Russia-Ukraine war: Kyiv targets St Petersburg oil facility in drone attack on Putin’s home city

Ukraine has targeted an oil facility in the Russian city of St Petersburg, more than 500 miles from the border, in a drone attack.

A Ukrainian military source said the assaults on Vladimir Putin’s hometown were part of a “new phase” of strikes, with Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky having previously pledged to hit more targets inside Russia this year, with the goal of disrupting life and increasing the pressure on Mr Putin.

Kremlin state media claimed three drones were fired toward St Petersburg in the early hours of Thursday, with the Russian ministry of defence claiming that all had been intercepted. The Ukrainian military source, however, told Reuters: “There are confirmed hits. This is a new stage of work in this region.”

Germany will order the development of a short-range air defence system for some 1.3 billion euros ($1.4 billion) to plug a gap in its defences that became apparent after Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine and replace its long-retired Gepard tanks among other equipment.

The German budget committee on Thursday approved the deal with a consortium consisting of Rheinmetall, Diehl and Hensoldt despite a five-fold price hike criticised by the federal court of auditors, several participants told Reuters.

Short-range air defence systems are meant to protect troops on the tactical level, for example during deployment operations or while they are on the move, against missile and drone attacks as well as low-flying aircraft.

The companies’ main task will be to develop an air defence system for short ranges starting from three kilometres and very short ranges below that where the threat is posed mainly by small drones.

The very short-range system is likely to be based on Rheinmetall’s Skyranger 30, a 30mm canon mounted on the Boxer APC, with the vehicles still to be procured. Targets beyond three kilometres are meant to be tackled by Diehl’s IRIS-T SLS system.

In the past, Germany had mainly relied on the Gepard anti-aircraft tank for very short-range air defence of up to three kilometres, a weapon that since has become famous in the war in Ukraine. Berlin retired its Gepards in 2010 to save money.

The companies’ second job will be to enable the linking-up of this system with Diehl’s IRIS-T SLM medium-range air defences which Berlin has already ordered, to build a broader, multi-layered protective umbrella.

Hensoldt will supply the radars for the system which is expected to be ready from 2026 or 2027.

Russia summoned the French ambassador to the foreign ministry on Thursday, a day after Moscow said its forces had killed French mercenaries in Ukraine.

Russia said on Wednesday its forces had carried out a precision strike a day earlier on a building housing “foreign fighters” in Ukraine‘s second city Kharkiv.

“In connection with the destruction by the Russian armed forces of a temporary deployment point of foreign fighters in Kharkiv, among whom were several dozen Frenchmen, the French ambassador has been summoned to the Foreign Ministry,” state-run TASS news agency quoted Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova as saying.

France has denied claims made earlier by Russia that there were French mercenaries in Ukraine, as it responded to a statement made earlier this week by Russia’s defence ministry that Russia had killed French mercenaries in Kharkiv.

“France helps Ukraine with supplies of military material and military training, in full compliance with international law, in order to help Ukraine in its fight to defend its sovereignty, independence and territorial integrity,” said the French foreign ministry.

“France has no mercenaries, neither in Ukraine nor elsewhere, unlike certain others,” it added.

Russia’s top diplomat dismissed the United States proposal to resume a dialogue on nuclear arms control, saying Thursday that it’s impossible while Washington offers military support to Ukraine.

Speaking at an annual news conference, Sergey Lavrov accused the West of fueling global security risks by encouraging Ukraine to ramp up strikes on the Russian territory and warned that Moscow will achieve its goals in the conflict regardless of Western support for Kyiv.

Commenting on a U.S. proposal to resume contacts in the sphere of nuclear arms control, Lavrov said that Moscow has rejected the offer. He said that for such talks to be held, Washington first needs to revise its current policy toward Russia.

Russia’s recent attacks in Ukraine are not militarily effective, said the chief of NATO’s Military Committee, Dutch Admiral Rob Bauer, on Thursday.

