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Russia threatens ‘coordinated strikes on a regular basis’ after Ukraine’s biggest assault on Moscow
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Russian strikes killed at least two people and wounded two others in the northeastern Ukrainian region of Sumy after Moscow threatened escalation for Ukraine’s biggest assault so far.
Another nine people, including four children, suffered injuries in Kharkiv, which was attacked with Russian guided aerial bombs.
Ukraine on Friday morning claimed that a crew member of a Panama-flagged ship was killed in a Russian drone attack in the Black Sea waters. Oleksiy Kuleba said that another vessel under the Saint Kitts and Nevis flag was also hit.
Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov previously warned of “massive coordinated strikes on a regular basis” in response to Ukraine‘s attack on a Moscow oil refinery for the second time this week.
Ukraine earlier launched a heavy drone strike on Russia in retaliation for damage done to a historic monastery in Kyiv this week. Hundreds of drones targeted Moscow overnight, hitting the Russian capital’s oil refinery for the second time this week, in one of the biggest aerial assaults on Russia of the war so far.
Latvian prime minister Andris Kulbergs has said there is no point in having diplomatic channels with Russia if Moscow doesn’t want to engage in diplomacy.
Kulbergs previously told Bloomberg that the EU needs to appoint an envoy for peace talks with Russia when the time is right as the bloc seeks to play a role in ending the war in Ukraine.
“Europe has to be at the table,” Kulbergs said, adding: “There should be one person if the peace talks are in place who has the political mandate to do that.”
Ukraine has won key pledges of further support for its fight against Russia from world leaders attending the Group of Seven summit in France, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Wednesday.
The leaders of the world’s leading industrial economies promised to strengthen Ukraine’s air defenses and ensure its energy supply, as well as step up international economic pressure on Moscow, as Kyiv’s fight against Russia’s all-out invasion stretches into its fifth year with no end in sight.
“The G7 Summit in France delivered important results for Ukraine. Most importantly, we agreed on additional strengthening of Ukraine’s air defense,” Zelenskyy, who attended the gathering, said on X.
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Belgium imported more natural gas from Russia in 2025 than it did before Vladimir Putin’s war in Ukraine, data from the Belgian economy ministry showed.
Russian gas made up more than 11 per cent of Belgium’s gas imports in 2025, climbing back to pre-war 2019 levels after dropping to around 5 per cent in the wake of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
While Belgium has phased out Russian pipeline gas, imports of Russian LNG have surged, offsetting much of the decline and driving a renewed rise in Russian gas imports.
The Slovak government is set to face a parliamentary confidence vote that was triggered by the country’s debt surpassing fiscal limits set by the Constitution.
The motion was called after the Constitutional Court, the country’s highest authority, ruled Wednesday that the government has to ask for such a vote without delay.
Populist Prime Minister Robert Fico said he respected the court’s ruling and called for the vote.
His coalition government has a majority of 78 seats in the 150-seat parliament, known as the National Council, and is therefore expected to win the vote. Coalition lawmakers limited the time for the debate to 12 1/2 hours.
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Pope Leo reportedly lamented the growing number of deaths in Ukraine due to intensified Russian attacks.
“There are many innocent victims, rescuers killed, churches, and places of cultural heritage devastated by flames,” he said, according to Vatican News.
“I am close to all those who mourn their loved ones, to the wounded, and to those who, amid violence, continue courageously to serve life.”
Ukraine launched a powerful barrage of drones on Moscow on Thursday, triggering a huge explosion in one of the Russian capital’s key oil refineries.
Kyiv’s strategic deployment of medium-range drones is inflicting significant damage on Russia’s struggling war effort, experts have said as Moscow’s ground offensive stalls.
Kyiv has scaled up its targeting of Russia’s critical oil infrastructure, the lifeblood of the Kremlin’s wartime economy, as part of a wider campaign to weaken its capacity to continue its war on Ukraine.
More here.
A Romanian citizen has been sentenced to 15 years in prison by a Russian court for carrying out espionage on behalf of Ukraine, the Interfax news agency reported this morning, citing Russia’s Federal Security Service.
Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky told an EU summit that the future of Europe was being shaped by the defence of Ukraine and the best security guarantee for the bloc’s future would be to grant Kyiv fast-track membership.
Zelensky said he told member states that Ukraine wanted the war against Russia to be over by the end of the year and urged them to help Kyiv prepare for another winter with air defence missiles and fuel.
Every democratic nation in Europe deserved to be in the EU and “Ukraine merits this because it has paid more than any other country for its right to be free, independent and … European”, Zelensky said in excerpts of his address posted on X.
“The future of Europe – free, united and of course in peace – is being decided in our defence. That shows how unique our situation is.
“Hours earlier, Ukrainian air strikes struck targets deep inside Russia, including an oil refinery in Moscow, the latest long-range attacks in a campaign Zelensky highlighted as proof of Ukraine’s capabilities in meetings with US president Donald Trump and other G7 leaders in France this week.
French president Emmanuel Macron said Donald Trump initially believed Ukraine would lose its war against Russia and pushed for a deal.
Macron told France TV that Trump entered office in 2025 convinced that Kyiv was on the verge of collapse.“What he saw, when he arrived, was that Ukraine would lose. That’s why he wanted to conclude a quick peace,” Macron said.
“Remember, January-February 2025, it seemed like an eternity. He thought that Ukraine was going to lose. Things were going badly in the Oval office with President Zelensky,” Macron said.
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