Russian

Russia launched more than 600 drones and 47 missiles as it targeted eight regions in Dnpiro, authorities say.

Overnight Russian attacks in eight regions of Ukraine have killed at least five people and wounded 30 others, Ukrainian officials say.

The central Ukrainian city of Dnipro was hardest hit, with more than 20 people reported wounded, including a nine-year-old and two police officers, according to a Telegram statement from Ukraine’s National Police.

Two people died in the city of Nizhyn in the northern region of Chernihiv, while a one-year-old boy was among the wounded in Kharkiv region, police said.

A rescue operation was underway at a residential building in Dnipro, while emergency services worked in regions across Ukraine, including in Chernihiv, Odesa and Kharkiv.

Donetsk Governor Vadym Filashkin wrote on Telegram that one person was wounded in attacks on Sloviansk, and another in Kramatorsk. Six homes, five high-rises and buildings, including a post office and a church, also reported damage.

Ukraine’s Air Force tallied 619 Russian drones and 47 missiles launched during the attacks. Air defences shot down or suppressed 610 of them, it said.

“Russia’s tactics remain unchanged – attack drones, cruise missiles, and a significant number of ballistic missiles. Most targets are civilian infrastructure in cities,” President Volodymyr Zelenskyy posted on X on Saturday, along with a video of emergency workers responding to shelled-out buildings.

The latest attacks came on the heels of the killings of a Ukrainian married couple, both aged 75, during a Russian strike on the port city of Odesa yesterday. Strikes also destroyed residential buildings and hit a foreign ship, Ukrainian authorities said.

The European Union this week approved a new round of sanctions targeting Russia’s energy, banking and trade sectors. Discussions had previously stalled amid opposition from Hungary.

The EU’s foreign policy chief, Kaja Kallas, called on Friday for a new package of sanctions, telling reporters in Cyprus that the EU is “really pushing”.

Zelenskyy urged European leaders to expedite the process in light of the latest attacks.

“The pause caused by the blocking of the 20th package gave the aggressor additional time to adapt – it is important to counter this,” he added.

People in the Russian city of Tuapse are worried about the toxic effects of a huge oil refinery fire that’s been burning for days after a Ukrainian drone attack. Al Jazeera’s Yulia Shapavalova is there.

Raid is part of Moscow’s hardline social conservatism and clampdown on political life.

Russian police have raided the country’s top publishing house on suspicion that it has been disseminating “homosexual propaganda”, local media report.

Police reportedly seized thousands of books on Tuesday and took Yevgeny Kapiev, the chief executive of Eksmo, in for questioning. The raid appears to be part of Moscow’s pivot to hardline social conservatism with repressive laws running alongside a clampdown on political life and aggressive foreign policy.

Police targeted Kapiev as part of a “criminal case on extremism” over the publication of books “dealing with LGBT themes”, Eksmo communications director Yekaterina Kozhanova told the AFP news agency.

The firm’s finance director, head of distribution and deputy commercial director were also interrogated, Kozhanova said.

Eksmo is suspected of unofficially marketing books, including novels, that promote “gay propaganda” to Russian youth, the broadcaster Ren-TV reported.

An investigation into Eksmo was opened last year when authorities said “LGBT propaganda” had been “detected” in books published by its Popcorn Books subsidiary and they arrested several members of its staff.

Ultraconservative turn

Books showing approval of same-sex relations have been banned in Russia for more than 10 years.

The law has been tightened recently, requiring publishers to remove publications and destroy entire editions if they depict same-sex relationships.

The persecution of LGBTQ individuals, organisations and communities has intensified in the past decade or so as the Kremlin heralds “traditional values”. That drive has included a crackdown on films, books, art and culture, among other areas of social life.

Cultural producers have faced significant pressure even when they focus on giants of Russian culture. Biographies of Mikhail Bulgakov, author of The Master and Margarita, and the poet, actor and singer Vladimir Vysotsky have to be marked with warning labels because they are seen as promoting drug-taking.

The ultraconservative social turn has accelerated since Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.

In 2023, Russia’s Supreme Court ruled that LGBTQ activists should be designated as “extremists” and banned activities of the “international LGBTQ movement”.

Courts have issued fines and jail sentences to people displaying LGBTQ “symbols”, such as clothes, jewellery or posters featuring the rainbow flag.

Out of 49 European countries, the Rainbow Europe organisation ranked Russia third from bottom in terms of tolerance of LGBTQ people.

Ukraine’s military intelligence says it struck two large landing ships in Sevastopol Bay in Russian-occupied Crimea.

Ukraine and Russia have attacked each other overnight, with Ukrainian drones striking Russian assets in Black Sea ports and Russia hitting several regions across Ukraine, including the capital Kyiv.

Ukraine’s GUR military intelligence unit claimed attacks on two Russian landing ⁠ships and a radar station in Sevastopol Bay in Russian-occupied Crimea. It says the $150m vessels were successfully hit and radar equipment destroyed.

In Russia, Ukrainian drones targeted the port of Tuapse, killing at least one person, injuring another and damaging transport infrastructure, according to regional governor Veniamin Kondratiev.

The strike was the second on the port in three days, hours after a fire from a previous attack was extinguished.

Russia’s Defence Ministry said air defences destroyed 112 Ukrainian drones overnight.

Ukraine reported a series of Russian attacks on Ukrainian territory overnight, including in Kyiv, Kharkiv, Kherson, Sumy and Zaporizhia regions.

Drones hit a car in the city of Putyvl in Ukraine’s border region of Sumy, injuring three women, as well as two homes in Kyiv’s Brovary district, damaging them and injuring one person, according to Ukrainian officials.

“Tonight, the enemy is again attacking the Kyiv region with drones. Under the sights are peaceful people, homes,” said Kyiv regional military administration head Mykola Kalashnyk.

Russian attacks also damaged railway infrastructure in the northeastern city of Kharkiv, according to the Interfax-Ukraine news agency.

Over the past 24 hours, Russian attacks in the Kherson region killed one person and injured seven, while injuring four others in the Zaporizhia region, Ukrainian officials said.

Moscow’s forces have hit civilian areas almost daily since the all-out invasion of its neighbour more than four years ago, with the regular assaults occasionally punctuated by massive attacks.

More than 15,000 Ukrainian civilians have died in the strikes, according to the United Nations.

There have been several rounds of United States-brokered negotiations in recent months, but they have failed to reach an agreement to stop the fighting, with the process further stalled since the outbreak of the US-Israel war on Iran.

Even before the war on Iran, progress towards a peace deal in Ukraine had been slow, due to differences over territorial issues.

Ukraine has proposed freezing the conflict along current front lines. Russia rejects that, saying it wants the whole of the Donetsk region, despite it being partly controlled by Ukraine – a demand Kyiv says is unacceptable.

