Russia said Thursday that new U.S. sanctions on its oil industry risked hurting diplomatic efforts to end the Ukraine war, and that it had developed a “strong immunity” to them.
U.S. President Donald Trump announced new sanctions on Russia’s two largest oil companies on Wednesday, complaining that his peace talks with Russia’s Vladimir Putin were not going “anywhere.”
Trump held off introducing new restrictions against Russia for months, but his patience snapped after plans for a fresh summit with Putin in Budapest collapsed.
This formidable cruise missile can carry a payload of 1,150kg, making it one of the largest missiles of its kind globally, and boasts a range of 3,000km, nearly double that of the fearsome Tomahawk missiles. This development comes as Trump seems hesitant to supply any US missiles.
Ukrainian weapons manufacturer Fire Point, the brains behind this creation, claim it can land within a mere 14 metres of its intended target.
Speaking to reporters after a meeting with a bipartisan group of senators on Capitol Hill, the Nato secretary general Mark Rutte said that he had “complete confidence” in Donald Trump’s ability to broker peace between Ukraine and Russia. He evaded a question about whether he was concerned that the president has persuaded Volodymyr Zelenskyy to “go softer” on Russia.
“He is the only one that can get this done,” Rutte said. “You have a president with a lot of experience because of his first term in office, and who has a clear vision on bringing this war to a durable and lasting end.”
Rutte will meet with Trump in a few hours. “We will discuss further how we from Nato can be helpful in delivering his vision of getting a full-scale peace in Ukraine, which, of course, we all pray for after his enormous success in Gaza,” Rutte said earlier.
Ukraine’s president Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on Wednesday that US president Donald Trump’s call for Ukraine and Russia to stop at the current frontlines was “a good compromise”, reports Reuters.
But Zelenskyy, who is visiting Nordic countries, said he doubted that Russian president Vladimir Putin would support it. According to Agence France-Presse (AFP), Zelenskyy told reporters:
[Trump] proposed ‘Stay where we stay and begin conversation’. I think that was a good compromise, but I’m not sure that Putin will support it, and I said it to the [US] president.
Plans are on hold for U.S. President Donald Trump to sit down with Russian leader Vladimir Putin to talk about resolving the war in Ukraine, a U.S. official said Tuesday.
“Preparations for the summit are continuing,” Ryabkov was quoted as saying. “I don’t see any major obstacles.”
He added: “It’s a difficult process, I admit – but that’s precisely what diplomats are for.”
Russia and Ukraine pounded each other with heavy overnight missile attacks as renewed uncertainty surrounded the US-led peace effort.
Ukrainian officials said on Wednesday that Russian attacks had killed six people, including two children, in Kyiv and the nearby region, and forced power outages nationwide.
Russian presidential investment envoy Kirill Dmitriev has denied that the planned meeting in Budapest has been scrapped
Russian President Vladimir Putin’s special economic envoy, Kirill Dmitriev, has denied reports that plans for a summit between Putin and US President Donald Trump in Budapest have been scrapped.
Dmitriev commented after multiple US media outlets cited an unnamed White House official who claimed there were no plans for a Putin-Trump summit “in the immediate future.” Some outlets interpreted the remark as meaning that the meeting had been canceled or postponed indefinitely.
Russian President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday directed drills of the country’s strategic nuclear forces that featured practice missile launches, an exercise that came as his planned summit on Ukraine with U.S. President Donald Trump was put on hold.
Ukrainian drones struck a major gas processing plant in southern Russia, sparking a fire and forcing it to suspend its intake of gas from Kazakhstan, Russian and Kazakh authorities said Sunday.
U.S. President Donald Trump meanwhile suggested that Kyiv may have to give up territory in exchange for an end to Moscow’s more than three-and-a-half-year invasion, in the latest of apparent reversals on how to pursue peace.
