Ukraine-Russia war latest: Nato member Romania evacuates villages after Russian attack on LNG tanker

Volodymyr Zelensky has lauded the transfer of 100 Rafale jets from France as a critical air defence deal for Ukraine.

“One of the most productive visits this year – and certainly a new level in relations between Ukraine and France. We have a historic agreement on a new fleet of fighter jets for our country – 100 Rafale aircraft. And this is one of the best aircraft that can be used for our defence. Together with Swedish Gripens and American F-16s, the Ukrainian Air Force will be able to carry out all necessary defence missions and will guarantee our security,” he said on X.

Zelensky signed a letter of intent with France to acquire up to 100 Rafale F4 fighter jets as his country looks to strengthen its defences against Russian aggression.

Air defence systems, munitions and drones were also included in the letter of intent he signed alongside his French counterpart Emmanuel Macron, stood in front of one of the jets and both their flags.

The US sanctions against Russian oil majors Rosneft and Lukoil are already reducing Russian oil revenues and are likely to reduce the quantity of Russian oil sold in the long term, the US treasury said yesterday.

The Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control said in a statement that its analysis of the initial market impact of the sanctions announced on 22 October showed they “are having their intended effect of dampening Russian revenues by lowering the price of Russian oil and therefore the country’s ability to fund its war effort against Ukraine.”

The Treasury action was among the strongest US sanctions since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 and the first direct sanctions imposed by president Donald Trump against Russia since taking office in January.

The sanctions set a 21 November deadline for companies to wind down dealings with Rosneft and Lukoil. Violators could be cut off from the dollar-based financial system.

But it was unclear how Treasury will enforce the sanctions. The two largest buyers of Russian oil have been China and India.

The OFAC analysis said that several key grades of Russian crude were selling at multi-year-low prices and noted that nearly a dozen major Indian and Chinese purchasers of Russian crude have announced intentions to pause their purchases of Russian oil for December deliveries.

President Donald Trump is willing to sign legislation to impose sanctions on Russia as long as he retains ultimate decision-making authority over any such measures, a senior White House official said.

Trump told reporters late on Sunday that it was “OK with me” that Republicans were working on legislation to impose sanctions on countries doing business with Russia over Moscow’s failure to negotiate a peace deal with Ukraine.

These comments from the US president could clear the way for the legislation to move forward in Congress.

Leaders in the Senate and House of Representatives have held off bringing the legislation to a vote as Trump has preferred instead to impose tariffs on goods imported from India, the world’s second-leading buyer of Russian oil after China.

Asked if Trump was now ready to back the legislation, the White House official said: “He would sign it. He signalled that last night.

“But the White House will insist on specific language ensuring that Trump retains control over the sanctions, the official said.

“It’s always been important to the White House and the president that there’s a carve-out in the sanctions package that ensures the president has the ultimate decision-making authority on the sanctions,” they said. “So as long as that is included, I think the president would entertain signing the bill.”

The explosion that damaged a Polish railway track headed for Ukraine was the work of a “foreign state”, a Polish minister said on Monday.

Poland’s security services minister, Tomasz Siemoniak, said the attack on a section of the track near Mika village marked “a new stage of threatening the railway infrastructure”.

Warsaw has in the past held Russia responsible, saying Poland has become one of Moscow’s biggest targets due to its role as a hub for aid to Kyiv. Russia has repeatedly denied being responsible for acts of sabotage.

Read more about the explosion here:

A drone struck a Turkish-flagged tanker and set it ablaze on Monday in southern Ukraine’s Odesa region, officials said, a day after Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky signed a deal to import US liquefied natural gas through the area.

The MT Orinda was hit during the offloading of liquefied petroleum gas at Izmail port, Turkey’s Directorate for Maritime Affairs said. All 16 crew on board evacuated and no one was hurt, it said.

Russia has used drones, missiles and artillery to repeatedly batter the Odesa region, especially its Black Sea ports, since its full-scale invasion of its neighbour nearly four years ago.

Reuters is reporting that France’s provision of multi-role Rafale fighter jets will be part of a 10-year strategic aviation agreement, citing two people briefed on the batter.

Some could come directly from French stocks, although the bulk would be longer-term and part of Ukraine’s efforts to increase its long-term fleet to 250 warplanes, including the US F-16 and Sweden’s Gripen, they said.

Operating the advanced jets would take time given the rigorous training programme for pilots.

There have been talks for several weeks to see how France could provide more military support for Ukraine’s air defences, although Macron’s government is grappling with political and budgetary instability, raising questions over how much France can actually do.

Macron pledged last month to offer more Mirage fighter jets, after initially promising to deliver six, and a new batch of Aster 30 surface-to-air missiles, produced by European group MBDA, for the SAMP/T air-defence batteries operated by Ukraine.

European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen said in a letter to European Union governments that there are three options for meeting Ukraine’s financing needs, including a loan using frozen Russian assets.

“We have identified three main options, i.e. support to be financed by Member States via grants, a limited recourse loan funded by the Union borrowing on the financial markets, or a limited recourse loan linked to the cash balances of immobilised assets,” von der Leyen said in the letter, seen by Reuters.

In an options paper attached to the letter, von der Leyen added that “the three options are not mutually exclusive. They can be combined or sequenced”.

“Given the urgency of the situation, varying complexity of the options, and the need to start disbursements by the second quarter of 2026, any selected option could be designed as transitional and time limited,” she said in the paper.

Her letter comes after EU leaders agreed last month to fulfil Ukraine’s urgent financial needs for the next two years. However, they did not endorse a plan to use frozen Russian assets after Belgium objected to it being used to fund a giant loan to Kyiv.

Leaders from all EU countries except Hungary asked the Commission to come up with options for financially supporting Ukraine.

The Ukrainian army is facing severe issues with recruiting volunteers as officials confirm the country’s citizens are fleeing its military training centres.

Four out of every five Ukrainians being sent in are fleeing from the military training centres, said Roman Kostenko, the secretary of the Ukrainian parliament’s security, defence and intelligence committee.

“There will soon be as many people who have abandoned their units as there are in our army. 80 per cent [of draftees] are now fleeing from training centres,” he said, reported The Times.

“The country is doing nothing to bring them back or to create such conditions under which they are afraid to flee,” the former special forces colonel told a Ukrainian online news channel on Saturday.

An “unprecedented” overnight attack by Ukraine has damaged two thermal power plants in Russian-occupied Donetsk, leaving many settlements without electricity, a Moscow-installed local official said this morning.

Russia-backed governor Denis Pushilin said boiler houses and water filtration plants at the Zuivska and Starobesheve thermal power plants had shut down and that emergency crews were working to restore supplies.

On Monday, Pushilin said that an attack by Ukrainian strike drones on energy infrastructure had left roughly 500,000 people without power across several districts.

Kyiv has stepped up long-range drone and missile strikes against power plants and infrastructure in Russian-controlled parts of Donetsk in recent weeks, seeking to disrupt military logistics and undermine Moscow’s ability to sustain its war.