A Ukrainian drone attack hit an oil terminal in St Petersburg on Thursday as part of a “new phase” of war in the region, a Ukrainian military source told Reuters. The news agency could not independently verify the statement but the Kyiv Independent had also reported the news.
Russian forces have taken control of Vesele, a settlement in Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk region, Russia’s defence ministry told Reuters on Thursday. The ministry provided no details about the settlement. Reuters was unable to verify the battlefield assertion.
Ukraine has bought six Caesar howitzers, France’s defence minister, Sébastien Lecornu, said on Thursday. In Ukraine’s first purchase of French-made weapons since the start of the war, Lecornu said Kyiv had bought six for €3m to €4m (£2.6m to £3.4m) each.
The Russian foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, held his annual briefing on Thursday in Moscow. In the near three-hour-long news conference, he said Russia’s “special military operation” in Ukraine had “brought about a certain purification of [Russian] society” and made it “healthier”. He also said Russia “can no longer trust the west”.
Ukraine will not decide on conditions to end the conflict as “Washington is calling the shots”, Lavrov said at the annual briefing. On the security cooperation agreement recently announced by the UK and Ukraine, Lavrov called it a “half-baked product” containing no “legally binding agreements”. He added that not the “slightest interest” has been shown by the US and other western nations in ending the war.
Lavrov claimed the US and other western countries were being surpassed by “emerging and strengthening centres of economic growth, financial power and political influence”, although he was not specific about which countries. Lavrov also said Russia’s relations with China were at “their best period in history”.
The Hungarian prime minister, Viktor Orbán, called for EU support to Ukraine to be reviewed annually. Orbán criticised “liberal” politicians for wanting “to give money to Ukraine over four years”, claiming it would be “anti-democratic” to do so just ahead of European parliament elections in June.
Orbán’s chief of staff, Gergely Gulyás, said Hungary was in talks with the EU about Ukraine aid but it was not certain an agreement would be reached. Failing that, he said, the EU’s other 26 members could reach a solution without Hungary.
Russia has blamed separatist “traitors” from abroad who want to start a “partisan war” for the protests that took place on Wednesday in the small town of Baymak in Bashkortostan after local activist Fail Alsynov was jailed for four years.
Estonia said it would not renew the residence permit of the head of the Estonian Orthodox church of the Moscow patriarchate, Metropolitan Eugene, saying the Russian national was “a security risk”.
Nuclear envoys of South Korea, the US and Japan condemned North Korea for its arms trade with Russia, recent missile tests, and increasingly hostile rhetoric at a meeting in Seoul on Thursday. Japan’s envoy, Hiroyuki Namazu, condemned Pyongyang’s ballistic missile launch and said there must be close monitoring of what Russia may be providing to North Korea in return for armaments.
Russian forces launched 33 Iranian-designed attack drones at Ukraine overnight, and fired guided missiles at its second largest city of Kharkiv in the east, said Ukraine’s air force on Thursday. It added that its air defence systems had downed 22 of the drones and that Russian forces had also fired two S-300 anti-aircraft guided missiles from the Belgorod border region.
Schools in western Ukraine are rolling out rifle and pistol shooting practice using interactive software, a regional official said. The governor of the western Ivano-Frankivsk region, Svitlana Onyshchuk, said: “Prykarpattia high school students will learn shooting on safe interactive systems at Defence of Ukraine classes.” She says the training will be introduced in three dozen schools in the western region.
Russia has filed charges against 68 foreign mercenaries for fighting for Ukraine, according to the Russian state-run Tass news agency, which cites a statement sent by to it by Russia’s investigative committee.
Russian state prosecutors asked a Moscow court on Thursday to sentence prominent nationalist Igor Girkin to five years in prison for inciting extremism. Regarded in the west as a war criminal, Girkin has publicly accused Putin and top army officials of not pursuing the war in Ukraine harshly or effectively enough.
Cyprus is making an “extremely important” contribution in increasing sanctions pressure on Moscow, Ukraine’s ambassador to the east Mediterranean island, Ruslan Nimchynskyi, said on Thursday.
The US and its allies are looking for a way to unfreeze $300bn (£237bn) in Russian central bank funds sitting mostly in Europe and use them for the benefit of Ukraine.
Romanian farmers blocked a crossing on the Romanian-Ukrainian border on Thursday, Ukraine’s state customs service said. The Ukrainian state customs service said that traffic leaving Ukraine for trucks has been temporarily suspended to prevent passenger cars from being blocked.
The Russian city of Belgorod cancelled its traditional Orthodox Epiphany festivities on Friday due to the threat of attacks as Kyiv’s forces pursue a new strategy.
