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Alistair Lowe
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Ukraine-Russia war latest: Kyiv steps up attacks on Putin’s oil network in defiance of Western allies Ukraine is focusing its strikes on port and oil infrastructure critical to Russian exports Ukraine is continuing its attacks on Russian oil infrastructure despite calls from the West seeking to end such strikes. Russian officials on Sunday said Ukrainian drones struck an oil refinery operated by Lukoil and a Baltic pipeline near St Petersburg. The governor of Russia’s Nizhny Novgorod region said air defence units had repelled a 30-drone barrage.

Last week, Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky said that some allies have signalled for Ukraine to reduce long-range strikes on Russia's oil sector due to rising global energy prices. Zelensky said he would be happy to do so – but only if Russia reciprocates by stopping its own attacks on the Ukrainian grid. The Institute for the Study of War said Ukraine had noticeably stepped up its attacks on Russia’s oil infrastructure, “focusing on the Russian Baltic Sea port and oil infrastructure in Leningrad oblast critical to Russian oil exports”.

The attacks include three strikes targeting Primorsk port infrastructure in the space of just two weeks. Ukraine regains control of frontline areas in southeast and east, army chief says Ukraine has regained control of 480 sq km (185 sq miles) of territory in the southeastern and eastern parts of the front since late January, its army chief Oleksandr Syrskyi said, adding that Russia was continuing its spring offensive.

After visiting the frontline, Syrskyi said that Ukraine had liberated eight settlements in the Dnipropetrovsk region in the east and four settlements in the southeastern Zaporizhzhia region.Despite Ukraine's successes, Russian troops were pressing ahead with a spring offensive, he said. “Russian troops are not abandoning their plans for further offensive operations and are regrouping their available forces and equipment," Syrskyi said on the Telegram app late on Sunday.

“Despite significant losses in personnel and military equipment, the invaders aim to seize more Ukrainian territory and establish a ‘buffer zone’ in the Dnipropetrovsk region. “The Ukrainian troops maintained defence lines, he said. Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky said last week that Ukraine was enjoying its best period on the frontline since the middle of last year.

Senior Russian commander killed in March air crash, official says A senior Russian air force commander was killed when a military transport aircraft crashed in Russian-controlled Crimea last week killing 30 people, according to a senior official cited by Russian media this morning. Alexander Otroshchenko, commander of the 45th Army of the Northern Fleet's Air Force and Air Defence, died in the crash, Andrei Chibis, governor of the northern Murmansk region where the fleet is based, was quoted as saying.

The An-26 military transport plane crashed into a cliff in Crimea on 31 March. Russia's defence ministry said shortly afterwards that the preliminary cause was technical malfunction. Trump envoy Witkoff and son-in-law Kushner may visit Kyiv Donald Trump's envoy Steve Witkoff and his son-in-law Jared Kushner could head to Kyiv this month in a bid to relaunch peace talks, according to Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky’s chief of staff. “Kushner, Witkoff, Lindsey Graham – those are the ones expected to come.

Who else will be there – we’ll see,” Kyrylo Budanov told Bloomberg on Saturday. The visit could take place after Orthodox Easter, which is celebrated on 12 April. The White House has yet to comment on the report. Zelensky meets Syrian leader for talks in Damascus Ukraine and Syria pledged greater security cooperation in talks on yesterday, president Volodymyr Zelensky said, as Kyiv seeks to promote its military expertise across the Middle East amid the US-Israeli war on Iran.

Continuing his tour of Middle East countries, Zelensky met with his Syrian counterpart, Ahmed al-Sharaa, in Damascus. “We agreed to work together to provide more security and opportunities for development for our societies," Zelensky wrote on Telegram. In a later post, Zelensky said there had been wide-ranging discussions with the Syrian leader and three-way talks that included Turkish foreign minister Hakan Fidan.

"We managed to discuss everything: from security and defence issues and the situation in the region due to all the events around Iran to energy and infrastructure cooperation between our countries," Zelensky wrote. In recent weeks Zelensky has visited several Middle East countries, offering Ukrainian expertise in countering drone and missile attacks developed during its four-year war with Russia. Since the war began on 28 February, Iran and its proxies have launched strikes on US allies and bases in the region.

Syria is not known to have any air defences capable of dealing with Iranian drones or missiles. In photos: Mother and child among three killed in Russian attack on Odesa Watch: Russia says fire at Black Sea port of Novorossiysk caused by Ukrainian drone strikes Child among three killed in Russian drone attack on Ukraine's Odesa Russia launched a drone attack on Ukraine's Black Sea port of Odesa overnight, killing three people, including a child, and damaging infrastructure, residential and administrative buildings, the regional governor said.

“Overnight, Odesa came under another heavy attack by the enemy," Oleh Kiper, Odesa regional governor, said on the Telegram app. As well as the three dead, 10 people were injured, he said. “Residential buildings, critical infrastructure and administrative facilities were hit. There is significant damage," Kiper said. Moscow has escalated its attacks on Odesa, a key logistics hub in southern Ukraine and the country's largest port, handling the majority of the Ukrainian grain and other maritime exports.

Russia says it downed 148 Ukrainian drones in three hours Russia's military said its air defence units had downed 148 Ukrainian drones over a three-hour period and officials said emergency crews were restoring power to nearly half a million households in outages linked to air attacks. On Sunday evening, a drone killed a civil defence volunteer in Russia's border region of Belgorod, a frequent target of the Ukrainian military, and drones also hit an apartment building in Russia's Black Sea port of Novorossiysk.

A Russian defence ministry statement said air defence units had intercepted 148 drones, mostly in central and southern areas of the country, between 8pm and 11pm (1700-2000 GMT) on Sunday. The mayor of the port of Novorossiysk, Andrei Kravchenko, said drone debris had struck a high-rise apartment building. There was no word on casualties.

Russia says eight injured in Ukrainian drone attacks on largest Black Sea oil port At least eight people were injured, including two children, during Ukrainian drone attacks on the Black Sea port city of Novorossiysk, with a number of residential houses sustaining damage, Russian authorities said this morning. Russia did not say if the port of Novorossiysk, Russia's largest exporting outlet on the Black Sea, was struck.

Ukraine has significantly intensified attacks on Russia's energy facilities, including the largest oil exporting hubs both on the Baltic and Black seas, seeking to reduce Moscow's revenues from the sales of oil, the lifeblood of its economy. The area of the port of Novorossiysk is also a location for the Caspian Pipeline Consortium's terminal, which exports oil from Kazakhstan and whose shareholders include US majors, such as Chevron and Exon Mobil. Usually, when the alerts for air raids are issued, the oil terminals suspend operations.

There was no immediate comment from Ukraine. Russia's military said in the early hours today that air defence units had downed 148 Ukrainian drones over a three-hour period and officials said emergency crews were restoring power to nearly half a million households in outages linked to air attacks. Russia offers huge payments to students to join its drone forces in Ukraine Students across Russia are reportedly being offered significant financial incentives to join drone units fighting in Ukraine, serving as both operators and engineers.

This recruitment drive is further evidenced by documents indicating that companies in Russia's central Ryazan region have been given quotas to enlist workers for the army. Russia lures students to join its drone forces in Ukraine Join our commenting forum Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies Comments Bookmark popover Removed from bookmarks

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A Russian defence ministry statement said air defence units had intercepted 148 drones, mostly in central and southern areas of the country, between 8pm and 11pm (1700-2000 GMT) on Sunday. The mayor of the port of Novorossiysk, Andrei Kravchenko, said drone debris had struck a high-rise apartment building. There was no word on casualties.

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