Ukraine-Russia war latest: Zelensky gives Belarus stark warning as Kyiv’s drones hit Siberian oil refinery 2,000km away

Ukraine hit a major Moscow oil refinery for a second time in a week, sending thick black clouds of smoke into the sky, and disrupted commercial flights at the city’s airports in one of its biggest drone attacks of the war.

Russian air defences shot down at least 194 drones headed for the city, according to Moscow mayor Sergei Sobyanin. It was part of a major, long-range attack across parts of Russia, with air defences intercepting 555 drones overall, according to the Russian ministry of defence.

“Air defence forces are continuing to repel a large-scale attack. Several drones managed to reach the [Moscow oil refinery],” said Mr Sobyanin. At least seven of Ukraine’s drones appear to have beaten Russia’s air defences to strike targets in the city.

Ukraine’s president Volodymyr Zelensky said the attack was in response.

Fuel stations in the Russian-controlled peninsula of Crimea halted all fuel sales to individuals and businesses from 9am local time on Sunday, including cash, non-cash and voucher purchases, the Russian-installed governor said.

Fuel will only be ⁠supplied to government agencies that ensure the functioning and security of ‌the peninsula, ​Sergei Aksyonov, ‌the governor, ⁠wrote on ⁠the Telegram ‌messaging ​app.

At least four people were killed and 28 wounded in a Ukrainian drone attack on the Russian-controlled peninsula of Crimea, the Russian-installed governor said.

Separately, local ​authorities ⁠in Russia’s ‌Krasnodar region said a Ukrainian drone ‌attack killed ‌one person on a ⁠passenger ferry and set an oil terminal ablaze.

The ferry service across the Kerch Strait, separating Crimea from the Krasnodar region, has been temporarily suspended, the authorities said.

The initiative aims to produce munitions more quickly and affordably than existing systems like Storm Shadow missiles.

New systems, capable of hitting targets at least 500km away and carrying a 225kg warhead, have been fired at a range in the Hebrides, with further UK trials planned.

The Ministry of Defence (MoD) challenged firms to develop weapons exceeding 600km per hour, costing around £400,000 per unit, and producing at least 20 a month within months of an order.

Some 27 industry bids were received, with “Dragon’s Den”-style pitches held last February. Six companies were then awarded contracts worth around £5m each to design and test the weapons in just seven months.

Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky urged authorities in neighbouring Belarus for the second day running to dismantle relay stations he said were playing a role in staging Russian drone attacks on Ukrainian regions.

Belarus, under longtime president Alexander Lukashenko, has been one of Moscow’s ⁠closest allies in the more than four-year-old war against Ukraine and allowed the Kremlin to use its territory to launch the February 2022 invasion.

Lukashenko, in power since 1994, has repeatedly said he wants no further involvement in the conflict, but Zelensky has urged Belarus to prove that it will not provide direct support for Moscow’s war effort.

Zelensky did not refer directly to Lukashenko in his nightly video address and ⁠alluded to his contested re-election to new terms in office. But he ​said ⁠Ukraine knows of four relay stations ‌in Belarus assisting Russian military activity.

“Belarus still has time to dismantle this equipment. We also know about every factory in Belarus that works for Russia and supports the war,” he said.

“Ukraine does not want this and we have warned the de facto leadership of Belarus which has influence over these developments,” he said.

The Russian-occupied Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant in southeastern Ukraine said yesterday that external power ⁠had been restored after the station had been obliged to rely on diesel generation for a time.

Russia ​seized the plant in the ‌first weeks of ⁠the war and each side has ⁠since regularly accused the other of military action ‌that compromises ​nuclear safety.

A statement issued by the plant’s Russian management on Telegram said the plant was operating normally after the transition back to external power. Radiation levels were normal.

The UN nuclear watchdog, ‌the International Atomic Energy Agency, also reported the restoration of the external ‌line after a break of ‌four and a half hours.

Ukraine’s energy ministry said Russian military activity was responsible for the disconnection, the 20th such occurrence since Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.

The plant, Europe’s largest with six reactors, produces no electricity, but needs power supplied by two external links to keep nuclear ‌fuel at the plant cool.

Russia has freed 24 Filipinos who were detained for months without charges in a Siberian city, after Philippine president Ferdinand Marcos Jr. raised concern for them in a meeting with president Vladimir Putin, Philippine officials said on Saturday.

The 24 arrived in Manila aboard two flights early Sunday, and the first batch was welcomed by Philippine foreign secretary Theresa Lazaro, who accompanied Marcos in his talks with Putin on Wednesday in the Russian city of Kazan, the department of foreign affairs in Manila said.

Migrant Workers secretary Hans Cacdac welcomed the final batch of freed workers before dawn. His agency provided unspecified aid to the workers, who were detained in a Russian region known for its extreme winter temperatures.

Russian guided bombs struck an apartment block in Ukraine’s second-largest city of Kharkiv on Saturday, killing at least one person and injuring nine, including a 6-year-old, authorities said Saturday.

A body was pulled from the rubble hours after the attack, Mayor Ihor Terekhov said on Telegram.

He said bombs slammed into the low-rise block in Kharkiv’s Kholodnohirskiy district in the early hours of Saturday. The head of the regional administration, Oleh Syniehubov, said at least nine people were injured, five of whom hospitalized.

Elsewhere in Kharkiv, a Russian drone struck a civilian car on Friday evening, killing a man and injuring the woman driving, Syniehubov said.

The International Atomic Energy Agency said on Saturday Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant lost off-site power for the 20th time during the conflict with Russia due to an issue with the site’s internal power lines affecting its only remaining 330 kV connection, Ferosplavna-1.

Emergency diesel generators were activated to maintain reactor cooling and other essential nuclear safety functions, the agency said in a post on X.

The European Union does not intend to be mediators in case of peace talks to end the war in Ukraine, as it sides with Kyiv, European Council president Antonio Costa said on Friday.

A diplomatic overture to the Kremlin ⁠by European Council president Antonio ​Costa ⁠has exposed ‌divisions at a summit of EU leaders over how to ‌handle relations with ‌Russia.

Costa at a press conference after the summit said there were “no credible signs” that Russia wanted to engage in serious negotiations.

“What I’m doing through my office is to establish a diplomatic channel, ‌because we cannot ​depend only on others ‌to interpret Russian ⁠messages and we must ⁠be able to convey to Russia ‌our ​own messages,” ‌Costa said.