Russia blames Ukraine after fire at major oil refinery Volgograd’s governor has now confirmed that a fire erupted at a major Russian oil refinery in the south-western region overnight after a drone attack blamed on Ukraine. Ukraine has launched drone attacks on Russia for months after Moscow’s almost two-year offensive. Governor Andrei Bocharov said on Telegram: Last night, the air defence and electronic jamming repelled an attack by drones in the Volgograd region’s Kalachyovsky and Zakanalye districts. A fire started at the Volgograd refinery after one of the downed drones fell. He added that the fire service had already brought the blaze under control by the start of the morning. Industry giant Lukoil, which operates the refinery, says on its website it is “the biggest producer of oil products in the federal south district” which covers eight regions of south-west Russia. The plant is located south of the city of Volgograd. Local media V1 published photos it said showed an overnight explosion during the attack. A local resident told V1 they heard two explosions. Closing summary We are going to pause our Ukraine coverage for the day now. Here’s a list of the day’s main developments: A Ukrainian drone attack hundreds of miles inside Russia’s border has caused a fire at a major oil refinery Ukraine’s air defences downed nine of 14 Russian drones in an overnight attack that hit energy infrastructure in the city of Kryvyi Rih, the air force and regional officials said on Saturday morning The Reuters news agency reports that Kyiv has informed the White House of Zelenskiy’s intention to sack the head of Ukraine’s military Poland’s president Duda has rowed back from a statement he made yesterday in which he cast doubt over Ukraine’s ability to retake Crimea Poland’s president Duda sought to defuse the row over his statement on Ukraine, saying in a post on X that his “actions and position on Russia’s brutal aggression against Ukraine have been and are clear from day one”. He added: Russia’s attack on Ukraine and occupation of internationally recognised territories of Ukraine, including Crimea, is a crime... We all stand shoulder to shoulder for a free, sovereign and independent Ukraine against aggression and brutal imperialism! Duda’s earlier remarks were sharply criticised by lawmakers from Poland’s pro-European ruling coalition. Reuters has a small update on the drone attack on the oil refinery inside Russia. It says it has been told by a Ukrainian source that two drones hit the site in Volgograd, and that the attack was orchestrated by Ukraine’s SBU security service. Here are some of the latest images coming through from photographers in Ukraine: Duda’s comments on Crimea, reported in the previous post, have drawn criticism. The Ukrainian ambassador to Poland, Vasyl Zvarych, wrote on X on Saturday: Crimea is Ukraine: it is and will remain so. The de-occupation of Crimea is our shared task and obligation with the free world. Duda’s remarks were criticised by lawmakers from Poland’s ruling pro-European coalition, who are in a different political camp to the president. The president is an ally of the nationalist Law and Justice (PiS) party, which lost power in December after failing to build a coalition following the loss of its majority in an October election. Roman Giertych, a lawmaker from the largest grouping in the government, Civic Coalition (KO), wrote on X: I would like to remind Mr Duda that there are cities in our country that in their history belonged to Poland for a shorter time than to another country Poland’s president has said he is unsure if Ukraine will be able to regain control over Russian-occupied Crimea – but believes it could retake Donetsk and Luhansk. Warsaw has been one of Kyiv’s staunchest supporters since Russia’s invasion in 2022 and has said Ukraine must regain control over all of its territory in order to deter Moscow from further aggression. President Andrzej Duda reiterated this position during an interview on the YouTube channel Kanal Zero late on Friday. However, when asked if he believed Ukraine would really be able to retake Crimea, he said: It is hard for me to answer that question. I don’t know if [Ukraine] will regain Crimea, but I believe it will regain Donetsk and Luhansk. He said the Crimean peninusla, which Russia seized in 2014, eight years before launching its full-scale invasion, “is a special place … also for historical reasons. Because in fact, if we look historically, it was in Russia’s hands for most of the time.” Parts of the Donetsk and Luhansk regions in eastern Ukraine were also taken by Moscow-backed forces in 2014 and have been embattled during the course of the current war, unlike Crimea. Ukraine