Tag: ukraine

Russia Bans Jet Fuel Exports As Ukrainian Attacks Cripple Refining

Russia is banning exports of jet fuel through November 30, 2026, as it seeks to ensure domestic supply amid intensifying Ukrainian drone attacks on the Russian refining infrastructure, OilPrice.com reported.

Russia on Monday announced it is temporarily banning jet fuel exports until the end of November to keep sufficient domestic aviation fuel supplies. Supplies under intergovernmental agreements are exempted from the ban, the Russian government said today.

The decision comes after drone strikes on refineries pushed Russia’s crude-processing rate to the lowest in more than 16 years. In an effort to curb the flow of petrodollars into the Kremlin’s coffers, Ukraine has targeted a wide range of energy assets including sea ports and pipelines. 

The ban is not expected to be felt on the tight international jet fuel market as Russia is a small exporter of aviation fuels.  Last year, it exported an average of 30,000 barrels a day, or less than 2% of the global supplies, according to data compiled by Bloomberg from analytics firm Vortexa Ltd. Daily average exports slipped to 28,000 barrels in the first four months of 2026, with Turkey being the main buyer, the data show. 

But the ban on kerosene exports follows a ban on gasoline exports, in force since April 1, as Russia has seen its refining capacity and capability crippled in recent weeks by intensifying drone attacks from Ukraine.

Kyiv has targeted several major refiners and oil export terminals since the war in Iran began, aiming to cripple Russia’s ability to take advantage of the soaring international oil and fuel prices.

Last month, Ukraine targeted the 300,000-barrels per day Yaroslavl oil refinery in Russia, escalating the drone attacks on Russian refining and oil exporting assets, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said.

“We are bringing the war back home – to Russia – and that’s only fair,” Zelenskyy said in May.

The attack on the Yaroslavl oil refinery, co-owned by Gazprom Neft, was the fourth on the facility in one month, as Ukraine looks to diminish Russia’s refining and export capabilities amid soaring international oil and fuel prices.

Since international crude oil prices surged following the war in the Middle East, Russia has boosted its oil revenues as not only prices have jumped, but Russian oil was made desirable in India again, thanks to U.S. waivers for sales of Russia’s crude already loaded on tankers.

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Zelensky Insists on Demanding Air Defense Missiles From the US, Even After His Previous Pleas Were Ignored

His repeated pleas are not having the desired effect.

Kiev regime leader Volodymyr Zelensky must miss the ‘good old days’ when he got money and military equipment out of feeble Joe Biden’s administration in phenomenal quantities.

‘Vova’ refuses to acknowledge the new reality and still attempts to publicly embarrass Donald J. Trump and his team into resuming help for his war effort.

He pretends not to understand how little regard Trump has for him, as we have reported more than once before.

A quick look back shows that Trump has called Zelensky ‘a Dictator without elections’ since his presidential mandate ended back in 2024.

Trump also called him a ‘modestly successful comedian’ who was ‘the greatest salesman on Earth’ and ‘P.T. Barnum’, for conning feeble Joe Biden into giving him hundreds of billions.

He called him ‘disrespectful’ for his antics in the Oval Office.

The US president said ‘Vova’ has ‘done a terrible job’, with a country that is ‘shattered’, where ‘millions have unnecessarily died’.

Trump has panned him for ‘refusing to hold elections’, and ‘not being ready for peace’, despite the fact that he ‘has no cards’ (in the negotiations with Russia).

So, despite Ukraine having a good number of advocates in the US government and a large number among the Dems in opposition, Trump has basically shut the door on him.

But Zelensky is still trying, and publicly pleading and demanding, even though his latest effort was met with silence from the Trump administration.

He came out on US television to say that Kiev is ‘in urgent need of anti-ballistic missiles’ from the US to defend itself from an increasing number of attacks from Russia.

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Massive Evening Russian Strike On Kyiv

Russia is striking Kyiv and other Ukrainian cities tonight with a massive missile and drone barrage. The development comes as Russia vowed to up the tempo of the war, in an attempt to bring the conflict to a close, and respond to Ukrainian long-range attacks on Russian cities and infrastructure, and specifically the targeting of a school dorm in Luhansk where scores of students were killed.

