Ukraine-Russia war latest: Russian oil depot hit after ‘massive drone attack’ by Kyiv

The European Union is preparing to impose its first sanctions against Russian intelligence for orchestrating disinformation and hybrid activities, Bloomberg reported. The proposed sanctions will target over a dozen individuals and three entities, including Russian intelligence officials and media entrepreneurs.

This move aims to counteract global destabilising operations attributed to Moscow.

Additionally, the EU intends to impose sanctions on approximately two dozen Belarusian individuals for alleged human rights abuses or connections to president Alexander Lukashenko’s regime.

This is part of a comprehensive sanctions package set to be ratified by EU foreign ministers on 16 December in Brussels.

The latest proposals align with the EU ambassadors’ recent endorsement of a 15th sanctions package against Russia. Announced by the Hungarian Presidency of the EU Council on 11 December, this package targets Russia’s “shadow fleet” of older tankers used to circumvent oil export restrictions.

Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky will attend a meeting with the leaders of Britain, France, Germany, Italy, Poland, Nato and the EU in Brussels on Wednesday to discuss support for his country in its war with Russia, sources familiar with the plan told Reuters.

The meeting comes as European countries face the possibility of the US, Ukraine’s largest source of support, changing its approach to the conflict when Donald Trump returns to the White House in January.

Mr Zelensky and some of his European allies have called for European troops to be deployed to Ukraine to act as a deterrent to further military action by Russia after any ceasefire.

“It won’t be a meeting that has concrete decisions, but more political to discuss the coming weeks and months,” said a source familiar with the meeting.

The gathering, hosted by Nato secretary-general Mark Rutte, will be held on the day leaders were already due to meet for the EU-Western Balkans summit in Brussels, and involve a joint meeting and several bilateral meetings with Mr Zelensky.

The fall of the Assad regime in Syria has led to questions over Russia’s ability to sustain its military adventures abroad. Russia had supported Assad militarily for over a decade, building on longstanding ties between Moscow and Damascus.

But the rapid advance of anti-government forces this month saw Russia apparently powerless to influence the situation beyond a number of airstrikes (as always, apparently mostly delivered on civilian targets) in support of government forces.

That has inevitably led people to draw conclusions about Russia’s ability to project power overseas, and what it may mean for the course of the war in Ukraine.

A major Russian oil depot has been set ablaze after Ukrainian troops launched a “massive drone attack” over 100 miles inside Russian territory.

The Stalnoy Kon oil refinery, part of Vladimir Putin’s “military industrial complex” that supplies Russian troops, was struck overnight, Kyiv’s chief of staff said.

The Russian governor of Oryol said on Telegram that fuel had caught fire at “a facility” in the region after the “massive drone attack”.

Russian media reported images, purportedly of the attack, showing clouds of smoke billowing up into the night sky from a fire.

A British former paratrooper who traveled to fight in Ukraine and whose body was later found miles from the frontline was “unlawfully killed” by someone claiming to be his friend, a court has concluded.

The body of Daniel Burke, 36, from Wythenshawe in Manchester, was found last September some 27 miles from the frontline in Zaporizhzhia, eastern Ukraine, after being reported missing in August. Mr Burke had traveled there to help fight against the full-scale Russian invasion.

An inquest at Manchester City Coroner’s Office has now concluded that his killer was somebody purporting to be his friend and believed to be fighting on the same side.