of casualties or damage.
Later on Sunday, Latvia’s Defense Minister Andris Sprūds said a Russian drone fell the day before near the town of Rezekne, and had likely strayed into Latvia from neighboring Belarus.
Rezekne, home to over 25,000 people, lies some 55 kilometers (34 miles) west of Russia and around 75 kilometers (47 miles) from Belarus, the Kremlin’s close and dependent ally.
While the incursion into Latvian airspace appeared to be a rare incident, Romania has confirmed drone fragments on its territory on several occasions since Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022, as recently as July this year.
Mircea Geoană, NATO's outgoing deputy secretary-general and Romania's former top diplomat, said Sunday morning that the military alliance condemned Russia’s violation of Romanian airspace. “While we have no information indicating an intentional attack by Russia against Allies, these acts are irresponsible and potentially dangerous,” he wrote on the social media platform X.
Latvia's military on Sunday similarly said there were no indications that Moscow or Minsk purposely sent a drone into the country. In a public statement, the military said it had identified the crash site, and that a probe was ongoing.
Sprūds, the Latvian defense minister, sought to downplay the significance of the drone incursion.
“I can confirm that there are no victims here and also no property is infringed in any way,” Defense Minister Andris Sprūds told the Latvian Radio on Sunday, adding that any risks in the event were immediately eliminated: “Of course, it is a serious incident, as it is once again a reminder of what kind of neighboring countries we live next to.”
Ukraine Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha called the incursions “a reminder (that) the aggressive actions of the Russian Federation go beyond Ukraine’s borders.”
“The collective response of the Allies should be maximum support for Ukraine now, to put an end to (Russian aggression), protect lives and preserve peace in Europe,” Sybiha said in a post on X.
In Ukraine, two civilians died and four more suffered wounds in a nighttime Russian airstrike on the northern city of Sumy, the regional military administration reported. Two children were among those wounded, the administration said. The Russian Defense Ministry claimed later on Sunday that its forces struck foreign pro-Kyiv fighters in a village on Sumy's northern outskirts. It was not immediately clear whether this was a reference to the same attack.
Also on Sunday, Ukraine’s General Staff said that Russian troops continued to pound Sumy and the surrounding regions with airstrikes, and had lobbed at least 16 devastating “glide bombs” at the province by mid-afternoon. Russian forces shelled the city again during the day Sunday, wounding a teenager and a civilian man, the regional prosecutor’s office reported.
Three more women died Sunday after Russian forces shelled a village in the eastern Donetsk region, Gov. Vadym Filashkin reported on the Telegram messaging app. Separately, Russian shelling killed a woman on the outskirts of Kharkiv, Ukraine's second city in the northeast, local authorities said.
Meanwhile, the death toll rose to 58 from the massive Russian missile strike that on Tuesday blasted a military academy and nearby hospital in the eastern city of Poltava, regional Gov. Filip Pronin reported. More than 320 others were wounded.
Since it launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine in early 2022, the Russian military has repeatedly used missiles to smash civilian targets, sometimes killing scores of people in a single attack.
Russian forces continued their monthlong grinding push toward the city of Pokrovsk, and also ramped up attacks near the town of Kurakhove farther south, Ukraine's General Staff reported.
Russia's Defense Ministry said Sunday its troops had taken Novohrodivka, a small town some 19 kilometers (11 miles) southeast of Pokrovsk. An update published Saturday evening by DeepState, a Ukrainian battlefield analysis site, said Russian forces had “advanced” in Novohrodivka and captured Nevelske, a village in the southeast of the Pokrovsk district.
Pokrovsk, which had a prewar population of about 60,000, is one of Ukraine’s main defensive strongholds and a key logistics hub in the Donetsk region. Its capture would compromise Ukraine’s defense and supply routes, and would bring Russia closer to its stated aim of capturing the entire Donetsk region.
Also on Sunday, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said that he and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy agree that Moscow should be included in a future peace conference aimed at ending its invasion of Ukraine.
“There will certainly be a further peace conference, and the president (Zelenskyy) and I agree that it must be one with Russia present,” Scholz told Germany’s ZDF public television.
A previous peace conference June 15-16 in Switzerland ended with 78 countries expressing support for Ukraine’s “territorial integrity” but otherwise left the path forward unclear. Russia did not participate.
Ukraine’s Zelenskyy did not immediately comment on Scholz’s remarks, but said in a video address Sunday that he had held “important negotiations” with the German leader and Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni. He did not give details.
Associated Press writers Stephen McGrath in Sighisoara, Romania, and Jari Tanner in Helsinki, Finland contributed to this report.
Follow the AP’s coverage of the war at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine
A mother cries near the coffin of her son killed in a Russian rocket attack at a Ukrainian military academy, during his funeral ceremony in Poltava, Ukraine, Saturday Sept. 7, 2024. (AP Photo/Evgeniy Maloletka)
Ukrainian servicemen carry crosses and pictures of their comrades killed in a Russian rocket attack at a Ukrainian military academy, during their funeral ceremony in Poltava, Ukraine, Saturday Sept. 7, 2024. (AP Photo/Evgeniy Maloletka)
A mother cries near the coffin of her son killed in a Russian rocket attack at a Ukrainian military academy, during his funeral ceremony in Poltava, Ukraine, Saturday Sept. 7, 2024. (AP Photo/Evgeniy Maloletka)