Below, citizens of the Ukrainian capital can be seen crowded into underground subway stations to avoid the explosive attacks above the surface.

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Ukraine Continues Assault on Russian Oil Infrastructure with More Drone Strikes

Ukrainian drone strikes caused fires at more Russian oil facilities overnight into Saturday, local Russian officials said, in what appeared to be the latest attack on Moscow’s vital oil industry.

Authorities in Russia’s Rostov region said falling drone debris sparked a fire that damaged an oil depot and tanker in the port of Taganrog, while officials in the neighboring Krasnodar region reported a fire breaking out at an oil depot in Armavir for the same reason.

“Another facility of Russia’s oil industry has been reached – Armavir,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy wrote on X Saturday of the attack in the Krasnodar region, noting that Armavir is “500 kilometers from our state border.”

“We are rightfully bringing the war back to where it came from,” he wrote.

Ukraine has expanded its mid- and long-range strike capabilities, deploying drone and missile technology that it has developed domestically to battle Russia’s 4-year-old invasion. Attacks on Russian oil assets that play a key part in funding the invasion have become almost daily occurrences.

For its part, Russia has used its long-range ballistic missiles to damage Ukraine’s power grid and hammer cities. The Ukrainian capital is bracing for further heavy bombardments after what the Russian Foreign Ministry said earlier this week would be upcoming “systemic strikes” on Kyiv. Zelenskyy said Thursday that he’s being “very persistent” in pressing the United States to provide his country with more Patriot air defense missiles that can counter devastating Russian ballistic missile attacks.

The attacks on Russian oil infrastructure came a day after a Russian drone that was part of an attack on Ukraine went astray and struck an apartment building in eastern Romania, injuring two people in the NATO member country. The incursion added to concerns that the war could spread across the alliance´s borders, and drew strong condemnation across Europe.

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President Nawrocki Wants Zelensky Stripped of Top Polish Honor for Glorifying WW2 Nazi War Criminals

Zelensky loves his Nazis.

While Poland has been one of the most helpful allies to Ukraine during its 5-year war against Russia, there are unresolved issues from the past that could put the two neighbors on a collision course.

We’re talking, of course, about the war crimes and massacres perpetrated against Polish citizens by Ukrainian Nazi collaborators during World War II, beginning with Kiev’s national hero, Stephan Bandera.

For years now, Kiev regime leader Volodymyr Zelensky and his government have refused to address these grievances, leading to a tense relationship.

Today, reports arise that President Karol Nawrocki wants a Polish state ​body to discuss stripping Zelensky of Poland’s top honor.

This comes after Ukraine renamed ‌an army unit after nationalist insurgents who massacred Poles in World War Two.

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Trump Administration Slams ‘False Reporting’ by EU Top Diplomat Kaja Kallas Claiming That US Diplomats Had Left Kiev Ahead of Expected Missile and Drone Strikes

Many feel Kallas is not up to the job.

Of all the bloated bureaucracies installed in Brussels, the seemingly less effective official is the EU’s top diplomat, Kaja Kallas.

In yet another of her faux-pas, she announced that the heroic European diplomats were still in Kiev, while the American would have fled after the Russian warnings of massive drone and missile attacks programmed for the next days and weeks.

But no one’s surprise, the information was incorrect, prompting US officials to criticize her statement, calling it a ‘false reporting’.

The Telegraph reported:

“Kaja Kallas, the EU’s most senior diplomat, claimed the US was the only country to evacuate its embassy in response to Russian threats against the Ukrainian capital over the weekend, while praising Europeans’ courage for remaining in place.

But in an unusual intervention highlighting the tensions between Washington and Brussels, the US embassy in Ukraine stated: ‘There are no changes to our operations, and reports otherwise are false’.”

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Double Standards of Diplomacy

On May 22, Russia accused Ukraine of deadly attack on student dormitory in the Luhansk region. More than 20 people were killed and about 40 were injured, many of them young women.

All of this is painfully reminiscent of the deadly US missile attack on a school in Minab, Iran, in February 2026. The strike killed more than 150 civilians, the vast majority of whom were children.

