Ukraine drones hit Russian oil rig for first time – SBU
Ukrainian drones hit a Russian oil rig in the Caspian sea for the first time, a source in Ukraine’s SBU security service said according to Reuters.
The drones struck the Filanovsky oil rig, which belongs to Russian oil major Lukoil. At least four strikes were recorded on the target.
The strikes halted the facility’s extraction of oil and gas, the source said.
Lukoil did not immediately reply to a request for comment.
Alex Croft11 December 2025 09:34
Lavrov says Witkoff-Putin meeting brought US and Russia closer
Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov said on Thursday that a visit to Moscow this month by Trump envoy Steve Witkoff had helped bring Moscow and Washington closer togather on certain issues.
The Kremlin said at the time that Russia and the US did not reach a compromise on a possible peace deal to end the war in Ukraine, after the marathon five-hour Kremlin talks between Vladimir Putin, Witkoff and Jared Kushner, Donald Trump’s son-in-law.
Lavrov added that Moscow had handed over Russia’s proposals on collective security guarantees to Washington.
Alex Croft11 December 2025 09:12
Bulletin | Trump says ‘strong words’ exchanged during call with European leaders
Read everything you need to know about Donald Trump’s latest comments in just five bullet points with The Independent’s Bulletin…
Alex Croft11 December 2025 08:41
Ukraine officially responds to US peace plan – report
Ukraine last night officially handed over its point-by-point response to the latest US peace plan, according to a report in Axios.
Donald Trump has intensified the pressure on Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Zelensky to accept a peace plan conceding major territorial losses for Ukraine.
Zelensky’s national security advisor and chief negotiator Rustem Umerov has now forwarded the Ukrainian response to Jared Kushner, Trump’s advisor and son-in-law.
The response includes comments and proposed ideas to “make the whole thing doable”, according to a Ukrainian official.
This follows days of consultations with European allies, including with Keir Starmer and the French president Emmanuel Macron and the German chancellor Friedrich Merz, who held a phone call with Trump on Wednesday.
A virtual meeting between the US and Ukraine is expected to take place on Thursday to continue discussions on the peace plan, a Ukrainian official said.
Kyiv has issued its official response to Trump’s peace plan (PA Wire)
Alex Croft11 December 2025 08:26
Trump wants Ukrainian elections – but it is against Kyiv’s wartime laws
As we reported earlier this week, Donald Trump has called on Ukraine to hold elections, accusing Kyiv of no longer being a democracy.
“They’re using war not to hold an election, but I would think the Ukrainian people … should have that choice. And maybe [Volodymyr] Zelensky would win. I don’t know who would win,” he told Politico in an interview.
“But they haven’t had an election in a long time. You know, they talk about a democracy, but it gets to a point where it’s not a democracy anymore.”
But can Ukraine really hold an election during wartime?
Ukraine has been under martial law since February 2022, when Russia launched its full-scale invasion. The country’s constitution provides for martial law in wartime, and a separate law bars the holding of elections while it remains in force.
Beyond being illegal, a nationwide vote would pose serious security risks as Russia bombs Ukrainian cities with missiles and drones.
And with around one-fifth of the country under Russian occupation and millions displaced abroad, organising a nationwide ballot is widely seen as logistically impossible.
It would also be difficult to find a way for Ukrainian soldiers on the front line to cast their votes.
Although Mr Zelensky’s term formally expired in May 2024, Ukraine’s constitution allows him to legitimately remain in office until a newly elected president is sworn in.
Alex Croft11 December 2025 08:09
Did Trump set a Christmas deadline for peace in Ukraine?
Earlier this week, various reports emerged that Donald Trump was seeking a peace deal between Russia and Ukraine “by Christmas”.
The US has been pushing both sides to accept a peace deal, but large differences remain, particularly over the issue of territory.
But the Financial Times reported that Volodymyr Zelensky has “days” to respond to a peace deal, a timeline issued to him during a tense phone call with Trump’s peace envoys, Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner.
A source familiar with the timeline told the FT that Trump hoped to finalise a peace deal “by Christmas”.
The Telegraph also reported on the phone call which they said lasted two hours.
But Washington denied on Wednesday that it was pressuring Kyiv into accepting a deal which it dislikes, with an unnamed official telling the Wall Street Journal that the Trump administration’s goal was to reach an agreement acceptable to both sides.
Trump reportedly wants a peace deal agreed within days (Copyright 2025 The Associated Press. All rights reserved)
Alex Croft11 December 2025 07:49
Ukraine launches huge air attack on Russia, Moscow claims
Russia has come under a heavy drone attack by Ukraine, Moscow has claimed, in what it says would be the largest air attack in recent history.
The country’s Defence Ministry said that 287 drones have been downed by air defences. Unlike Ukraine, Russia does not typically report the total number of drones fired overnight, just those that are shot down.
The attack targeted 11 regions, including Bryansk, Moscow and Kaluga.
Typically, Ukrainian drones target military facilities, air bases, and oil depots, as Kyiv looks to damage Russia’s wartime economy.
Alex Croft11 December 2025 07:39
Pokrovsk’s fall would not cause frontline collapse, expert says
The fall of Pokrovsk, a key town in Ukraine’s east, would not trigger a collapse in Ukraine’s defences but would weaken Kyiv at a sensitive juncture in the US-led negotiations to end the war, experts said.
Earlier this month, Moscow said it was in full control of Pokrovsk, two days before the US president Donald Trump’s special envoy and his son-in-law held Kremlin talks with president Vladimir Putin on a plan they say is close to being finalised.
Ten days on, Ukraine says its troops still hold positions in the north of the city, which was home to 60,000 people before Russia’s full-scale 2022 invasion and served as an important logistical hub for the military until the fighting closed in.
“The new round of pressure on Ukraine to settle the conflict on unfavourable terms is happening in parallel with heavy fighting on this front, which helps Russia because it affects Trump’s perception,” said Mykola Bielieskov, a senior analyst at Ukrainian charitable foundation Come Back Alive.
Volodymyr Zelensky holds a meeting with servicemen near the frontline city of Pokrovsk (AP)
Arpan Rai11 December 2025 07:13
Pokrovsk’s fall will not cause frontline collapse, experts say
Ukrainian sea drones hit and disabled a tanker involved in trading Russian oil as it sailed through the Black sea in Ukraine’s exclusive economic zone on its way to the Russian port of Novorossiysk, a Ukrainian official reported yesterday.
This marks the third sea drone strike in two weeks on vessels suspected to be part of Russia’s “shadow fleet” – unregulated ships used to help Moscow avoid sanctions, export its oil and fund Putin’s war.
Arpan Rai11 December 2025 07:01
Russia says Moscow targeted in major Ukrainian drone attack
Ukraine has launched a major aerial attack on Russia overnight, with at least 287 drones downed over a number of regions, Russian officials said.
Russia’s defence ministry said at least 40 drones were shot down over the Moscow region, which along with the city itself has a population of more than 22 million.
The extent of the damage was not immediately clear but flights were diverted from all of Moscow’s main airports.
Russian officials do not disclose the total number of drones that target the country and only share the number of drones downed.
The attack comes just hours after Ukrainian sea drones hit and disabled a tanker involved in trading Russian oil as it sailed through Ukraine’s exclusive economic zone in the Black Sea to the Russian port of Novorossiysk, a Ukrainian official said.
Arpan Rai11 December 2025 06:35