Hungary’s newly elected leader, Peter Magyar, stormed to power last weekend after campaigning to, among other things, take a step back from Russia.

Instead, Magyar has promised voters he will steer Hungary back towards the European Union, following the 16-year rule of far-right Prime Minister Viktor Orban, who went to great lengths to deepen ties with Russia.

Under Orban, Hungary opposed most of the European Union’s stances against Russia and  blocked sanctions and obstructed military aid for Ukraine.

Above all, he and his Fidesz party entrenched Hungary’s reliance on Russian oil.

Now, following a massive electoral turnout and a landslide victory, Magyar – once a devotee of Orban and now leader of the centre-right Tisza party – has promised to end Russian oil imports by 2035. But how realistic a goal is that? And can he achieve it?

How much does Hungary depend on Russia for energy?

Hungary has been central to keeping Russian oil and gas flowing into the EU, even as Europe and the US banned some imports and imposed sanctions on anyone paying more than $60 a barrel for Russian oil.

Following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the EU banned seaborne imports of Russian oil but kept land flows legal. That allowed Hungary to continue importing most of its crude by pipeline via Ukraine.

The EU first announced plans to phase out Russian energy imports in May 2022, shortly after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. In December 2025, a binding agreement was made for member nations to completely phase out Russian oil and gas imports by late 2027. But, instead of diversifying from Moscow, Hungary increased its dependency.

According to a 2026 report by the Center for the Study of Democracy (CSD), Hungary had expanded its reliance on Russian crude from 61 percent in 2021 to 93 percent by 2025.

Much of the crude oil Hungary imports from Russia comes via the Druzhba pipeline. It is one of the key pipelines that ensures the continued flow of Russian crude to both Hungary and Slovakia. At 5,500 km (3,420 miles) long, it begins in Almetyevsk in western Russia and runs into Belarus. It splits at Mozyr, with one branch going to Poland and Germany and the southern branch goes through Ukraine into Slovakia, Hungary and Czechia.

In January, the section of the pipeline running through Ukraine suffered significant damage. Ukraine blamed a Russian airstrike – Moscow denies that.

Hungary and Slovakia have complained that Ukraine has been deliberately slow to repair the damage. As a result, in March, Orban vetoed a 90 billion euro ($106bn) loan from the EU to Ukraine until the pipeline reopens.

On Tuesday this week, Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said oil will flow again through the conduit by the end of April as he expects the new Hungarian leadership to lift its veto on the loan by then.

As for gas, Hungary remains one of the most dependent EU member states on Russian natural gas, accounting for roughly three-quarters of its annual imports, the CSD report shows.

Since the start of Russia’s invasion, Hungary has imported an estimated 15.6 billion euros ($18.4bn) worth of Russian gas. Long-term contracts with Russia’s state-owned Gazprom, the continued reliance on TurkStream – a natural gas pipeline running from Russia to Turkiye – and “the weak use of alternative interconnectors have locked the country into Russia’s reconfigured gas export system”, the CSD report states.

Nuclear energy dependency is yet another issue. Hungary granted Rosatom, the Russian state nuclear energy corporation, the construction contract for the expansion of its Paks atomic plant, 100km (62 miles) southwest of Budapest on the Danube River. Russia, in turn, provided Hungary with a state loan to finance most of the development of new reactors. The European Commission approved the plan in 2017 and construction started in February.

Now, Magyar says he intends to reassess the project’s financing. But the Paks plant provides 40 to 50 percent of all electricity generated in Hungary. The expansion plans will increase that to between 60 and 70 percent, which would cut reliance on imported energy, but keep Hungary tied to Russia. 

According to a 2025 joint research paper by the Center for the Study of Democracy and the Center for Research on Energy and Clean Air, Hungary could potentially diversify its energy supply by importing non-Russian oil via alternative sources such as the Adria pipeline. It transports crude from the Adriatic Sea to refineries in Croatia, Serbia, Hungary and Slovakia. Their refiners, which are controlled by Hungarian oil and gas company MOL, are capable of processing non-Russian crude, the research paper said.

Russian oil has been coming in at a discounted rate as a result of Western sanctions, so any diversification will likely be more expensive.

Can Hungary wean itself off its dependence on Russian oil?

It won’t be easy, and Magyar knows it. “The geographical position of neither Russia nor Hungary will change. Our energy exposure will also be here for a while,” he said before last weekend’s election. And in an interview with the Financial Times, Magyar insisted that Russian imports should remain an option. “This does not mean that by ending dependence on someone you no longer continue to buy from them,” he said.

Magyar will seek to strike a balance between respecting current contracts with Moscow to ensure Hungary’s energy security, while establishing political distance, said Pawel Zerka, a senior policy fellow at the European Council on Foreign Relations.

“I would expect this government not to be pro-Russia in the sense of going to Moscow and keeping ties with the Russian government, but they don’t have easy options to replace Russian fuel with something else, especially considering the international situation with the Middle East,” Zerka said, referring to the closure of the Strait of Hormuz in the Gulf which has blocked the shipping of 20 percent of the world’s oil and LNG supplies.

Zerka added that the newly elected leader will not have political room to be particularly cordial with Russian President Vladimir Putin, considering the disapproval of Russia by his electoral base. A recent poll by the European Council on Foreign Relations shows that a majority of Tisza’s voters see Russia as an adversary or rival to compete with.

“It will be interesting to see how he combines this with energy needs,” Zerka said.

How does the EU view Hungary’s energy ties to Russia?

The strong energy ties between Russia and Hungary have long caused friction with the EU. Following Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022, the European bloc has worked to cut imports of Russian oil and gas. Budapest has done the opposite.

In January, the EU passed legislation to completely phase out Russian gas and LNG imports by late 2027.

Orban’s government had called for all restrictions on Russian oil to be lifted as a result of the global energy crisis triggered by the war in the Middle East. While Trump has made some concessions on Russian oil already loaded on tankers at sea – causing several heading for China to head to India instead – EU leaders have maintained they will hold firm on sanctions.

In the lead-up to last weekend’s election, Magyar’s manifesto called the dependence on Russian energy a “systemic risk” and he would wean Hungary off its reliance by 2035. But whether he can do that in time to beat the EU’s 2027 deadline is likely to provoke discussion in Brussels.

BREAKINGBREAKING,

Kyiv’s mayor says the attacks hit Podilskyi and Obolonsky districts, causing large fires and damage to residential buildings.

Russian forces have bombed the Ukrainian capital, Kyiv, killing a 12-year-old child and wounding at least 10 people, including several doctors, according to the city’s mayor.