The most terrible thing is that, both then and now, the countries responsible for the attacks hid behind a wall of disinformation. Its politicians shift the blame, make numerous contradictory statements and accuse their victims of even greater crimes. It’s not surprising as all of these are favourite propaganda tactics used to distract public attention.

It’s pertinent to note, that modern satellite technology makes it possible to track the direction of attack, identify those responsible, and conduct a prompt investigation, especially when it comes to potential harm to children. However, while the European political machine immediately constructed a discourse about US involvement in the case of the strike on Minab School, at the emergency UN Security Council meeting on the attack on Starobilsk, European diplomats insisted that Ukraine’s involvement could not be verified or confirmed due to a lack of access to the site of the tragedy. It’s as if Europe ever had access to the site of the tragedy in Minab!

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Russian Drone Strikes Romanian Apartment Building During Attack On Ukrainian Port City Of Izmail Across Danube River

A Russian drone struck an apartment building in Galați, Romania, injuring two people. The drone hit the roof of a residential building near the Ukrainian border. At the same time, Russia was attacking the nearby Ukrainian port city of Izmail across the Danube River.

The Romanian Ministry of Defense says the Russian drone was not shot down because doing so could have posed a greater risk to civilians and infrastructure.

Officials said it was initially unclear whether the drone carried explosives or was a decoy, and concluded after reviewing the incident that there was no safe opportunity to intercept it. The Romanian Ministry of Defense said the Russian drone was tracked for only four minutes, leaving insufficient time for a safe interception, reported Clash Report.

The European Union seemed to relish the incident.

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Zelensky sends letter to Trump, Congress pleading for Patriot interceptor missiles

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky sent a letter to President Donald Trump and the United States Congress requesting more Patriot interceptor missiles.

In the multi-page letter sent on Tuesday, provided by CBS News, Zelensky said it had already been “proposed that Ukraine is ready to purchase the number of Patriot systems and interceptor missiles” needed.

The Ukrainian president recognized and expressed gratitude for U.S. support but emphasized the country’s reliance on the United States for ballistic missile defenses.

“And when it comes to defending against ballistic missiles, we rely almost exclusively on the United States,” Zelensky said. “Patriot systems remain the most effective defense against every type of Russian ballistic missile.”

While asking for the product, he recognized the high demand for “Patriot antiballistic missiles” in many regions, including in the Middle East.

“For us–for a nation fighting for its survival–there is hardly anything more painful to see than Patriot batteries with no missiles loaded. I ask for your help in protecting Ukraine’s skies from Russian missiles,” the leader said.

He claimed that ballistic missiles remain Russian President Vladimir Putin’s “last major advantage on the battlefield.”

“The one challenge that remains extremely difficult for us–and the one that Europe cannot solve alone at this stage–is Russian ballistic missile threat,” he said.

“They can be intercepted. With Patriots. With your help. And you have the power to help,” Zelensky added.

Zelensky’s letter comes in the wake of one of the largest Russian attacks on Kyiv since the war broke out, involving nearly 700 air attack assets.

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Inside The Effort To Build Ukraine’s Ground Robot Arsenal

With ground maneuver a huge risk thanks to the ubiquity of deadly aerial drones, Ukraine is increasingly relying on uncrewed ground vehicles (UGVs) to move supplies, rescue the wounded, shoot down drones, lay mines and even fight battles. As a result, the head of the country’s defense technology incubator has been tasked with ensuring that there are enough of these systems to meet the voracious demand.

These efforts are being closely watched. Five years into an existential fight, Ukraine has become a global leader in ground drone technology. Kyiv is deploying these systems at a scale and pace that even the most advanced militaries can’t come close to keeping up with.

In an exclusive hour-long interview earlier this month, Brave1 CEO Andrii Hrytseniuk spoke with us about how Ukraine is set to produce tens of thousands of UGVs this year, how they are being used, and the importance of artificial intelligence in increasing the efficiency of these robots in combat.

This is the second of a two part interview. The first part focused on Ukraine’s interceptor drones, which you can read here.

Some of the questions and answers have been edited for clarity.

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