Ukraine: Kyiv says it hit Russian oil, military facilities

US President Donald Trump earlier this week said he had ordered two nuclear submarines to be positioned in "the appropriate regions" in response to remarks from former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev about the risk of war between the nuclear-armed adversaries.

Security analysts called Trump's move a rhetorical escalation with Moscow, but not necessarily a military one, given that the US already has nuclear-powered submarines that are deployed and capable of striking Russia.

Ukraine and Russia have agreed to a new exchange of about 1,200 prisoners, according to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

Zelenskyy posted to Telegram on Sunday that the exchange would include civilians as well as soldiers, adding that preparations were also underway foranother meeting with Russian officials without giving more details.

At the end of last month, Zelenskyy had said a total of 5,857 people had returned to Ukraine from Russia in the three years since Russia launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

Ukraine's ability to defend itself against Russia's invasion has been aided enormously by the use of drones, often deployed into Russian territory to hamper the Kremlin's military effort.

In May, Germany signed a deal with Kyiv to finance long-range drones produced in Ukraine, although not much is known about the plans.

Die Welt newspaper reported recently that Germany intends to fund around 500 drones, which Ukrainian media calculated costs around $200,000 (€175,000) each.

For our new report on the drone cooperation between Kyiv and Berlin, click here.

 

The United Nations' nuclear watchdog called for "maximum military restraint near nuclear facilities", following a strike near Ukraine's Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, the largest in Europe.

"Any attack in the vicinity of a nuclear power plant — regardless of the intended target — poses potential risks also for nuclear safety and must be avoided," Rafael Grossi, the head of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), said.

Grossi cited staff at the plant in the southeastern Zaporizhzhia region as saying a nearby auxiliary facility was struck by shelling and drones on Saturday morning. 

He added that an IAEA team deployed to the plant heard explosions and saw smoke in the area, around 1 kilometer (1.6 miles) from the main plant's perimeter.

Both Russia and Ukraine have accused each other of attacking the nuclear facility during the nearly three-and-a-half-year conflict. The Zaporizhzhia plant has been under Russian control since early in the war.

A Ukrainian drone attack has ignited a fire at an oil depot in the Russian Black Sea resort city of Sochi, Russian official Veniamin Kondratyev said on Telegram.

Kondratyev is the regional governor of Krasnodar Krai, a Russian federal subject that includes Sochi. 

Kondratyev said firefighting efforts have begun to take out the blaze in Sochi's Adler district.

Flights at Sochi's airport were halted after the attack, according to Russia's civil aviation authority.

Ukraine has not yet commented on the reported attack. 

Ukraine's anti-corruption bodies said Saturday that they had uncovered a major graft scheme that procured military drones and signal jamming systems at inflated prices.

The development comes just two days after the agencies' independence was restored following major protests, prompting a policy reversal from Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

The independence of Ukraine's anti-graft investigators and prosecutors, NABU and SAPO, was reinstated by parliament on Thursday after a move to take it away resulted in the country's biggest protests since Russia launched its full-scale invasion in February 2022.

In a statement published by both NABU and SAPO on social media, the agencies said they had caught a current lawmaker, two officials and some national guard personnel taking bribes.

"The essence of the scheme was to conclude state contracts with supplier companies at deliberately inflated prices," it said, adding that the offenders had received kickbacks of up to 30% of a contract's cost. Four people have so far been arrested.

"There can only be zero tolerance for corruption, clear teamwork to expose corruption and, as a result, a just sentence," Zelenskyy wrote on Telegram.

Earlier this week, Zelenskyy had to row back plans to give his government more powers and independence of the country's anti-corruption agencies.

This climb down came of thousands of people took to the streets of Kyiv to express anger the Ukrainian president's decision to have the country's anti-corruption bodies under the control of state prosecutors.

India will keep purchasing oil from Russia despite US President Donald Trump's threats of penalties.

This is according to two Indian government sources and reported on by the Reuters news agency, via the New York Times.

"These are long-term oil contracts," Reuters reported one of the sources as saying. "It is not so simple to just stop buying overnight."

Trump last month suggested on social media that India would face additional penalties for purchases of Russian arms and oil.

A fire that broke out near the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant after Ukrainian shelling has subsided after being brought under control, the Moscow-installed administration of the Russian-held plant in Ukraine said on Saturday.

Russia seized the Zaporizhzhia plant in the first weeks of its full-scale invasion of Ukraine, which got underway in February 2022.

Since Moscow took the plant, both sides have accused each other of firing or taking other measures that could increases the danger of a nuclear accident.

Ukraine said it had struck infrastructure within Russia, including a major oil refinery as well as a military airfield for drones and an electronics factory.

Ukraine's Unmanned Systems Forces (USF) said the military had hit the refinery in Ryazan, some 180 kilometers (110 miles) southeast of Moscow. The attack sparked a fire on its premises.

The USF said it also hit the Annanefteprodukt oil storage facility in the Voronezh region.

Elsewhere, the Ukrainian SBU intelligence agency said its drones had hit Russia's Primorsko-Akhtarsk military airfield.

The airbase has been used to launch waves of long-range drones at targets in Ukraine.

The SBU said it also struck a plant in Penza. According to the intelligence agency, the factory supplies Moscow's military-industrial complex with electronics.

Ukraine's military said Saturday that it had hit key infrastructure inside Russia, including a significant oil refinery, as well as a military airfield used for drones, and an electronics factory.

Mwanwhile, a fire broke out near the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant after Ukrainian shelling, before being brought under control.

According to the New York Times, Indian government sources have revealed there are no plans to stop buying oil from Russia. This is despite US President Donald Trump's threats to impose penalties on New Delhi.