“While Russia’s most recent attacks are devastating, they are not militarily effective,” said Bauer.

A Russian state prosecutor asked a Moscow court on Thursday to jail prominent nationalist Igor Girkin, who accuses President Vladimir Putin and the army top brass of not pursuing the Ukraine war effectively enough, for nearly five years.

State prosecutors accuse Girkin, who is regarded in the West as a war criminal over the 2014 shooting down of a passenger plane over eastern Ukraine, of inciting extremism, something he denies.

His case is being closely watched as an indication of how far the Kremlin will tolerate aggressive criticism of its war effort in Ukraine, something it calls a “special military operation”.

The Moscow court hearing his case said in a statement on Thursday that the state prosecutor had asked that Girkin be jailed for four years and 11 months in a prison colony and handed a three-year ban on using the internet.

A verdict in the case is expected on 25 January.

Girkin, 53, who had publicly entertained ideas about running against Putin in an upcoming presidential election, was remanded in custody in July last year.

Sweden has not done anything to boost confidence in its suitability for NATO membership, and has given the impression that joining the alliance is not a priority for the country, an aide to Hungary’s prime minister has said.

Sweden applied to join the North Atlantic Treaty Organization in May 2022 following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine but the accession process, which requires the approval of all existing members, has been held up by Turkey and Hungary.

Ratification has been stranded in the Hungarian parliament for more than a year, with Prime Minister Viktor Orban’s ruling nationalists saying there is no threat to Sweden’s security and citing what they call undue Swedish allegations that they have eroded democracy in Hungary.

Sweden was “not taking any steps to strengthen trust in order for our relationship to become one of allies and friends”, Gergely Gulyas, Orban’s chief of staff, told a briefing.

“This relationship is one of allies legally right now, but it cannot be considered friendly, thus I need to conclude that it is not a priority for Sweden to join NATO quickly at all today.”

Gulyas suggested that Sweden’s foreign minister or prime minister should “get in touch and ask what concerns the Hungarian parliament has” about Sweden’s NATO accession.

Replying to a reporter’s question, he said Hungary wanted to avoid being the last country to ratify Sweden’s NATO accession, but “we will probably not manage to do so without Sweden’s help. Why should it be important to me if it is not important to Sweden?”

Orban’s government, which has maintained warm ties with Moscow despite Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, has repeatedly promised that it will not be the last to ratify the Nordic country’s bid.

Hungary’s parliament, currently on a winter break, will resume its work some time around mid-February.

The Turkish parliament’s general assembly may debate Sweden’s NATO membership bid in the coming weeks, the ruling AK Party’s parliamentary group chairman said last week.

Russia’s intense missile and drone attacks across Ukraine in recent weeks sharply increased civilian casualties in December with over 100 killed and nearly 500 injured, the United Nations said in a new report Tuesday.

The United Nations Human Rights Monitoring Mission in Ukraine said there was a 26.5% increase in civilian casualties last month – from 468 in November to 592 in December. With some reports still pending verification, it said, the increase was likely higher.

Danielle Bell who heads the U.N.’s monitoring mission. said: “Civilian casualties had been steadily decreasing in 2023 but the wave of attacks i n late December and early January violently interrupted that trend.”

Ukraine‘s ambassador to Turkey has said that “certain negotiations” were underway regarding a United Nations-brokered grain export initiative which was shut down in the summer of 2023.

“Unfortunately, this grain initiative is not functioning at the moment, although certain negotiations are ongoing to find a format for possible assistance from international partners to Ukraine,” Vasyl Bodnar told a online briefing.

Ukraine’s hard-won economic stability is under threat again as the government faces a large budget hole and its two biggest allies and sponsors — the United States and the European Union — have so far failed to decide on extending more aid.

Without pledges of support by the start of February — when EU leaders meet to decide on aid — and if no money arrives by March, that could risk the progress Ukraine has made against inflation. It has helped ordinary people keep paying rent, put food on the table and resist Russia‘s efforts to break their society’s spirit.