The child was killed early on Thursday in Kyiv’s Podilskyi district, where rocket fragments hit a 16-storey building and caused a fire at a residential building, Mayor Vitaliy Klitschko wrote in a post on Telegram.

He said rescuers have pulled another child and her mother were pulled from the rubble in Podilskyi.

The attack also hit Kyiv’s Obolonsky district, with falling rocket debris causing a large fire at a non-residential building. “Cars are also on fire,” Klitschko wrote.

More soon…

Memorial was co-winner of 2022 Peace Prize for its work in documenting human rights abuses in Russia.

The committee that awards the Nobel Peace Prize has condemned attempts by Moscow to designate the human rights group and Peace Prize laureate Memorial as an “extremist organisation”.

The chairman of the Norwegian Nobel Committee, Jorgen Watne Frydnes, said in a statement on Wednesday that it was “deeply alarmed by the Russian authorities’ latest attempts to destroy Memorial – a co-recipient of the 2022 Nobel Peace Prize – by seeking to designate [it] as an extremist organisation”.

The statement was issued as Russia’s Supreme Court is expected to examine a petition from the Ministry of Justice on Thursday to add Memorial to Russia’s list of “undesirable” entities.

The designation would ban the organisation from operating in Russia, with those affiliated with it could face up to four years in prison and fines.

Memorial has already been declared a “foreign agent”, and the Supreme Court ordered it dissolved in Russia at the end of 2021.

Frydnes stressed that if the latest petition by the Justice Ministry is upheld, “all activities of Memorial will be criminalised. Anyone taking part in, or funding, Memorial’s work – or even sharing its published materials – will risk imprisonment.”

“To designate such an organisation as extremist is an affront to the fundamental values of human dignity and freedom of expression,” he added.

The committee called “on the Russian authorities to immediately withdraw this claim and to cease all harassment of Memorial and its members”.

Memorial won the Nobel Peace Prize with the Ukrainian human rights organisation Centre for Civil Liberties and Ales Bialiatski, who has worked to promote democracy and human rights in Belarus. Memorial, established in 1987, focuses on documenting human rights abuses in Russia.

Before it was banned in Russia, Memorial formed a network of about 50 organisations across Russia and outside its borders. Some of its constituents based in Germany, France and Italy continue to operate.

Several Russian Memorial leaders have been subjected to criminal proceedings – including Oleg Orlov, who was freed in a prisoner exchange in 2024 after being imprisoned for speaking out against the Ukraine war – are now working outside Russia to continue documenting human rights abuses.

Ukraine has intensified its attacks on Russian energy facilities recently, as peace talks show no signs of progress. Several key facilities have been impacted:

NORSI, Russia’s fourth-largest oil refinery, owned by Lukoil, halted operations on April 5 due to a Ukrainian drone attack. This refinery, which processes 16 million metric tons of oil per year (around 320,000 barrels daily), is also Russia’s second-largest gasoline producer.

The Kirishi oil refinery may restart partial operations within a month after sustaining damage from drone attacks in late March that caused fires. Sources indicate that three of its four main units will resume operations, representing about 60% of its capacity. Last year, Kirishi produced 2 million tons of gasoline, 7.1 million tons of diesel, 6.1 million tons of fuel oil, and 600,000 tons of bitumen.

Novatek’s Ust-Luga processing plant suspended gas condensate processing and naphtha exports after drone strikes caused fires. The complex features three processing units, each with a capacity of 3 million tons per year, processing stable gas condensate into various fuels. In 2025, it processed 8 million tons.

Ukraine’s military reported hitting Russia’s Bashneft-Novoil oil refinery, located over 1,400 km (870 miles) from the border, which can process more than 7 million tons of oil annually.

The Saratov refinery was attacked on March 21, which led to the shutdown of its crude distillation unit. In 2024, it processed 5.8 million metric tons of oil, representing 2.2% of Russia’s refining capacity.

A fire at the Ilsky refinery occurred on February 17 due to drone attacks, with the blaze fully extinguished the next day. The refinery’s annual capacity is 6.6 million tons.

The Volgograd refinery was completely shut down on February 11 from drone strikes, affecting its primary processing unit, which accounts for 40% of its operations, with a processing figure of 13.7 million tons of oil in 2024.

A fire at the Ukhta refinery on February 12, caused by a drone attack, affected its primary oil processing unit, which processes 6,000 tons per day. In 2025, it processed around 3 million tons of oil.

The Afipsky refinery experienced a fire on January 21 due to drone attacks, focusing mainly on exports and processing 7.2 million metric tons of crude oil in 2024.

Additionally, a recent attack by Ukraine damaged facilities at the maritime transhipment complex in Novorossiysk, affecting oil product reservoirs. The damage did not disrupt CPC oil exports via the Black Sea, and U. S. oil major Chevron confirmed that crude oil exports from Tengiz remained stable. Ukrainian drones also caused fires at the Sheskharis oil terminal and damaged an oil pipeline at Primorsk, which saw significant storage capacity losses from drone attacks last month.

With information from Reuters

Abas Aslani of the Center for Middle East Strategic Studies argues that the US and Israel are playing “Russian roulette” with the Gulf’s environmental security following strikes near Iran’s Bushehr nuclear plant.

Ukraine has increased attacks on Russian energy infrastructure in bid to disrupt financing of its war.

The Ukrainian military reported that it has struck a Russian ⁠warship and ‌a drilling rig in the Black Sea.

Kyiv’s drone forces ⁠commander Robert Brovdi said on Monday that the attack targeted ⁠the Admiral Makarov missile carrier in ⁠the port of Novorossiysk, which is Russia’s largest oil exporting outlet on the Black Sea. Ukraine has increased its attacks on Russian energy infrastructure in a bid to disrupt export revenues that feed into Moscow’s war chest.

Russian authorities said at least eight people, including two children, were injured in Novorossiysk, without specifying whether the port was struck.

Videos posted on Telegram and verified by Al Jazeera’s verification unit showed a fire at one of the oil port’s docks in the city.

Novorossiysk’s Mayor Andrei Kravchenko said debris from drones had fallen on two locations in the city, including a residential area.

Russia’s military said in the early morning that air defence units had downed 148 Ukrainian drones over a three-hour period. It added that officials said emergency crews were restoring power to nearly half a million households in ⁠outages linked to air attacks.

The area of the port of Novorossiysk is also a location for the Caspian Pipeline Consortium’s (CPC) terminal, which exports oil from Kazakhstan and whose shareholders include US majors such as Chevron and ExxonMobil.

Ukraine has significantly intensified attacks on Russia’s energy facilities, including the largest oil exporting hubs ‌both on the Baltic and Black Seas, as it seeks to reduce Moscow’s revenues from the sales of oil, the lifeblood of its economy.

