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Zelensky says is ‘10 per cent’ away from deal to end war with Russia but not ‘at any cost’
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Ukraine and Russia exchanged drone strikes on each other’s energy grids as the New Year began, according to local officials.
Ukrainian drones on Thursday struck an energy storage facility in the Russian city of Almetyevsk, causing a fire that has since been extinguished, Russian media cited the press service of the local governor as saying.
Ukraine’s military said on Thursday it had hit Russia’s Ilsky oil refinery in Russia’s Krasnodar region overnight, as well as the Almetevskaya oil preparation facility in Russia’s Tatarstan region.
Meanwhile, a Russian drone attack damaged power infrastructure in several Ukrainian regions overnight, Ukraine’s energy ministry said on Thursday. The governor of Volyn said more than 103,000 households in that region had lost power as a result of the attack.
The strikes come as Volodymyr Zelensky said in his New Year’s Eve address that Ukraine is “10 per cent” away from a deal to end the war with Russia, but not “at any cost”.
Kyiv is also discussing the possibility of hosting US troops as part of peace talks with US president Donald Trump.
Ukrainian drones struck energy and industrial targets across the Russian regions of Krasnodar, Tatarstan and Kaluga overnight, local officials said on Thursday, and the Ukrainian military confirmed it had carried out two of the three attacks.
In the southern region of Krasnodar, debris from a drone hit the Ilskiy oil refinery in Krasnodar, causing no casualties but igniting a fire that was later extinguished, local authorities said.
In the oil-rich Volga River region of Tatarstan, around 1,400 km (870 miles) from Ukraine, Russian media cited the local governor’s press service as saying that an energy storage facility in the city of Almetyevsk had been hit, causing a blaze that was later put out.
A third strike caused a fire at an unnamed industrial facility in the town of Lyudinovo in the Kaluga region, southwest of Moscow, local governor Vyacheslav Shapsha said in a statement.
The Ukrainian military confirmed in a statement that it had struck the facilities in Krasnodar and Tatarstan. Kyiv has been intensifying strikes against Russian energy infrastructure in recent months, aiming to cut off Moscow’s sources of financing for its military campaign in Ukraine.
Russia said on Thursday it had extracted and decoded a file from a Ukrainian drone downed earlier this week that it said shows it had been targeting a Russian presidential residence and that it would hand over the relevant information to the United States.
Moscow accused Kyiv on Monday of trying to strike a residence of President Vladimir Putin in Russia’s northern Novgorod region with 91 long-range attack drones. It said Russia would review its negotiating position in ongoing talks with the US on ending the Ukraine war.
Ukraine and Western countries have disputed Russia’s account of the alleged attempted strike.
In a statement posted on Telegram on Thursday, Russia’s Defence Ministry said: “Decryption of routing data revealed that the final target of the Ukrainian drone attack on December 29, 2025, was a facility at the Russian Presidential Residence in the Novgorod region.”
“These materials will be transferred to the American side through the established channels,” it added.
The Wall Street Journal reported on Wednesday that US national security officials had found Ukraine did not target Putin or one of his residences in a drone strike. Reuters could not immediately verify the report.
Ukraine has denied carrying out such an attack and described the accusation as part of a Russian disinformation campaign meant to drive a wedge between Kyiv and Washington after a weekend meeting between Trump and Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has said that Russia’s holiday season attacks showed Ukraine could not afford delays in air defence supplies.
“(Our) allies have the names of equipment which we are lacking. We expect that everything agreed with the United States at the end of December for our defence will arrive on time,” he said, without clarifying further.
Zelensky met with US President Donald Trump in Florida on Sunday to negotiate a peace framework to end the nearly four-year war. Both leaders have said they are close to an agreement, but thorny issues around post-war control of territories remain.
A Russian drone attack damaged power infrastructure in several Ukrainian regions overnight, President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Thursday, while Moscow accused Ukraine of carrying out a deadly new year attack in a Russian-controlled part of Ukraine.
“On New Year, Russia deliberately brings war. Over 200 attack drones were launched onto Ukraine in the night,” Zelensky wrote on Telegram.
Zelensky said energy infrastructure in seven regions across Ukraine had been targeted.
Australian authorities are trying to confirm reports that a national was reportedly killed while fighting alongside Ukrainian forces against Russia.
The man, identified in social media posts as Russell Allan Wilson, was killed on 12 December in Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk region, according to local media reports.
In an Instagram post on 19 December, a man identifying himself as a US army veteran said Wilson had been killed during combat and had chosen to remain in Ukraine despite the risks.
Stuti Mishra reports:
Ukraine’s military said on Thursday it had hit Russia’s Ilsky oil refinery in Russia’s Krasnodar region overnight, adding that the results of the attack were still being confirmed.
In a statement on Telegram, the military also said it hit the Almetevskaya oil preparation facility in Russia’s Tatarstan region.
The Almetevskaya facility is more than 600 miles (965 km) from the nearest part of Ukraine, and even further from the nearest territory currently controlled by Kyiv.
Russian drone attack damaged power infrastructure in several Ukrainian regions overnight, Ukraine’s energy ministry said on Thursday.
The ministry said a “significant number” of households in the Volyn and Odesa regions – in northwestern and southwestern Ukraine, respectively – were disconnected from power supplies by the strike, as well as some in the Chernihiv region north of the capital Kyiv.
The governor of Volyn said more than 103,000 households in that region had lost power as a result of the attack. Volyn region is several hundred kilometres from the front line and borders NATO member Poland.
Ukrainian drones on Thursday struck an energy storage facility in the Russian city of Almetyevsk, causing a fire that has since been extinguished, Russian media cited the press service of the local governor as saying.
Kyiv has been intensifying strikes against Russian energy infrastructure in recent months, aiming to cut off Moscow’s sources of financing for its military campaign in Ukraine.
Almetyevsk is located around 1,700 km (1,056 miles) from Ukrainian-held territory, in the oil-rich Volga river region of Tatarstan.
Ukraine’s Defence Ministry said on Thursday it had deployed two new Patriot air defence systems received from Germany as part of military aid supplies announced previously.
“Two more Patriot air defence systems have been deployed to protect Ukrainian cities and critical infrastructure,” the ministry said in a post on Telegram.
Germany said last August that it would deliver two Patriot systems to Ukraine after reaching an agreement with the US that Berlin would be first in line to receive the latest systems in return.
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