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Reuters

Agence France-Presse

Ukraine on Wednesday said that its forces had hit a Russian oil depot that services Moscow’s air force hundreds of kilometres from the warring countries’ shared border.
The apparent attack is the latest in a series of escalating cross border strikes by Moscow and Kyiv targeting energy and military facilities, almost three years after the Kremlin launched its invasion of Ukraine.
“Ukrainian defence forces hit Russian oil depot in Engels” in the Saratov region, the Ukrainian general staff said in a statement on social media.
“It should be noted that this oil depot provided fuel to the Engels-2 military airfield, where enemy strategic aviation is based,” the general staff added.
Russian officials acknowledged in earlier statements that Ukraine had attacked the region with unmanned aerial vehicles.
The defence ministry said its air defence systems had downed 32 Ukrainian drones overnight, including 11 over the Saratov region.
The governor of the region, Roman Busargin, said that an emergency response team had been dispatched to an industrial facility where a fire had broken out after a Ukrainian drone attack, without elaborating on the type of facility hit.
Busargin said that no one had been wounded in the attack.
Kyiv has claimed that its previous attacks on oil facilities were part of ongoing efforts to dent Russian energy revenues that are used to fund the military in Ukraine.
“The destruction of the oil depot creates serious logistical problems for the strategic aviation of the Russian occupants and significantly reduces their ability to strike at peaceful Ukrainian cities and civilian objects,” the general staff said this time around.


Meanwhile, Ukraine said on Tuesday its forces were “commencing new offensive actions” in Russia’s western Kursk region, in its first substantive remarks two days after Russian reports of a renewed Ukrainian thrust in the area.
Ukraine first seized part of the Kursk region in a surprise incursion in August, and it has held territory there for five months despite losing some ground. The Russian defence ministry said on Sunday that Kyiv had launched a new counter-attack.
On Tuesday, Ukraine’s general staff, which keeps a tight lid on information out of the area for the security of its operation there, said Kyiv’s military had hit a Russian command post near the Kursk region’s settlement of Belaya.
The strike and other recent operations in the region were coordinated with Ukrainian ground forces, who “are currently commencing new offensive operations” against Russian troops, it said.
The military later edited out any mention of a new attack in the Telegram statement, replacing the phrase with the much vaguer “combat operations”. It provided no explanation.
Russia’s defence ministry, which has characterised the Ukrainian counter-attack as bungled over the last two days, said in a statement that its troops had carried out strikes on Ukrainian units in the Kursk region.
It listed six locations where it said its forces had defeated Ukrainian brigades, and seven more – including one on the Ukrainian side of the border – where it said it had carried out strikes on Ukrainian troops and equipment.
Reuters could not independently verify battlefield reports from either side.
The apparent escalation in the fighting in the Kursk region comes at a critical time for Ukraine, whose outnumbered and outgunned troops are struggling to repel Russian advances in the east.
Capturing and retaining a slice of Russian territory in the Kursk region has given Ukraine a bargaining chip in potential peace talks, as both sides fight to improve their battlefield positions before Donald Trump’s return to the White House.
The US president-elect, who will be sworn in on January 20 – has repeatedly said he will end the nearly three-year-old war quickly, but without saying how.

The US-based Institute for the Study of War said geolocated footage from the region published on Sunday and Monday indicated recent Ukrainian advances in three areas northeast of the town of Sudzha.
It said Russian forces were trying to attack elsewhere in the region. Russian military bloggers reported fighting in Malaya Loknya, northwest of Sudzha.
Ukraine’s offensive in the Kursk region has come at a cost. Late in 2024 Russian forces advanced in eastern Ukraine at the fastest pace since 2022. Their troops control about a fifth of Ukraine’s territory.
Western and Ukrainian assessments say Russia also has about 11,000 troops from its ally North Korea fighting with its own forces in the region. Russia has neither confirmed nor denied their presence.
Ukraine and the United States say large numbers have been killed, with US Secretary Antony Blinken giving a figure on Monday of more than 1,000 North Koreans dead or wounded.
Ukraine’s special forces said on Tuesday they had killed 13 North Korean soldiers, and posted photos on Telegram which they said showed their bodies and ID documents.
In a regular update, Kyiv’s general staff said there had been 27 Russian attacks in the Kursk region on Tuesday so far.


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Ukraine war

A destroyed Russian tank sits on a roadside near the town of Sudzha, in the Kursk region, in August 2024. Photo: AP

A Russian serviceman aims a D-30 howitzer towards Ukrainian positions in the border area of Kursk region, Russia in November 2024. Photo: Russian Defence Ministry Press Service/AP

Ukraine war: Russia says it captures ‘important logistics hub’ of Kurakhove, amid Kursk battle

A central street covered in debris from destroyed residential buildings after Russian bombing in Kurakhove, Donetsk region, Ukraine, on November 7, 2024. Photo: AP

A man rides on a bike in front of the mail office which was destroyed by a Russian air strike in Kurakhove, Donetsk region, Ukraine, on November 7, 2024. Photo: AP/File

A Russian soldier fires a gun toward a Ukrainian position in the Russian-Ukrainian border area in   the Kursk region, Russia, in October 2024. Photo: Russian Defence Ministry Press Service/AP/File

Macron affirms Trump has ‘solid ally’ in France, urges realism from Ukraine over territory

French President Emmanuel Macron and US President-elect Donald Trump in Paris on December 7. Photo: Zuma Press Wire / dpa

France’s President Emmanuel Macron and Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky in Brussels, Belgium in December. Photo: Reuters

Elon Musk at the reopening of the landmark Notre-Dame Cathedral in Paris on December 7. Photo: AP

Ukraine to ask allies for boost to air defences at Germany meeting, Zelensky says

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky speaks during a press conference in Berlin. Photo: dpa

A funeral ceremony in Irpin, Ukraine, on November 21, 2024. Photo: AP

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Russia & Central Asia

The apparent escalation comes as both sides fight to improve their battlefield positions before Trump returns to the White House


The apparent escalation comes as both sides fight to improve their battlefield positions before Trump returns to the White House.