The Kremlin has attempted to boost its exports after US President Donald Trump gave it a temporary waiver from sanctions to ease supply constraints, as the US-Israeli war on Iran upends oil markets following the effective closure of the Strait of Hormuz.

Kyiv officials complain that Russia will use the additional revenue on new weapons to hit Ukraine harder.

Later on Monday, Russia reported that Ukrainian drones had attacked the CPC terminal. The export facility, which handles 1.5 percent of global oil supply, reported damage to mooring, loading, and storage infrastructure, the Reuters news agency reported.

“The Kyiv regime deliberately attacked facilities of the international oil transportation company Caspian Pipeline Consortium in order to inflict maximum economic damage on ⁠its largest shareholders – energy companies from the United States and Kazakhstan,” ⁠the defence ministry said in a statement.

The Black Sea strikes come a day after Ukrainian drones struck Russia’s Baltic Sea port of Primorsk – one of Russia’s main oil exporting outlets – and the NORSI oil refinery in the central Nizhny Novgorod region.

Alexander Drozdenko, governor of Russia’s northwestern Leningrad region, said a fuel reservoir in the Primorsk port area leaked when it was hit by shrapnel.

Ukrainian drones also repeatedly struck ⁠Russia’s Baltic Sea port of Ust-Luga last month, damaging several buildings in the sprawling ⁠complex of oil-processing facilities and export terminals.

In Ukraine, a Russian overnight drone attack on the southern port city of Odesa on Monday killed two women and a toddler, authorities said.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in a post on X that 16 people were wounded, including a pregnant woman and two children.

Russia’s overnight strikes also hit energy infrastructure in the Chernihiv, Sumy, Kharkiv and Dnipro regions, Zelenskyy said.

More than 300,000 households were without electricity in the northern Chernihiv region after distribution facilities were damaged in attacks, according to the regional power utility.

The Ukrainian leader said that over the past week, Russia launched at Ukraine more than 2,800 attack drones, nearly 1,350 powerful glide bombs and more than 40 missiles of various types.

April 5 (UPI) — Explosives were found in a border area between Hungary and Serbia near a pipeline that carries Russian gas, and which both depend heavily on.

Serbian president Aleksander Vucic said Sunday that the explosives were found in backpacks “a few hundred miles from the gas pipeline,” and that he’d alerted Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban that an investigation was being mounted, CNN and The BBC reported.

“Our units found an explosive of devastating power,” Vucic said on Instagram. “I told PM Orban that we would keep him updated on the investigation.

Experts have suggested that a false flag, or staged, operation could be conducted in one of the two countries to help Orban in his re-election campaign, which has seen support for his 16-year rule in Hungary sagging.

Vucic said that although there were “certain traces” of the origin of the explosives and the backpacks that contained them, he could not offer details as Serbia’s military and police authorities are conducting their investigation.

The purchase and use of Russian oil by Hungary and Serbia, both of whose leaders are allies of Russian President Vladimir Putin, has been controversial in Europe amid Putin’s now four-year-long war to take Ukraine.

Orban, who has previously accused Urkaine of blocking its ability to get the fuels it needs, said Sunday in a post on X that an investigation into the “powerful explosive device” is ongoing and that he had convened an emergency meeting of his defense council this afternoon.

Orban allies have suggested that Ukraine could be behind the attempted explosion based on previous allegations that the country is interfering with Russian-linked gas and fuel facilities amid the ongoing war.

These allegations included Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto said it would be “illogical” for it to blow up its own gas pipelines, Ukrainska Pravda reported.

“In recent weeks, dozens of drones have been constantly attacking the TurkStream pipeline, which supplies gas to Hungary, on Russian territory, and now the terrorist attack foiled by Serbia appears to be part of these attacks,” Szijjarto said.

Sunday, Ukrainian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Heorhii Tykhyi said that “Ukraine has nothing to do with this,” Ukriniform reported.

“We categorically reject attempts to falsely link Ukraine to the incident with explosives found near the Turkstream pipeline in Serbia,” Tykhyi said, noting that the incident could be a Russian effort to affect the upcoming election in Hungary.

April 4 (UPI) — A Russian drone attack on a market in Nikopol, Ukraine, killed five people and injured at least 19 others Saturday, local officials said.

The strike hit the town in southeastern Ukraine, just across the Dnipro river from Ukrainian land now occupied by Russia, the BBC reported. Nikopol faces regular attacks from Russia due to its proximity.

Oleksandr Hanzha, the head of the regional military administration, said there were three women and two men among the dead. The injured included a 14-year-old girl, Sky News reported.

The Ukrainian prosecutor general’s office described the attack as “yet another war crime by Russia.”

The nearby city of Sumy was also targeted by strikes overnight, with 11 people injured, the national police said. Among the damaged buildings were residential areas and utility networks.

The country’s State Emergency Service also reported strikes at a three-story office building in Kyiv, causing a fire on the first floor.

All told, the Ukrainian military said it down 260 of the 286 drone strikes launched toward its airspace overnight.

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Russian air attacks on northeast Ukraine over the past 24 hours have killed at least four people and injured 11 others, according to Oleh Syniehubov, Kharkiv’s regional governor.

Syniehubov said on Saturday that the attacks targeted the city of Kharkiv and 11 other towns and villages.

Also in northeastern Ukraine, at least 11 people, including a child, were injured after a Russian drone struck a building in the region of Sumy in an overnight attack.

“Attack drones struck a 16-storey building and a private residential area [in the region of Sumy]. Residents of the burning high-rise were promptly evacuated … The fire has been extinguished,” the State Emergency Service of Ukraine’s press office said in a statement.

“Law enforcement officers are documenting the aftermath of the shelling, recording the damage and gathering evidence of war crimes,” reported Russia’s Interfax news agency.

The Ukrainian Air Force said that the defence forces had “shot down or neutralised” 260 of 286 Russian drones fired towards the “north, south, east and centre of the country” in overnight attacks.

It added that 11 drones “were recorded striking 10 locations” with debris from the downed drones found at “six locations”.

Meanwhile in Russia, at least one person was killed and four others injured in drone and missile attacks in its southern Rostov region, according to its governor.

The overnight attack took place in the port city of Taganrog, Rostov Governor Yury Slyusar said on Telegram.

Slyusar said that the injured people – three of whom were Russians and one foreign national – were in “critical condition”.

A missile also struck a “commercial facility”, said Slyusar, causing a fire to break out on the premises. People were evacuated and the fire was brought under control, he said.

Separately, falling drone debris hit a foreign-flagged cargo vessel in the Sea of Azov, causing a fire, while air defences destroyed drones over Taganrog Bay and other districts, said Slyusar, who did not specify the origin of the attacks.

