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Ukrainian drones smashed into another Russian refinery overnight, starting a fire that produced huge clouds of black smoke, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Thursday, in what appeared to be the latest long-range attack on Moscow’s vital oil industry.
Trucks carrying intercontinental ballistic missiles rumbled over forest roads, atomic-powered submarines set sail from Arctic and Pacific ports, and crews scrambled into warplanes as Russia and neighbouring Belarus held the final stage of their joint nuclear drills Thursday.
Residents of Vilnius were told to take shelter and Lithuania’s president and prime minister were taken to safe locations Wednesday because of an alarm over drone activity near the border with Belarus, underlining jitters on NATO’s eastern flank over incursions related to Russia’s war with Ukraine.
A NATO fighter jet shot down a Ukrainian drone over southern Estonia on Tuesday, authorities said.
China’s armed forces secretly trained about 200 Russian military personnel in China late last year and some have since returned to fight in Ukraine, according to three European intelligence agencies and documents seen by Reuters.
A Russian drone hit a Chinese cargo ship in the Black Sea overnight, Ukraine said Monday, a day before Russian President Vladimir Putin heads to Beijing to meet Xi Jinping.
At least four people, including three near Moscow, died in one of the largest Ukrainian overnight attacks against Russia since the start of the war, according to Russian local authorities.
Russian President Vladimir Putin will meet with Chinese leader Xi Jinping on a two-day trip to Beijing next week, the Kremlin said Saturday.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Friday that a Russian missile attack on a Kyiv apartment building the previous day killed 24 people, including what local officials said were three teenagers.
Russia on Thursday unleashed a third straight day of massive drone and missile attacks on Ukraine, demolishing an apartment building in Kyiv where nine people were killed and dozens injured, authorities said. More strikes elsewhere in the country wounded more than two dozen civilians.
The number of prisoners in Russia has dropped by more than 180,000 over five years, in part driven by Moscow sending convicts to fight in Ukraine, Russia’s prison chief said Thursday.
Latvian centre-right Prime Minister Evika Silina announced her resignation on Thursday, after the Progressives Party, her left-leaning coalition partner, pulled support from the government and left her without a majority.
Russia fired at least 800 drones in a massive daytime barrage on about 20 regions of Ukraine on Wednesday, killing at least six people and wounding dozens, including children, in one of the longest attacks by Moscow in the 4-year-old war, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy says his country has started preparations for a military drone deal with Canada, though the government offered no confirmation of such an agreement Tuesday.
Two national agencies fighting corruption in Ukraine named President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s former chief of staff as an official suspect in a major graft investigation. They said Tuesday that the Ukrainian leader is not under suspicion in the case.
A U.S.-brokered ceasefire between Russia and Ukraine was due to expire on Monday with both sides accusing each other of breaching the 72-hour arrangement, as American and European officials considered how they might steer the warring countries into further talks.