The Orenburg plant, run by state-owned gas giant Gazprom and located in a region of the same name near the Kazakh border, is part of a production and processing complex that is one of the world’s largest facilities of its kind, with an annual capacity of 45 billion cubic meters. It handles gas condensate from Kazakhstan’s Karachaganak field, alongside Orenburg’s own oil and gas fields.
President Donald Trump has worked ardently to bring an end to the war between Russia and Ukraine — a war that has resulted in millions of casualties and transformed much of Eastern Ukraine into drone-netted wasteland.
Fresh off brokering a tenuous ceasefire in Gaza and speaking with Russian President Vladimir Putin, Trump hosted Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy at the White House on Friday.
‘They should stop where they are. Let both claim Victory, let History decide!’
U.S. President Donald Trump has signaled a shift in support toward Russia’s Vladimir Putin as he looks for a quick end to the war in Ukraine, likely striking fear into Ukrainian officials.
Trump held a tense meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy at the White House on Friday, with the potential supply of U.S. long-range cruise missiles, Tomahawks, on the agenda.
Zelenskyy walked away from the meeting not only empty-handed, but apparently upbraided by Trump, who said Ukraine should accept Russia’s terms for ending the war — by handing over the entire eastern territory of Donbas, the epicenter of ongoing fighting in Ukraine.
Offering Tomahawk cruise missiles to Ukraine has been suggested as a way of pressuring Russia to return to the negotiating table.
from www.washingtonpost.com
President Donald Trump has suggested that the U.S. could send Tomahawk cruise missiles to Ukraine if Russia refuses to move toward a settlement in the ongoing war.
Speaking with reporters aboard Air Force One on Sunday, Trump described the Tomahawk as “an incredible weapon, a very offensive weapon.”
Trump hinted he would use the prospect of deployment as leverage in upcoming discussions with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
“I may tell him [Putin] that if the war is not settled, we may very well,” Trump said.
ZELENSKY HOPING ‘PEACE COMES FOR UKRAINE AS WELL’: Still basking in the glow of his pivotal role ending the bloodshed in Gaza, President Donald Trump is reengaging in the peace negotiations he essentially gave up on last month, inviting Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to Washington to discuss how to put more pressure on Russian President Vladimir Putin to seriously consider ending the war which is well into its third year, and has claimed hundred of thousand of lives.
“I will also have the opportunity to come to Washington and meet with President Trump on Friday. I believe we will discuss a series of steps that I intend to propose. I am grateful to President Trump for our dialogue and his support,” Zelensky posted on X. “The main focus of the visit is air defense and our long-range capabilities aimed at exerting pressure on Russia for the sake of peace.”
Russian Security Council Deputy Chairman Dmitry Medvedev on Monday warned U.S. President Donald Trump that the supply of Tomahawk cruise missiles to Ukraine could “end badly” for him.
Medvedev, who served as Russia’s president from 2008 to 2012, appeared to suggest that Russia might issue a nuclear response if Ukraine receives and fires the long-range rockets at targets inside Russia.
“The supply of these missiles could end badly for everyone. First and foremost for Trump,” Medvedev wrote in a post on Telegram after the American president repeated his own threat of supplying Tomahawk missiles to Ukraine if Russia does not agree to end the war.
The European Union is edging closer to agreeing on new sanctions on Russia, the 19th round since the full-scale invasion of Ukraine three years ago, but two EU member states are still holding out before giving the green light. And perhaps surprisingly the perennial EU sanctions skeptic Hungary isn’t one of them. Instead, it is Austria and Slovakia that are hesitant to endorse the package — and their issues aren’t related to the proposed measures against Moscow at all. Bratislava has concerns about EU energy policy, as well as the future of Slovakia’s automotive industry.
Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk has said it is not in the country’s interest to extradite a Ukrainian man to Germany for his alleged involvement in the 2022 Nord Stream pipeline explosions.
The Ukrainian suspect, Volodymyr Z, who is wanted in Germany in connection with the September 2022 blasts, was detained near Warsaw in late September.
