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France claims interception of Russian ‘shadow fleet’ oil tanker off Sicily
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Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky said he had approved a 40-day offensive to “influence” Russia to end the war.
Zelensky said he made the decision after consulting the head of the Ukrainian security service. It is unclear whether this offensive has begun yet.
He also confirmed that Kyiv‘s forces had attacked two more Russian oil refineries in Ufa, 1,500km from the frontline, and an oil depot in the Krasnodar region, 300km from Ukraine, in the latest blow to the rival’s infrastructure.
Meanwhile, France claimed on Thursday that its forces had intercepted a Russian ‘shadow fleet’ oil tanker, just days after the British Royal Marines stormed a ship in the English Channel.
French president Emmanuel Macron said his navy intercepted the tanker as it transited near the coast of Sicily, accusing Russia of using the ship to skirt Western sanctions.
“This new action against the shadow fleet, conducted days after a similar operation by Britain, shows Europeans’ determination,” he said, adding that the interception took place on Tuesday.
Danish police said on Thursday they had no conclusive evidence to prove that flying objects that disrupted Copenhagen airport last year were drones.
Copenhagen Airport suspended flights on September 22 when flying objects thought to have been drones were observed in its airspace, followed by a string of shutdowns in the following days across Denmark, including at the main base of Denmark’s air force fighter jets.
The case was seen as being part of a growing pattern of suspected hybrid warfare targeting critical infrastructure across the Nordic and Baltic region, raising alarm among NATO allies.
A vast state library in Moscow has so far taken 18,000 “Russophobic” books from Russian-controlled areas of Ukraine and placed them in a special repository, its director said.
Vadim Duda, head of the Russian State Library, said the books had been removed from libraries in areas captured by Russia in the eastern Donbas region and other parts of Ukraine, and were being stored for “scholarly and research purposes”.
Duda, posting on Telegram, said the books placed in the special archive contained “overtly nationalist and Russophobic ideas that grossly distort our shared history”. He said the collection had been started in 2024 on orders from the Russian culture ministry.
“This is not an act of destruction, but an act of preservation… for future researchers and historians, enabling them to study not only the facts but also the ways in which dangerous ideological narratives were created and disseminated,” he said.
Ukraine accuses Russia of trying to eradicate its culture and identity in the war that began in the Donbas in 2014 and exploded into Europe’s deadliest conflict since the Second World War after Moscow staged a full-scale invasion in February 2022.
Russian-installed authorities of Crimea and the city of Sevastopol have imposed a state of emergency on the peninsula to deal with economic issues, they said on Friday.
Crimea has suspended tourist activities and children’s summer camps until September citing both fuel shortages and security concerns, and fuel stations halted all fuel sales to individuals and businesses from June 21.
The shortages come as Kyiv scales up its attacks on Russian oil and energy infrastructure.
European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen will go to Armenia next week, said the EU on Friday, in a move aimed at highlighting Brussels’ support for Armenia as it faces political pressure from Russia.
The EU said von der Leyen would also go to Azerbaijan.
Armenian prime minister Nikol Pashinyan, who is working towards the goal of European Union membership, won re-election this month despite what international monitors said was blatant interference and pressure from Russia.
In turn, Moscow accused Western countries of interfering in the vote in favour of Pashinyan.
The Kremlin said on Friday that it would look into a military veteran’s viral social media post which accuses Russian military commanders in Ukraine of torturing ordinary soldiers.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov but said it sounded as though the post contained “strange formulations.”
Russia and Ukraine will carry out a new prisoner of war (PoW) exchange on Friday, Russian news outlet RBC reported, citing Russian lawmaker Shamsail Saraliev.
It is the latest of several PoW exchanges that have taken place since Moscow and Kyiv first resumed peace talks last year.
Thousands of prisoners have been exchanged so far, usually in a one-for-one ratio.
It is unclear exactly how many prisoners will be exchanged in today’s swap.
Ukraine struck a chemical plant in Russia’s Tula region for the second time in two weeks as part of a massive wave of overnight drone attacks, according to Russian and Ukrainian Telegram channels.
Regional governor Dmitry Milyayev said an industrial facility in Novomoskovsk, 200 km (125 miles) south of Moscow, had been damaged.
Multiple news reports named it as the Azot plant, which has been described by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy as critical to Russia’s production of explosives.
Azot, which describes itself as Russia’s largest producer of ammonia and nitrogen fertilisers, was previously hit on June 14, according to Zelenskiy.
Ukraine has intensified drone strikes deep inside Russia this year as part of a strategy to inflict economic pain and undermine Moscow’s ability to sustain the war. Its targets have included oil refineries, terminals and ports as well as industrial facilities.
Milyayev, the governor, said electricity lines in the Tula region were also damaged and one woman was injured.
Ukrainian forces launched one of their largest drone attacks on Russian territory and illegally annexed Crimea, with Russian air defences claiming to intercept 660 unmanned aerial vehicles across 12 regions, the Black Sea, and the Azov Sea during a major overnight assault on Friday.
This significant barrage marks one of the most extensive drone operations targeting Russian regions and the occupied peninsula since Moscow’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine over four years ago.
Kyiv has increasingly deployed long-range drones to strike deep inside Russia, focusing on critical oil production and energy facilities.
Western officials and analysts suggest this strategy aims to cripple Russian fuel and military supplies, thereby hindering Moscow‘s battlefield operations and intensifying pressure on President Vladimir Putin.
The extensive drone assault followed remarks from Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on X, where he announced an order for a “40-day influence operation.”
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Kazakhstan has cut gas production at its Karachaganak gas field after Ukraine’s drone attack this week on the Orenburg gas processing plant in Russia, energy minister Erlan Akkenzhenov told reporters on Friday.
Kyiv has been scaling up its attacks on Russian energy infrastructure, a move which is inflicting significant damage on its output in some areas.
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