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Ukraine’s General Staff said another oil depot was also attacked in occupied Zaporizhzhia
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Ukraine’s military struck a major oil terminal in occupied Crimea in the latest attack on Russian oil facilities.
In a statement, Ukraine’s General Staff said that it struck an oil terminal as well as another oil depot in occupied Zaporizhzhia.
The attack came as top military commander Oleksandr Syrskyi said the Russian army overran three settlements in the southern Zaporizhzhia region and Ukrainian units are locked in “grueling battles” to repel the thrust.
This comes as Ukrainian forces pulled back from several positions in the southern Zaporizhzhia region amid heavy fighting and adverse weather.
Russia is taking advantage of the weather to advance in small groups, moving on foot or motorcycles, with the adverse weather preventing Ukrainian forces from deploying drones against them.
The Bulgarian parliament has overruled a presidential veto on legislation allowing the government to take control of Lukoil’s oil refinery and sell it to shield the asset from looming US sanctions.
The US Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) and Britain imposed sanctions last month on Lukoil and Rosneft, Russia’s two biggest oil companies, escalating pressure on Russian President Vladimir Putin to end the war in Ukraine and threatening their operations across Europe.
Lawmakers approved changes last week giving a government-appointed commercial manager powers to oversee the continued operation of Lukoil’s refinery in Bulgaria beyond November 21, when the U.S. sanctions are due to take effect, and to sell the company if needed.
President Rumen Radev vetoed the bill on Wednesday, warning it lacked safeguards against future financial claims against the state.
Parliament rejected his objections by 128 votes to 59 on Thursday, the Bulgarian news agency BTA reported.
German chancellor Friedrich Merz and Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky have discussed an energy scandal that has engulfed the latter’s government on the phone, the German government said in a statement on Thursday.
Mr Zelensky pledged complete transparency, long-term support for independent anti-corruption authorities and further swift measures to regain the trust of the Ukrainian people, European partners and international donors, the statement said.
“The chancellor emphasized the German government’s expectation that Ukraine would vigorously pursue the fight against corruption and further reforms, particularly in the area of the rule of law,” it added.
Russia’s Defence Ministry said on Thursday that its forces had captured two Ukrainian settlements in northeastern and central Ukraine.
The towns named were Synelnykove in the Kharkiv region and Danylivka in the Dnipropetrovsk region.
The Independent could not independently verify the battlefield report, but authoritative Ukrainian battlefield map DeepState shows Russian forces on the outskirts of Synelnykove.
The Kremlin has said Ukraine will have to negotiate with Russia “sooner or later” and predicted that Kyiv’s negotiating position would get worse by the day.
Moscow, whose forces are trying to take control of the city of Pokrovsk in eastern Ukraine, has accused Ukrainian officials of refusing to engage in peace talks. Kyiv says Moscow’s terms to end the war are unacceptable and tantamount to asking it to surrender.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters on Thursday that Russia remained open to a political and diplomatic settlement and wanted peace.
But in the absence of such an opportunity, he said Russia would continue fighting in order to protect its own security for the benefit of future generations.
“The Ukrainian side should know that sooner or later it will have to negotiate, but from a much worse position. The position of the Kyiv regime will deteriorate day by day,” Peskov said.
Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) said it had foiled a plot by Ukrainian and British spies to tempt Russian pilots to steal a MiG-31 jet armed with a Kinzhal hypersonic missile for $3 million, state media reported on Tuesday.
The RIA news agency cited the FSB as saying that the hijacked jet was to be flown toward a NATO air base in the Romanian city of Constanta, where it could have been shot down by air defences.
The FSB, the main successor to the Soviet-era KGB, said Ukraine and Britain had planned a large-scale “provocation” using the hijacked aircraft, and that Ukrainian military intelligence had sought to recruit Russian pilots for $3 million to steal the fighter.
“The measures taken have thwarted the Ukrainian and British intelligence services’ plans for a large-scale provocation,” RIA cited the FSB as saying.
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The European Union needs to listen to Belgium’s concerns over using Russian frozen assets to help Ukraine, Dutch finance minister Eelco Heinen told reporters on Thursday ahead of a meeting with his EU counterparts in Brussels.
The European proposal to use Russian frozen assets to help Ukraine is being held up due to concerns from Belgium, where most of the assets are parked.
Belgium has demanded financial guarantees from EU capitals against the loan, but the European Commission’s top brass failing to convince the Belgian leadership to get on board with the plan last Friday, Politico reported.
The Kremlin has confirmed this week that there was contact between Britain’s national security adviser, Jonathan Powell, and Kremlin foreign policy aide Yuri Ushakov – but that the talks failed to develop into a sustained dialogue.
The Financial Times reported that Powell had sought to establish a back channel to Moscow amid concerns in Britain and Europe that the administration of US president Donald Trump might sideline their interests on Ukraine.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Britain had shown little interest in engaging with Russia’s perspective on the conflict.
“There were indeed contacts,” Peskov said. “A dialogue took place, but it did not continue.”
Fighting has intensified in the Orikhiv and Huliaipole sectors of the frontline in the Zaporizhzhia region, with up to 50 clashes reported daily.
Russian units continue to launch assaults and infiltration attempts as they try to press their advantage before winter.
Vladyslav Voloshyn, spokesperson for Ukraine’s Southern Defense Forces, said Russian troops are carrying out heavy bombardments.
“They have destroyed all existing fortifications and shelters, forcing us to withdraw from several positions,” he said.
Ukrainian forces have moved to secondary lines to stabilise the front.
Voloshyn described the situation as “quite difficult,” with Russian troops pushing to advance deeper into Ukrainian territory.
Ukrainian forces have pulled back from several positions in the southern Zaporizhzhia region amid heavy fighting, a military spokesperson said.
The retreat marks another shift in the front line as Russian troops push forward in south-eastern Ukraine.
Vladyslav Voloshyn, spokesperson for Ukraine’s Southern Defense Forces, told public broadcaster Suspilne that troops had “completely withdrawn” from the villages of Uspenivka and Novomykolaivka.
“Very fierce fighting continues for Yablukove and several other locations,” he said.
“The defensive operation is ongoing, and the contact line remains dynamic.”
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