A Polish court ruled on Monday that he must remain in custody for another 40 days while it considers Germany’s request to extradite him under a European arrest warrant.
Speaking on Tuesday, Tusk said it was ultimately the court’s decision to decide whether to hand over Volodymyr Z to Germany — and that the government would not interfere.
However, he once again stated Poland’s opposition to the pipelines, which it has long argued made Europe too dependent on Russian energy.
“The problem of Europe, the problem of Ukraine, the problem of Lithuania and Poland is not that Nord Stream 2 was blown up, but that it was built,” Tusk told a press conference.
“It is certainly not in the interest of Poland … to hand over this citizen to a foreign country,” he added.
Germany will give its federal police the power to shoot down drones, following the disruption caused by recent unknown drone sightings at Munich Airport.
On Wednesday, the cabinet approved the new reform, which now awaits approval in parliament.
The move comes after suspicious drone incursions at Munich Airport led to air traffic being suspended for several hours last week, with thousands of passengers directly affected.
Other European countries, including Denmark and Lithuania, have also spotted rogue drones in recent weeks.
In response, EU leaders such as German Chancellor Friedrich Merz have attributed the incidents to Russian hybrid warfare, something Moscow denies.
Days after the drone sightings in Munich, Interior Minister Alexander Dobrindt said federal police reform is intended to reorganise responsibilities and make it easier to defend against drones.
Russia seriously damaged one of Ukraine’s thermal power plants in an overnight attack, authorities said on Wednesday, as Moscow continues to pursue its annual campaign to cut Ukrainians off from heat, light and running water as winter approaches.
Two workers were injured in the attack, according to Ukraine’s biggest electricity operator, DTEK. The company provided no further information, such as the location of the plant that was hit.
Ukrainian authorities generally release few details about routine Russian strikes on its power grid in order not to give away intelligence to the enemy.
Russia also struck energy infrastructure in the northern Chernihiv, southern Kherson and southeastern Dnipropetrovsk regions, authorities said.
Ukraine’s air force said it intercepted or jammed 154 out of 183 Russian strike and decoy drones fired at the country.
The energy sector has been a key battleground since Russia launched its full-scale invasion of its neighbour in February 2022.
Ukraine says it has struck oil terminal in Crimea and key Russian explosives factory | World News– news.sky.com Source Link Excerpt:
Ukraine’s military says it has struck one of Russia’s main explosives factory as well as an oil terminal in Russian-occupied Crimea.
“Numerous explosions” were reported after the strike at the Y M Sverdlov plant in Dzerzhinsk, which makes explosives for ammunition for Russia’s armed forces, the Ukrainian general staff said in a statement.
The attacks were carried out as part of a strategy to reduce Russia‘s “offensive potential, as well as its missile and bomb capabilities”, the general staff said.
It added that the plant was one of Moscow’s largest producers of explosives, which are used in a wide variety of ammunition for Russian President Vladimir Putin’s forces, including aviation and artillery shells, fighter jet bombs, anti-tank guided missiles and warheads for air defence missile systems.
Regional governor Gleb Nikitin said air defence forces had repelled an overnight attack by 20 drones near Dzerzhinsk. He said one person was injured by falling debris.
Mr Nikitin said there was fire damage to residential homes but “no damage was caused to industrial facilities”.
Opposition Politician Shlosberg Released From House Arrest Pending ‘Discreditation’ Trial– www.themoscowtimes.com Source Link Excerpt:
A court in the northwestern Pskov region released opposition politician Lev Shlosberg from house arrest pending trial for his criticism of the invasion of Ukraine, the Yabloko party’s press service said Tuesday.
Shlosberg, a senior Yabloko member who has remained in Russia despite his opposition to the war, faces up to five years in prison if found guilty of repeatedly “discrediting” the military. The 62-year-old politician was already fined twice on administrative charges for the same offense.
The Pskov City Court ruled to impose a ban on certain activities instead of continuing Shlosberg’s house arrest, which he has been under since June. Yabloko said Shlosberg was barred from using the internet, a phone and communicating with anyone outside his household for four months.