The Sea of Azov, an economic lifeline connecting Russia and Ukraine, acts as a key shipping route for industrial cargo.

Stalled diplomacy

Diplomatic efforts to end Russia’s full-scale war on Ukraine that started in February 2022 continue to stall.

The United States, Russia and Ukraine have held three rounds of high-level, trilateral talks in the United Arab Emirates’ Abu Dhabi and Switzerland’s Geneva this year in a bid to negotiate an end to the war.

A fourth round of talks due to take place last month was postponed due to the US-Israel war on Iran, with no progress on the vital question of territory in eastern Ukraine.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy had proposed an Easter truce, which Russia’s foreign ministry had rejected, dismissing it as a “PR stunt”.

As its price for peace, Russia is insisting that Ukraine cede the fifth of the eastern area of Donbas that it has been unable to conquer during four years of war, with Zelenskyy refusing to countenance the prospect, which in any case goes against the country’s constitution.

Kyiv believes it can keep defending its remaining “fortress belt” of industrial towns and cities in the Donbas for years, citing the glacial pace of Russia’s front-line advances since 2023 as its soldiers run into a defensive wall of Ukrainian drones.

ALISON Hammond has declared she is “absolutely in love” with her boyfriend David Putman, despite their 22 year age gap, in a rare relationship admission.

The This Morning star has been dating Russian model David since 2023, but keeps their relationship fairly private.

Alison’s romance was a surprise to many due to David’s age, with her beau thought to be turning 29 next month.

However, Alison – who is a mum to 20-year-old son Aiden – has said their love transcends any age barriers in a new admission.

Addressing the difference, the TV star explained: “I completely understand why people are interested when there’s a 22-year gap, but what I find interesting is that it’s not as interesting when it’s the man who is older.”

Talking to the Daily Mail, she continued: “Why is that? I just want people to be happy for us.

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“We are absolutely in love.’

Alison’s comments comes after she revealed things were going “really, really well” for the couple back in December.

Ahead of spending Christmas together, along with her son Aiden, Alison gushed over her other half.

“Things are going really, really well,” she told the Mirror.

She continued: “He just has the most beautiful energy and everyone feels it when they’re in his presence. It’s very rare.

“I am so grateful that he chooses to spend his life with me.”

Alongside working as a model, David is a massage therapist and first met Alison when she booked in for a massage back in 2023.

Hitting it off, the pair have been going strong ever since.

While they don’t often make public appearances together, Alison has shared a handful of snaps with David to Instagram over their relationship.

Previously addressing their age gap, she assured that David’s maturity makes things work so well.

Alison told Good Housekeeping: “I can see how, on paper, you’d notice the age difference.

“Yes, I’m 22 years older than he is, but if you saw us together, you’d understand. People have said to me, ‘We get it now.’”

April 2 (UPI) — At least five people were killed and 11 injured in large-scale Russian strikes across Ukraine involving more than 360 drones, Ukrainian authorities said.

One person was killed and two injured, one of them a 12-year-old boy, in the southeastern city of Synelnykove, after drone and artillery strikes across Dnipropetrovsk province overnight.

In an online post, Dnipropetrovsk Military Administration head Oleksandr Hanzha said that an administrative building and a shopping complex were set ablaze in Synelnykove as well as infrastructure, a dozen apartment buildings and private houses and buses in a series of strikes also targeting Pavlohrad and communities to the south in and around Nikopol.

Four people were killed and four injured on both banks of the Dnipro River in Cherkasy province, some 80 miles downstream from Kyiv, amid mass daytime attacks on Wednesday centered on central and western Ukraine.

The fatalities occurred in a blast in the Zolotoniskyi district after local residents gathered in an open area where a drone had crashed and the warhead detonated without warning.

Cherkasy Regional Prosecutor’s Office said in a Telegram post that it had launched a pre-trial investigation into the attack as a possible war crime and reiterated warnings to people to stay well away from downed drones, drone debris and other munitions.

“Law enforcement agencies and rescue services once again emphasize: any fragments of UAVs, missiles, or other explosive objects pose a mortal threat. WHAT EVERYONE NEEDS TO KNOW: It is strictly forbidden to: approach the crash site of a UAV; touch the debris; photograph or film them up close; carry any parts of the object,” the prosecutor’s office added.

Four civilians were injured in air attacks on Cherkasy district, three of them passengers on a bus that was struck by debris from a Russian drone, said the province’s governor, Ihor Taburets.

In Poltava, 125 miles to the east, four people, including a child, were injured when a drone hit a private holding and one person was injured in attacks targeting critical infrastructure facilities in the far west of Ukraine, close to the border with Romania in Zakarpattia province.

The Ukrainian Air Force reported hundreds of drones crossing into Ukraine from the southeast, headed toward western regions, including Ivano-Frankivsk and Chernivtsi with blasts heard in Lviv and Ternopil and damage reported in the cities of Lutsk, Khmelnytskyi and Khotyn in Volyn, Khmelnytskyi and Chernivtsi provinces.

Khotyn Mayor Andrii Dranchukon took to social media Thursday morning to call on residents to limit their electricity use to essential purposes, saying damage to power infrastructure from drones would take up to two weeks to repair and pledging assistance to people whose homes had sustained damage.

A Russian tanker has delivered enough fuel to meet Cuba’s energy needs for up to 10 days, following a three-month blockade.

A Russia-flagged tanker carrying 730,000 barrels of oil has docked in Cuba, marking the first time in three months that an oil tanker has reached the island nation.

The administration of United States President Donald Trump allowed the Anatoly Kolodkin to proceed despite an ongoing US energy blockade. The Aframax tanker entered the Bay of Matanzas – the country’s largest supertanker and fuel storage port – on Tuesday at daybreak.

The vessel, under US sanctions, entered Cuban territorial waters late on Sunday, not far from the US Navy base at Guantanamo Bay. The United States said it was allowing the tanker to deliver fuel for humanitarian reasons.

The Anatoly Kolodkin entered the Bay of Matanzas under clear skies and light winds at sunrise. Much of the nearby city – and the majority of Cuba – was without power when the tanker arrived at the port area.

Cuba has not received an oil tanker in three months, according to President Miguel Diaz-Canel, exacerbating an energy crisis that has led to seemingly endless blackouts across the country of 10 million people and brought hospitals, public transportation, and farm production to the brink of collapse.

Cubans, including Energy and Mines Minister Vicente de la O Levy, cheered the ship’s arrival. A shortage of petroleum has exacerbated a deep economic crisis, leaving the population mired in long blackouts and facing severe shortages of food and medicine.

“Our gratitude to the Government and People of Russia for all the support we are receiving. A valuable shipment that arrives amidst the complex energy situation we are facing,” de la O Levy wrote on X.

