Ukraine war briefing: Zelenskyy hails ‘significant blow’ of US-UK sanctions on Russian oil and gas revenues | Ukraine

The US imposed its broadest package of sanctions targeting Russia’s oil and gas revenues on Friday, less than two weeks before Joe Biden leaves office, while Volodymyr Zelenskyy said the measures would “deliver a significant blow” to Moscow. The US Treasury Department said it was designating more than 180 ships as well as major Russian oil companies Gazprom Neft and Surgutneftegas, fulfilling “the G7 commitment to reduce Russian revenues from energy”. The UK government also announced sanctions against the two companies, saying their profits were “lining [Vladimir] Putin’s war chest and facilitating the war” in Ukraine. Zelenskyy, the Ukrainian president, said on X: “The less revenue Russia earns from oil … the sooner peace will be restored.” The sanctions should cost Russia billions of dollars a month if sufficiently enforced, a US official said.

Gazprom Neft slammed the sanctions as “baseless” and “illegitimate”, Russian state news agencies reported, while Russian insurance company Ingosstrakh said the sanctions against it would increase the risk of environmental disasters. Friday’s measures are being seen as an effort to give Kyiv and the incoming US administration of Donald Trump leverage to reach a deal for peace in Ukraine.

Joe Biden and Volodymyr Zelenskyy spoke on Friday and discussed Washington’s support for Ukraine, the new US sanctions against Russia and boosting Ukrainian air defences, Zelenskyy said. In a social media post, the Ukrainian president also thanked Biden for Washington’s support in Ukraine’s war with Russia and for “the vital role the United States has played in uniting the international community”. The White House said Biden had underscored the importance of continuing to support Kyiv in the war. “It is now clear that President Putin’s war against Ukraine has been a disaster for Russia,” it said.

Ukraine hit a Russian ammunition depot and drone storage facility in a drone and missile attack in the early hours of Friday, according to a source in the Ukrainian SBU security service. It was a joint operation with the navy, Agence France-Presse reported. Russian officials earlier said an industrial facility near the village of Chaltyr in the Rostov region bordering Ukraine was ablaze after a drone barrage, without elaborating. The Ukrainian source said the drones overloaded Russian air defence systems, clearing the way for the missile to hit the military facility.

Russia accused Ukraine of carrying out a missile strike on a supermarket in the Russian-controlled city of Donetsk in eastern Ukraine. Denis Pushilin, who heads the parts of Donetsk region controlled by Russia, said on Telegram on Friday that he had “confirmed information” that four people were injured in the attack. He accused the Ukrainian army of firing US-supplied Himars missiles into the area during the morning rush hour. Russian state news agency RIA earlier quoted investigators as saying two people had been killed and two wounded. Ukraine’s general staff, in a statement, did not refer to the supermarket incident but said it had conducted strikes this week in the Donetsk region and had taken all necessary measures to limit the risk to civilians.

Pushilin also said Ukrainian artillery fire had struck an apartment building in Svitlodarsk, farther north in Donetsk, killing two people and wounding eight.
Ukraine said Kyiv’s forces had conducted a precise strike on a Russian command post in Svitlodarsk. Ukraine’s Suspilne public broadcaster quoted prosecutors as saying Russian shelling killed one person and wounded another in the key city of Pokrovsk in Donetsk region.

Ukrainian police said they had identified dozens of people as suspects in the illegal smuggling of military-aged men from the country after conducting hundreds of raids nationwide. Law enforcement published photos of police turning up at homes and workplaces of suspects after announcing they had launched about 600 searches nationwide to shut down routes used by military-aged men to avoid army service. Police said on Friday that 45 “notices of suspicion have been delivered to the organisers and participants of illegal schemes to transport persons across the border”, adding this was just the first step of a wider effort. Kyiv has been driving a large-scale mobilisation campaign for months to boost its military.

Russia’s aviation agency Rosaviatsia has condemned its European Union counterpart as “absurd” for warning that flying over Russia posed a “high risk” to civilian flights, two weeks after Azerbaijan accused Russia of hitting a passenger jet. The EU aviation safety agency issued a new alert on Thursday warning non-European carriers not to fly within western Russia airspace due to the risk of being unintentionally targeted by its air-defence systems.

Thousands of protesters in the Slovak capital held banners and chanted slogans on Friday accusing the prime minister, Robert Fico, of dragging the country towards Russia after he met Vladimir Putin last month amid a gas dispute with Ukraine. Slovakia has argued with Ukraine over its decision to halt the transit of Russia’s gas through its territory from 1 January. “Slovakia is Europe, we are not Russia,” one of the organisers told the crowd waving Slovak and EU flags, holding signs saying “Slovakia stands with Ukraine” and chanting “Enough of Russia!” and “Shame!”. Organisers estimated 15,000 people protested in Bratislava, filling a central square.

Germany charged that a heavily loaded tanker adrift off its northern coast on Friday was part of the “shadow fleet” Moscow uses to avoid sanctions on its oil exports. The foreign minister, Annalena Baerbock, criticised Russia’s use of “dilapidated oil tankers” and labelled it a threat to European security. She spoke after the 274-metre-long Eventin, carrying almost 100,000 tonnes of oil, was reported adrift and “unable to manoeuvre” in the Baltic Sea. Meanwhile, the German government was at odds over whether to approve €3bn ($3.1bn) of new military aid for Ukraine, the Spiegel weekly reported on Friday, as Kyiv seeks to rally support ahead of Donald Trump’s return to the White House.