Ukraine war latest: Kyiv claims successful Storm Shadow strike on major oil refinery

A Russian court sentenced a pro-war activist and critic of President Vladimir Putin of justifying terrorism to six years in prison on Thursday.

According to Russian independent news site Mediazona, the charges against him stem from an article Udaltsov posted online in support of another group of Russian activists accused of forming a terrorist organisation.

Those activists were handed sentences ranging from 16 to 22 years in prison after being convicted earlier this month.

Udaltsov has rejected the charges against him as fabricated. On Thursday, he denounced the verdict as “shameful” and said he was going on a hunger strike, Mediazona reported.

Russian president Vladimir Putin told former US president George W Bush that Ukraine was a part of Russia, according to newly released transcripts.

The comments are said to have been made in April 2001, according to the Telegraph.

“What really happened? Soviet goodwill changed the world, voluntarily,” Putin is reported to have told Bush at a summit in Slovenia.

“And Russians gave up thousands of square kilometers of territory, voluntarily. Unheard of.”

He added: “Ukraine, part of Russia for centuries, given away. Kazakhstan, given away. The Caucasus too. Hard to imagine, and done by party bosses.”

Ukraine has struck a major Russian oil refinery using British-supplied missiles, Kyiv said, in an escalation of attacks on Moscow’s energy infrastructure.

Storm Shadow missiles hit the Novoshakhtinsk refinery in Russia’s Rostov region, triggering blasts, according to the Ukrainian General Staff.

“Multiple explosions were recorded. The target was hit,” it said on Telegram.

Ukrainian officials said the facility had been a key supplier of diesel and jet fuel for Russian forces fighting in Ukraine.

London authorised Kyiv to use Storm Shadow missiles against targets inside Russia last year, with the first confirmed strikes reported in November.

Separately, Ukrainian long-range drones hit oil product storage tanks at the southern port of Temryuk in the Krasnodar region and a gas processing plant in Orenburg, around 1,400km from the Ukrainian border. Russian officials said two tanks caught fire in Temryuk, with flames spreading across about 2,000 square metres.

Both sides have intensified strikes on energy sites in recent months, as Kyiv seeks to curb Russia’s oil revenues.

Elsewhere, Russia said there was “slow but steady progress” in talks with the United States, though foreign ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova accused western European countries of undermining negotiations.

Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelensky, said talks with US figures had produced “good ideas” on moving closer to peace.

Laurent Vinatier was arrested in Moscow in June 2024. Russian authorities accused him of failing to register as a “foreign agent” while gathering information on Russia’s “military and military-technical activities” that could be used to undermine national security.

He is serving a three-year sentence in Russia and reportedly facing new charges of espionage.

The charge carries a maximum sentence of five years in prison.

The arrest came amid heightened tensions between Moscow and Paris, following comments by French president Emmanuel Macron about the possibility of deploying French troops to Ukraine.

Vinatier’s lawyers asked the court to impose a fine, but in October 2024 a judge sentenced him to three years in prison. France’s foreign ministry described the punishment as “extremely severe” and called for the scholar’s immediate release.

Since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, detentions on charges of espionage and the collection of sensitive information have become increasingly common amid what critics describe as a highly politicised legal system.

Beyond condemning Vinatier’s sentence, France’s foreign ministry urged Russia to abolish its foreign agent laws, which subject those designated to heightened government scrutiny and sweeping restrictions.

Violations can result in criminal prosecution.

The ministry said the legislation “contributes to a systematic violation of fundamental freedoms in Russia, like the freedom of association, the freedom of opinion and the freedom of expression”.

Vinatier is an adviser to the Centre for Humanitarian Dialogue, a Switzerland-based non-governmental organisation, which said in June 2024 that it was doing “everything possible to assist” him.

Ahead of the verdict, Vinatier appealed for leniency, citing his two children and his elderly parents, whom he supports.

The Kremlin on Thursday said it was in contact with the French authorities over the fate of a French political scholar serving a three-year sentence in Russia and reportedly facing new charges of espionage.

Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov told reporters that Russia has made “an offer to the French” regarding Laurent Vinatier, arrested in Moscow last year and convicted of collecting military information, and that “the ball is now in France’s court”.

He refused to provide details, citing the sensitivity of the matter.

French president Emmanuel Macron is following Vinatier’s situation closely, his office said in a statement.

French Foreign Ministry spokesperson Pascal Confavreux said on Thursday that all government services are fully mobilised to provide consular support to Vinatier and push for his liberation as soon as possible.

Pope Leo XIV dedicated a portion of his Christmas sermon to calls for peace between warring nations across the world, including Russia and Ukraine.

The head of the Catholic Church said that the people of Ukraine were being “tormented” by violence.

“May the clamour of weapons cease, and may the parties involved, with the support and commitment of the international community, find the courage to engage in sincere, direct and respectful dialogue,” he said on Christmas Day.

Elsewhere, the pope expressed concern for Palestinians in Gaza, drawing parallels to Jesus pitching a “fragile tent”.

“How, then, can we not think of the tents in Gaza, exposed for weeks to rain, wind and cold?” he asked.

Polish jets intercepted a Russian reconnaissance plane over the Baltic Sea, which was flying close to its airspace, the NATO country’s army said.

Countries on NATO’s eastern flank have been on high alert for potential airspace incursions since September when three Russian military jets violated Estonia’s airspace for 12 minutes just days after more than 20 Russian drones had entered Polish airspace.

“This morning, over the international waters of the Baltic Sea, Polish fighter jets intercepted, visually identified, and escorted from their area of ​​responsibility a Russian reconnaissance aircraft flying near the borders of Polish airspace,” the army said.

It also said that at night, objects were observed entering Polish airspace from the direction of Belarus.

“After detailed analysis, it was determined that these were most likely smuggling balloons, moving in accordance with the wind direction and speed,” the army said.

It added that part of the airspace over northeast Poland’s Podlaskie region, which borders Belarus, was temporarily closed to civilian traffic to ensure security.

Russia’s foreign ministry accused the United States of reviving piracy and banditry in the Caribbean Sea by blockading Venezuela.

“Today we are witnessing complete lawlessness in the Caribbean Sea, where long-forgotten theft of other people’s property, namely piracy, and banditry, are being revived,” Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said of the situation.

“We consistently advocate for a de-escalation,” Zakharova said. “We hope that the pragmatism and rationality of US President Trump will allow solutions to be found that are mutually acceptable to the parties within the framework of international legal norms.”

“We confirm our support for the efforts of the government of Nicolas Maduro aimed at protecting sovereignty and national interests, and maintaining the stable and secure development of his country,” she said.

Russia is unable to maintain its intensity of fighting due to demands on manpower and resources, according to the Institute for the Study of War.

“ISW recently assessed that Russian forces will likely continue to struggle to maintain the Kremlin’s desired multi-pronged offensives in different directions due to the long-term materiel and manpower costs of these simultaneous operations,” the ISW said in a statement on Thursday.

“Russian efforts to start the battle for the Fortress Belt will likely further stretch Russian resources, and Russia will likely need to deprioritise other frontline sectors in order to concentrate even more forces to the Fortress Belt area.

“The Kremlin is therefore making demands in negotiations that Ukraine cede the unoccupied parts of Donetsk Oblast, likely in order to save Russia the personnel and materiel resources and possibly to put Russia in a more advantageous position to re-invade in the future to pursue Putin’s longer-term strategic goal of controlling all of Ukraine.”

The Ukrainian military attacked multiple Russian facilities overnight, hitting several strategic targets, military officials told the Kyiv Independent.

An oil refining facility, port and military airfield were struck according to the Ukrainian General Staff and a source from the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU), according to the publication.

The hit was orchestrated using drones of the Alpha Special Operations Centre of the SBU with the Temryuk Seaport in Krasnodar Krai and a gas processing plant in Orenburg Oblast targeted.

It is reported to have sparked fires in two oil storage tanks overnight.