The fuel, if delivered, would give Cuba’s communist-run government breathing room amid growing pressure from the Trump administration, which has promised change in Cuba.

It will take days before the crude on board the Anatoly Kolodkin can be processed domestically and turned into motor fuel and refined products, such as diesel and fuel oil for power generation.

The ship is carrying Russian Urals, a medium sour crude, which is a good fit for Cuba’s ageing refineries.

Cuba produces barely 40 percent of its required fuel and relies on imports to sustain its energy grid. Experts say the anticipated shipment could produce about 180,000 barrels of diesel, enough to feed Cuba’s daily demand for nine or 10 days.

Cuba used to receive most of its oil from Venezuela, but those shipments have been halted ever since the US attacked the South American country and abducted its leader, Nicolas Maduro, in early January.

At a time when Ukraine’s air defense expertise is being sought by Arab nations under fire from Iranian missiles and drones, Kyiv announced its new experimental concept for battling Russian drones is having some positive results. The system relies on the private sector to provide its own air defenses by using Ukrainian interceptor drones and other short-range air defense weapons, under the command and control of the military.

Whether this would be applicable beyond Ukraine is debatable, but officials in Kyiv see private sector air defense as an important move to help spread its burden of defending the skies against ceaseless Russian barrages. Russia has been taking particular aim at Ukraine’s remaining industrial capacity, especially defense-related firms that make drones, missiles and other weapons systems. The constant attacks are a large reason why the country has tried to decentralize production, but not everything can be built in a distributed fashion.

The goal of the program is to take advantage of Ukraine’s large production of counter-Shahed interceptor drones as well as its indigenous automated anti-drone machine gun turrets. By having volunteers operate these systems, it reduces the need to pull troops from the frontlines, officials say. 

“The experimental project launched by the Government to involve the private sector in the air defense system is already being implemented and yielding initial results,” Ukrainian Defense Minister Mykhailo Fedorov stated on Telegram Monday morning. “One of the companies participating in the project has already prepared its own air defense group. As of today, several enemy drones have been shot down in the Kharkiv region, including Shahed and Zala models.”

Fedorov did not identify the company, but said another 13 are in various states of gearing up to take part.

“As of now, all groups are at different stages of preparation,” Fedorov wrote. “Some are already performing combat tasks, others are undergoing training, and the rest are completing their preparations and will soon strengthen the country’s air defense.”

Private air defense systems “are integrated into a single management system of the Armed Forces Air Force and are already operating within it – protecting objects and participating in the interception of Shaheds,” Fedorov explained. “This is a systemic solution that allows for quickly scaling air defense capabilities without additional burden on frontline units.”

Fedorov did not say which weapons are being used by the private companies, but a video he posted on X of claimed successful engagements shows the use of the Sky Sentinel automated air-defense turrets, equipped with a heavy machine gun and capable of 360° rotation. An official contacted by The War Zone said the Wild Hornet Sting interceptors are being used as well.

The creation of the private sector air defense program was announced earlier this month by Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Svyrydenko. In a media release, she explained that critical infrastructure enterprises, regardless of whether publicly or privately owned, can create air defense groups.

These groups must undergo training and certification by the MoD and will use weapons and ammunition temporarily transferred from the ministry.

“This concerns weapons that are not currently used by combat units,” Svyrydenko noted. “In the event of the use of ammunition, replenishment will be carried out according to a simplified procedure based on an act of actual expenses.”

Ukraine has been developing these weapons and programs because Russia’s launching of thousands of Shaheds and other drones and missiles has depleted its stocks of high-end interceptors like those fired by Patriot and other systems. This has not been lost on leaders of nations now under fire by Iranian drones and missiles.

Fedorov’s announcement about the private sector air defense program comes as Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky wrapped up a tour of the Middle East. While there, the Ukrainian leader said he inked defense cooperation agreements with Saudi Arabia, UAE and Qatar, and had discussions with Jordan.

Zelensky did not announce specific commercial drone sales, “but said talks touched on financial support from Gulf nations that could help Ukraine bridge a delay in European funding after Hungary blocked a 90 billion euro loan package,” The New York Times noted. In addition, Zelensky told reporters that he had also discussed future Ukrainian purchases of energy from the Middle East as Ukraine’s own natural gas industry had been battered by Russian strikes.

“The agreement includes collaboration in technological fields, development of joint investments and the exchange of expertise in countering missiles and unmanned aerial systems,” Qatar’s defense ministry said in a statement during Zelensky’s visit.

When it comes to interceptor drones like Sting, Ukraine has enough to spare should its government sign off on providing them.

Ukraine could export about $2 billion worth of weapons as a whole this year, excluding ​joint production ventures with allies, suggested Ihor Fedirko, CEO of the Ukrainian Council of Defence Industry, a manufacturers’ association.

Ukraine produced 40,000 interceptor drones in January, according to the government, which has made it clear the country will not export any weapons it needs ‌to defend itself, as we noted in a story on Ukrainian laws preventing direct exports of interceptors and other weapons.

“Zelensky says that provided enough financing, Ukraine has the capacity to up its production to 2,000 interceptor drones a day and would only need 1,000 for itself, leaving plenty for export,” Reuters noted.

Відео 100 збиттів шахедів перехоплювачем #STING #wildhornets #дикішершні #fpv

It is unknown whether the concept of private sector air defenses came up in Zelensky’s talks in the Middle East. However, countries in that region are facing threats similar to Ukraine, with energy infrastructure, data centers and other non-military facilities that likely have limited, if any air defenses, protecting them.

“The Ukrainian model does not surprise me,” retired Army Col. David Shank, who served as Commandant of the Air Defense Artillery School at Fort Sill, Oklahoma, told us. “Other countries have private security forces, some which possess hand-held [counter-drone] capabilities. The U.S. State Department has private security that also possesses capability (up to Stinger I am told).”

The challenge, said Shank, “is system management and command and control of all sensors and shooters.

It is possible the Gulf states could execute a system where companies provide their own air defenses, however, “it would still require strict adherence to authorities.”

Still, Shank sees several downsides, including fratricide, wasted ammunition and a lack of unity of effort from decentralized execution.

Retired Army Gen. Joseph Votel, who commanded U.S. Central Command, raised another concern.

“While it would be up to Arab nations to decide for themselves if this is a good idea, I do think it will complicate integration with partners, including the U.S,” he told us.

Regardless, the Ukrainian program is in its infancy. There is still a long way to go before it establishes its value as a valid means of protecting factories, electric generation plants and refineries against Russian drones. It could turn out to be more destructive than helpful.

However, given Ukraine’s history of battlefield innovation, there will likely be many parties looking to see how it all works out.

