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

A court in Russia on Thursday convicted a pro-war activist and critic of president Vladimir Putin of justifying terrorism and sentenced him to six years in prison.

Sergei Udaltsov, the leader of the Left Front movement that opposes Putin and is affiliated with the Communist Party, was arrested last year.

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 convicted earlier this month and handed sentences ranging from 16 to 22 years in prison.

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.

According to the court ruling, the activist will be serving his sentence in a maximum security penal colony.Udaltsov was a prominent opposition figure during the 2011-12 mass protests in Russia, triggered by reports of widespread rigging of a parliamentary election. In February 2012, he took part in a meeting that then-president Dmitry Medvedev held with various opposition figures.

Russian authorities have ramped up their crackdown on dissent and free speech after the Kremlin sent troops into Ukraine, relentlessly targeting rights groups, independent media, members of civil society organisations, LGBTQ+ activists and some religious groups. Hundreds of people have been jailed and thousands of others have fled the country.

In December 2023, a Moscow court sentenced Udaltsov to 40 hours of compulsory labor for violating procedures relating to organising a rally after he was detained on Red Square, where he tried to unfurl a flag with the image of Soviet dictator Josef Stalin, according to Russia’s state news agency Tass.

Udaltsov was previously imprisoned in 2014 and sentenced to 4 years on charges related to his role in organising a 2012 demonstration against Putin that turned turbulent. He was released in 2017.

Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky has said that Ukrainian representatives and US negotiators have discussed ways to bring “real peace closer” during a conversation on Christmas Day.

“It was a really good conversation: many details, good ideas, that we discussed,” Zelensky said on Telegram. “There are some new ideas on how to bring the real peace closer, and it concerns formats, meetings, and, certainly, the timeline.”

Earlier, we reported that the Ukrainian leader had taken part in a conversation with US special envoy Steve Witkoff and President Donald Trump’s son-in-law and businessman Jared Kushner.

Poland scrambled fighter jets to intercept a Russian reconnaissance aircraft flying near its airspace over the Baltic Sea and said dozens of objects entered its airspace from Belarus overnight, warning the incidents during the holiday period could amount to a provocation.

“Earlier today, over international waters in the Baltic Sea, Polish fighter jets intercepted, visually identified and escorted out of their area of responsibility a Russian reconnaissance aircraft flying near the borders of Polish airspace,” the Polish army said yesterday.

Countries on Nato’s eastern flank have remained on heightened alert for potential airspace violations since September, when three Russian military aircraft breached Estonia’s airspace for 12 minutes, days after more than 20 Russian drones entered Polish airspace.

Poland’s National Security Bureau said several dozen objects crossed into Polish airspace from the Belarusian side, with four so far identified as likely smuggling balloons.

“The mass nature of the airspace violations, their occurrence during the holiday season, the assessment of the Russian aircraft’s activity in the Baltic Sea, and similar incidents recently recorded in Lithuania may indicate a provocation disguised as a smuggling operation,” it said.

The Belarusian and Russian embassies in Warsaw did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

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.