Ukraine-Russia war latest: Romania becomes second Nato country to report Russian drones, calls in Moscow’s envoy

A significant Russian oil refinery was reportedly struck by Ukrainian drones overnight, sparking a fire, according to confirmations from both Russian officials and Ukraine’s military.

The attack on the Kirishi refinery, located in Russia’s northwestern Leningrad region, marks the latest in a series of Ukrainian assaults on Russian oil infrastructure.

Kyiv asserts these strikes are aimed at disrupting Moscow’s war efforts. Operated by Russian oil major Surgutneftegas, the facility boasts a substantial annual output of nearly 17.7 million metric tons of crude, equivalent to 355,000 barrels per day.

Russia launched 87 drones and missiles in an overnight strike on Ukraine.

Ukraine’s air force reported three missiles and 84 drones, including Shaheds and Gerbera styles, which came from the Kursk, Bryansk, Orel, Millerovo and Primorsko-Akhtarsk directions in Russia.

The defensive forces shot down and suppressed 59 drones, but 25 hits were recorded in 13 locations

Old-fashioned barter is on the rise in Russia’s foreign trade for the first time since the 1990s, as companies seeking to outfox Western sanctions swap wheat for Chinese cars and flax seeds for building materials.

Even as Russia builds warm ties with China and India, the return of barter shows just how far the war in Ukraine has distorted trading relationships for the world’s biggest producer of natural resources, three decades after the 1991 collapse of the Soviet Union ushered in Russian economic integration with the West.

The United States, Europe and allies have imposed more than 25,000 different sanctions on Russia over the 2022 war in Ukraine and the 2014 annexation of Crimea in a bid to sink Russia’s $2.2 trillion economy and undermine support for President Vladimir Putin.

Washington has also hit India with tariffs in response to New Delhi’s oil trade with Russia. Putin says Russia’s economy has outperformed expectations. It grew faster over the past two years than G7 countries, despite Western predictions of a crash. He has ordered businesses and officials to defy sanctions in every way they can. However, there are growing signs of strain on the economy, which the central bank now shows to be technically in recession and which suffers high inflation.

Some punitive measures – particularly the disconnection of Russian banks from the SWIFT payments system in 2022 and Washington’s warnings to Chinese banks last year against supporting Russia’s war effort – have stoked fears of secondary sanctions.

Volodymyr Zelensky has confirmed a Ukrainian attack on Russia’s oil industry and said they help significantly restrict the war.

“Losses on Russia’s own territory thanks to our long-range strikes. The most effective sanctions – the ones that work the fastest – are the fires at Russia’s oil refineries, its terminals, oil depots. To significantly restrict Russia’s oil industry is to significantly restrict the war,” he said on X.

He added: “Russia’s war is essentially a function of oil, of gas, of all its other energy resources. I thank the special forces of the Security Service of Ukraine, who did a great job in Primorsk recently, hitting Russia’s largest oil terminal on the Baltic Sea.”

The Ukrainian president confirmed “substantial damage”, and said everything has been verified.

Across Europe, and here in the UK, the grim question has once again surfaced: how prepared would we be, really, if the unthinkable happened and a major war broke out on our continent?

The events have reminded us that Europe is not immune to war. For Britain, the question is whether its people are ready – and if not, how quickly they could be trained. Guy Walters looks at the MoD scheme that fast-tracks Ukrainian civilians into soldiers, and asks if it could work for the UK, too:

Donald Trump had asked his envoy to Ukraine about who is winning the war last month, wanting to know how is Kyiv performing.

Speaking at the Yalta security conference in Kyiv yesterday, US special envoy to Ukraine, Keith Kollogg said: “I was actually asked this question [If Russia is winning the war against Ukraine] by the president, president Trump, in the Oval Office, probably six weeks ago. I responded quite forcefully, and I finally said, ‘Mr president, don’t just listen to me. Your Chairman of the Joint Chiefs, Dan Caine, is outside.”

“Bring him in. Ask him that question, he’s your principal military advisor.’ and he did. Dan said the same thing, ‘Are they winning?’ ‘No, they’re not winning’,” he said.

The top diplomat also said Putin appears to be getting what he wants in his efforts to seize Ukraine’s eastern territories.

“Putin wants all of Donetsk, Kherson and Zaporizhzhia,” Kellogg said.

The Ukrainian military said it struck the Kirishi oil refinery in Russia’s northwestern Leningrad region overnight yesterday.

The attack targeted one of the largest oil refineries in Russia and caused explosions, the Ukraine armed forces said in a statement.

It also confirmed a fire at the refinery.

The major refinery produces about 80 types of petroleum products, including automotive gasoline, diesel, and aviation fuel, is involved in supplying the Russian army, it said.

Russia’s defence ministry said at least 361 drones had been shot down by Russian air defence systems yesterday, including four guided aerial bombs and a US-made Himars missile. It did not give details about the location of the attacks.

Romania has summoned the Russian ambassador after accusing Moscow of an “unacceptable and irresponsible” breach of its airspace with a drone.

In the early hours yesterday, the Romanian defence ministry scrambled two F-16s to down a Russian drone in its airspace, just days after Poland confirmed an incursion by at least 19 Russian UAVs.

The Russian ambassador to Bucharest was summoned to protest the “violation of Romania’s sovereignty”, said Romanian foreign minister Oana Toi.

Romania’s defence ministry said it detected the Russian drone when two F-16 jets were monitoring the country’s border with Ukraine, after “Russian air attacks on Ukrainian infrastructure on the Danube”.

The drone was detected 20km (12.4 miles) south-west of the village of Chilia Veche before disappearing from radar.

It did not fly over populated areas or pose imminent danger, the ministry said.