Contact the author: howard@thewarzone.com

March 27 (UPI) — A tanker carrying Russian fuel initially headed to Cuba ended up docking in Venezuela after weeks of deviations, while a second oil-carrying vessel remains without a clear destination in the Caribbean amid the island nation’s energy crisis.

The vessel Sea Horse, sailing under the Hong Kong flag, had been closely tracked by maritime analysts since it departed from the eastern Mediterranean carrying between 190,000 and 200,000 barrels of Russian diesel initially destined for Cuba.

During its voyage, the tanker repeatedly changed its declared destination. It went from being listed as en route to Havana to indicating “Caribbean Sea” and later Trinidad and Tobago in a pattern that reflected growing uncertainty about its final destination.

Ultimately, the Sea Horse arrived at Puerto Cabello, in Venezuela, on Wednesday morning after nearly 50 days in transit.

The diversion occurred in a context of increasing pressure from the United States to restrict fuel supplies to Cuba, which is facing a severe energy crisis with recurring blackouts and oil shortages.

The case of the Sea Horse is not isolated. Maritime tracking data show that other vessels have altered their routes or avoided declaring final destinations in recent weeks, amid sanctions that explicitly exclude Cuba from relaxed sanctions for Russian oil trade.

The second vessel, the Russian tanker Anatoly Kolodkin, maintains its uncertainty.

The ship, which is carrying roughly 730,000 barrels of crude, continues in the Caribbean Atlantic without a publicly confirmed final destination.

The maritime tracking website VesselFinder shows the destination of the Anatoly Kolodkin as “Atlantic for order,” a designation used in the industry to indicate that the vessel is sailing without a publicly confirmed final destination.

On Tuesday, maritime intelligence analyst Michelle Wiese Bockmann told Politico that the vessel could arrive in Cuba in “two or three days,” although its trajectory remains without clear confirmation.

The most recent AIS tracking data indicate that the vessel is about 487 miles from Turks and Caicos, with an estimated arrival Monday. However, its current vectors do not point directly toward Cuba, reinforcing uncertainty about true destination.

The behavior of the Kolodkin raises questions in a highly monitored environment.

“There are details that just don’t add up,” said Evan Ellis, a professor at the U.S. Army War College Strategic Studies Institute.

“Given the U.S. naval and air assets in the area, the Russian tanker has to know it won’t get in undetected. The question is whether this is some kind of cat-and-mouse game, or if shifting expectations, possibly tied to developments in Cuba, have changed whether it believes it can enter unopposed,” he said.

“Maybe the deliberate attempt was meant to apply pressure, and then once it got a reaction, it was backing off,” he added.

For Ellis, the key point remains outside the public radar.

“The biggest story is what’s going on behind the scenes that we don’t know about,” he said.

The eventual arrival of the Kolodkin also could force a decision from Washington. Analysts cited by the Miami Herald say the options range from diplomatic pressure to a possible interception by the U.S. Navy or U.S. Coast Guard.

“At the end of the day, what we really have to watch for is what actually happens,” said Jorge Piñón, a senior research collaborator at the University of Texas Energy Institute.

Cuba imports about 60% of its energy and depends on external supplies to sustain its electrical system, making each shipment a critical factor within a scenario of growing geopolitical tension.

Kremlin spokesperson says talks are part of ‘​necessary dialogue’ with Washington as war in Ukraine continues for a fifth year.

A delegation of Russian officials has arrived in ‌the United States for meetings with their American counterparts.

The visit, which began on Thursday, marks the first such trip since ⁠relations strained over Moscow’s war in Ukraine.

Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said, “We hope that these first tentative steps will, of course, make their contribution to the further revival of our bilateral engagement.”

He said President Vladimir Putin had set the “main directives” for the trip and would be “thoroughly briefed” on the meeting.

The visit comes as US-brokered talks seeking a deal to end the war in Ukraine are in effect frozen.

Several rounds of negotiations since US President Donald Trump returned to the White House last year have failed to break the deadlock, with the Kremlin ruling out compromises to halt its years-long offensive.

Russia, a close ally of Iran, has also been cited by Western intelligence officials as one of the backers of the Iranian government, as Tehran fights a war launched by the US and Israel.

A report in the United Kingdom-based Financial Times newspaper on Wednesday alleged that Russia was close to completing a shipment of drones to Iran.

Responding to questions about the report, Peskov said, “There are so many lies being spread by the media … Do not pay attention to them.”

Russia this week carried out one of the largest aerial attacks since the start of its war on Ukraine, launching 948 drones in 24 hours as it moved troops and equipment to the front line.

Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy issued a new appeal for allies to supply Kyiv with air defence munitions, warning that Kyiv, which relies on the US for air defence systems against ballistic missiles, will face a deficit of missiles while Washington is focused on the US-Israeli war on Iran.

Talks between Ukraine and the US that opened in the US state of Florida on Saturday again failed to produce a security guarantee that Kyiv has long sought from Washington.

Russian oil is emerging as a key beneficiary of the US-Israeli war on Iran, as countries scramble to charter tankers following United States President Donald Trump’s decision to temporarily ease sanctions, analysts say.

Following a phone call with Russian President Vladimir Putin on March 10, Trump said the US would waive Russian oil-related sanctions on “some countries” to ease the shortage caused by Iran’s closure of the Strait of Hormuz, which in peacetime carries 20 percent of the world’s oil and gas from producers in the Gulf.

This week, it was reported that a number of tankers carrying Russian oil bound for China had changed course and were heading for India instead.

According to figures from the Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air (CREA), Russia earned an additional 672 million euros ($777m) in oil sales in the first two weeks of the war on Iran, which began on February 28 when Israel and the US launched strikes on Tehran, killing Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and other senior Iranian officials.

Iran has since struck back, launching thousands of missiles and drones towards Israel as well as US military assets and infrastructure in neighbouring Gulf countries. The war stepped up a level this week, when Israel bombed Iran’s critical South Pars gasfield, and Iran hit back with strikes on Gulf energy assets, including Qatar’s Ras Laffan Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) facility – the world’s largest.

This week, the average price of Urals oil – the Russian benchmark – was significantly higher than the pre-war price of less than $60, at around $90 per barrel.

Here’s more about who is buying Russian oil and which other nations might benefit from the oil crisis.

Why is Russian oil benefitting from the Iran war?

Iran’s effective closure of the Hormuz Strait, which is the only sea route from the Gulf to the open ocean, has “walled in” 20 million barrels of Gulf oil per day, George Voloshin, an independent energy analyst based in Paris, told Al Jazeera.

This has prompted the US to, at least temporarily, ease sanctions on shipped Russian oil to slow the ensuing energy crisis and potential global price collapse. The price of Brent crude, the international benchmark, has risen to above $100 a barrel since the closure of the strait, compared with about $65 before the war began.