Local media reported that the Pskov court system’s Telegram channel preemptively published — and then deleted — a post wrongly claiming that the court had extended Shlosberg’s house arrest by another two months.
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Ukraine is working to influence Hungary’s elections, warns Hungarian foreign minister– rmx.news Source Link Excerpt:
Ukraine is interested in influencing Hungarian national elections in April, said Hungarian Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó in a new video posted to his Facebook page.
He points to work done by Ukrainians in creating an app for the rival Tisza Party, which is the main opposition facing Orbán during April national elections.
“It is clear what Ukraine’s interest is in the Hungarian parliamentary election, and it is clear who and through what they want to act in line with this interest,” said Szijjártó.
He added that “if anyone had any doubts about whether the Ukrainians would interfere in next year’s Hungarian parliamentary election, they could be sure that the Ukrainians are strongly interested in influencing the outcome of the Hungarian parliamentary election.”
The foreign minister is referencing a data leak that showed that individuals connected to Ukraine were behind the creation of an app for the Tisza party. The leak affected approximately 18,000 users of the party’s mobile app. Among the data leaked was that of one of its admins, a Ukrainian developer, Myroslav Tokar, who works for app development company PettersonApps.
At least 30 injured in Russian strike on railway station, Zelensky says– www.bbc.com Source Link Excerpt:
Watch: Video shared by the Ukrainian president shows the aftermath of the strike in Shostka
At least 30 people have been injured following a Russian drone strike on a railway station in north-east Ukraine, Ukrainian President Volodymy Zelensky has said.
In a post on X, he said that preliminary reports indicated train staff and passengers were at the site of the strike in the city of Shostka, in the Sumy region.
Emergency services are on the scene and have begun helping people, he said, adding that information regarding the injured was still being established.
He also posted a video showing a damaged train carriage on fire.
“The Russians could not have been unaware that they were targeting civilians. This is terrorism, which the world has no right to ignore,” Zelensky wrote on X.
“Every day Russia takes people’s lives. And only strength can make them stop.”
NATO ally warns of ‘hybrid war’ threat from Russia as drones plague European military bases and airports– fortune.com Source Link Excerpt:
Denmark, a founding member of NATO, has added to growing alarms about the threat of “hybrid war” from Russia as drone sightings spread to more European airports and even military installations.
On Thursday, the airport in Munich, Germany, grounded flights after several drone sightings. And on Friday, Belgium said it was investigating drone sightings above a military base near the German border. That’s after Denmark also reported drones flying above its airports and largest military base.
“I hope that everybody recognizes now that there is a hybrid war, and one day it’s Poland, the other day it’s Denmark and next week, it will probably be somewhere else,” Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen told reporters on Wednesday. “There is only one country…willing to threaten us, and it is Russia, and therefore, we need a very strong answer back.”
Denmark hasn’t directly attributed the recent drone incidents to Russia. But the remarks follow Russian drone incursions into Poland as well as Russian fighter jets violating Estonian airspace, forcing NATO to intercept them.
Poland accuses Russia of attack plot involving explosives smuggled in corn tins– www.euronews.com Source Link Excerpt:
Prosecutors in Poland are investigating an alleged Russia plot that involved smuggling food cans labelled as corn packed with explosives into the country, according to Polish media.
An article published in Gazeta Wyborcza on Thursday cited sources at the Polish National Prosecutor’s Office and the Internal Security Agency (ABW) confirming the development.
A Ukrainian suspect linked to Russia’s military intelligence agency (GRU), who has only been identified as Władysław D, allegedly transported the cans to Poland after digging them up at a cemetery in neighbouring Lithuania.
The young man left them near the city of Łódź in central Poland, according to Gazeta Wyborcza.
A military expert told the Polish paper that the quantities of explosives believed to have been involved could have caused severe damage to a car and life-threatening injuries to people nearby.