Many analysts say a price of $200 is no longer “far-fetched”.

“Russia has emerged as a primary beneficiary of the Middle East conflict due to the massive supply vacuum created by the closure of the Strait of Hormuz,” Voloshin said. “Global refiners are desperate for alternative medium-sour crudes, a need that Russia’s Urals grade specifically meets.”

He added that the US decision to grant a temporary reprieve for shipped Russian oil “has provided Moscow with a critical window to maximise export volumes and oil revenues, essentially allowing Russian crude to act as the world’s primary swing supply during the Iranian blockade”.

How has the price of Russian oil been affected so far?

The price of Russian Urals has surged significantly, experts say. As a result of US sanctions, the oil had been trading at below $60 a barrel for some time. However, while “Urals historically traded at a significant discount to Brent due to Western sanctions”, Voloshin said, “that gap has narrowed as demand outstrips supply”.

“Since the beginning of the year, the price of Russian oil is estimated to have risen by nearly 80 percent – most recently close to $90 per barrel – and consistently trading well above the G7 price cap of $60 as buyers prioritise energy security over regulatory compliance in a high-volatility environment,” he added.

Are ships changing course to deliver Russian oil to new buyers?

Earlier this week, Bloomberg reported that at least seven tankers carrying Russian oil had changed course mid-voyage from China to India, citing data from Vortexa, the data analytics group.

Then, Indian media quoted Rakesh Kumar Sinha, special secretary in the Ministry of Ports, Shipping and Waterways, confirming that the Aqua Titan, a Russian oil-laden tanker originally destined for China, is now expected to arrive at New Mangalore port on March 21 having been chartered by Mangalore Refinery and Petrochemicals Limited (MPCL).

India was the first country to receive a time-limited exemption from the US Treasury to import Russian oil that is already at sea, Voloshin said.

“There is clear evidence of a massive logistical redirection of Russian oil cargoes mid-voyage. Several tankers originally bound for Chinese ports have, indeed, switched trajectory to India. This shift is driven by India’s aggressive pursuit of discounted distressed cargoes to fill its strategic reserves and meet domestic demand, as well as the increased risk and insurance costs associated with long-haul shipments to East Asia via contested waters.”

Until recently, Trump had been strongly pressuring India to stop buying Russian oil, even slapping additional 25 percent trade tariffs on India last year in punishment for doing so. This was lifted earlier this year when Trump claimed he had received assurances from India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi that India would start buying US oil, or even Venezuelan oil seized by the US, instead.

Which countries are buying Russian oil now?

Indian media has reported that India’s purchases of Russian crude have surged in the past three weeks, since the war on Iran began and the Strait of Hormuz was closed.

“The primary buyers of Russian oil continue to be India and China, who together now account for the vast majority of Russia’s seaborne exports,” Voloshin said.

Turkiye is also a significant buyer, he added, now using Russian crude to stabilise its domestic market amid the gas shortages caused by the Israeli strikes on Iran’s South Pars field.

“Additionally, a shadow fleet of ageing tankers continues to move Russian oil to smaller, less-regulated refineries across Southeast Asia and the Middle East, often through complex ship-to-ship transfers designed to obscure the origin of the crude,” he added.

He said this shadow fleet is becoming the primary delivery mechanism for oil in several contested regions, meaning more buyers could appear. “Additionally, the degree of cooperation between the US and its European allies remains a wild card. If the EU continues to refuse participation in military operations near Iran, the diplomatic and economic pressure on the US to maintain the Russian oil reprieve will likely increase.”

Will Russian oil remain in demand if the US re-imposes sanctions?

If there is nowhere else to readily source oil, countries may continue to seek Russian crude even if the US reimposes sanctions, Voloshin said. The International Energy Agency (IEA) says the closure of the Hormuz Strait has caused a shortage of 8 million barrels of oil per day.

If that persists, “major importers like India may feel they have no choice but to continue buying Russian oil to prevent domestic economic collapse”, Voloshin said.

If secondary sanctions on Russian oil are reintroduced, he added, buyers may demand much lower prices to compensate for the increased legal and financial risks of dealing with Moscow. “At the same time, in the presence of a continued severe market disruption, the US is very likely to roll over [extend] current exemptions,” Voloshin said.

Which other energy-producing nations could benefit?

Two other major non-OPEC energy producers that could benefit are Norway and Canada, experts say. However, this will largely depend on their capacity to increase production.

“Norway has already signalled its intent to maintain maximum gas and oil production to support European energy security, primarily selling to EU nations seeking to replace lost Iranian and Russian volumes,” Voloshin said. “Canada is exploring ways to increase its export capacity to the US Gulf Coast. However, like Russia, its ability to significantly ramp up production in the short term is constrained by pipeline throughput and infrastructure bottlenecks.”

March 17 (UPI) — Speaking to the British Parliament on Monday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky warned that the rise of artificial intelligence and inexpensive drone technology has made “mass drone warfare” quicker and more common across the globe.

“The evolution of threats never stops,” he said in a speech touting Ukraine‘s advances in technology allow the country to defend against and monitor attacks by Russia.

During his visit to Britain, Zelensky also met with King Charles III and Prime Minister Keir Starmer, with whom he agreed to a partnership to boost global defensive capabilities across Europe to protect against a rise in low-cost, high-tech military technology. The agreement capitalizes on Ukraine’s technological expertise and Britain’s industrial ability to manufacture and supply resources, the British government said.

Britain plans to invest $667,000 in an AI center in Kyiv.

Zelensky told Parliament that Ukraine faces nearly nightly attacks from Russia and uses nearly 1,000 interceptor drones each day to protect the country. He said Ukraine can produce interceptors on that scale, but the country needs a system in place to stop the attacks by Russia and Iran, which is using weaponry made from Russian supplies.

Zelensky pointed to the military bases in Cyprus as an example, The Guardian reported.

“This is what our security proposal could look like. Our experts would place interception teams and set up radars and acoustic coverage, and these would all work if Iran launched a large-scale attack similar to Russian attacks,” he told Parliament.

“We would guarantee protection. This is the kind of reinforcement we offer, and it may soon be needed across Europe.”

During their meeting at No. 10 Downing Street, Starmer told Zelensky that “the focus must remain on Ukraine” despite new conflict in Iran, the BBC reported.

Russian President Vladimir Putin “can’t be the one who benefits from a conflict in Iran, whether that’s oil prices or the dropping of sanctions.” He was referring to the United States’ recent easing of sanctions on Russian oil to combat rising gas and diesel prices.

Zelensky offered his thanks to Starmer for the support from Britain.

“You have stood with us all through this difficult winter,” Zelensky said.