has vowed to recover every inch of its territory including Crimea in the war with Russia. Russia blames Ukraine after fire at major oil refinery Volgograd’s governor has now confirmed that a fire erupted at a major Russian oil refinery in the south-western region overnight after a drone attack blamed on Ukraine. Ukraine has launched drone attacks on Russia for months after Moscow’s almost two-year offensive. Governor Andrei Bocharov said on Telegram: Last night, the air defence and electronic jamming repelled an attack by drones in the Volgograd region’s Kalachyovsky and Zakanalye districts. A fire started at the Volgograd refinery after one of the downed drones fell. He added that the fire service had already brought the blaze under control by the start of the morning. Industry giant Lukoil, which operates the refinery, says on its website it is “the biggest producer of oil products in the federal south district” which covers eight regions of south-west Russia. The plant is located south of the city of Volgograd. Local media V1 published photos it said showed an overnight explosion during the attack. A local resident told V1 they heard two explosions. Profile: who is Valerii Zaluzhnyi? For a president in wartime, the only political threat greater than a popular general could well be a popular general who has been unceremoniously fired. That appears to be a risk Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, is ready to take, having failed to persuade Gen Valerii Zaluzhnyi to resign as commander in chief of the Ukrainian armed forces. While some Ukrainian politicians urged a reconciliation between the two men and said that was still possible, rumours of the general’s imminent dismissal continued to circulate in Kyiv on Wednesday. While Zelenskiy is undisputedly the face of Ukraine abroad, Zaluzhnyi rivals the president’s popularity at home. His square bulldog features are on countless posters and internet memes across Ukraine including one showing him manhandling Vladimir Putin before an international court in The Hague. It is that rival popularity that is at the heart of the current crisis, the opposition MP and Zaluzhnyi ally Oleksii Goncharenko said. “It’s about the personal relationships between them. I don’t think it’s about the conduct of the war,” Goncharenko said. “Zelenskiy has been, don’t forget, an actor, and like he wants to be the only star in the show. And they are both emotionally exhausted after the past two years.” Ukraine informs US of plan to sack top general – reports We reported earlier this week that Ukraine’s top military commander, General Valerii Zaluzhnyi, had refused to resign after being asked to by Volodymyr Zelenskiy. Now, Reuters reports that Kyiv has informed the White House that Zelenskiy plans to sack Zaluzhnyi. It says: The move to oust General Valerii Zaluzhnyi, who has clashed with President Volodymyr Zelenskiy over military strategy and other issues, follows a Ukrainian counteroffensive last year that failed to recover significant amounts of Russian-held territory. A source close to Zelenskiy’s office said the pair also have disagreed over a new military mobilisation drive, with the president opposing Zaluzhnyi’s proposal to call up 500,000 fresh troops. The source, however, added that the process for relieving Zaluzhnyi of his post as the commander in chief of Ukraine’s armed forces was on hold for the time being as officials consider who his replacement should be. It added: There were no details on the timeline for the plan. Right now, both sides (the president and the general) have taken a pause in determining what the future will look like, and for now the status quo will remain until further notice. Ukraine’s air defences downed nine of 14 Russian drones in an overnight attack that hit energy infrastructure in the city of Kryvyi Rih, the air force and regional officials said on Saturday morning. It is the second drone attack in two days on the central city of Kryvyi Rih, the home town of Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy. The mayor, Oleksandr Vilkul, said energy facilities were hit, resulting in blackouts for thousands of people. In some districts water supplies and heating were disrupted as temperatures hovered just below freezing. Hospitals switched to generators for electricity. The air force said Iranian-made Shahed drones were shot down over four regions in central and southern Ukraine. Opening summary Welcome to today’s live coverage of Russia’s war in Ukraine. Here’s an overview of the latest developments: Fire has broken out at an oil refinery in Volgograd inside Russia, according to the Ukrainian state news outlet Ukrinform. It cited a Russian Telegram channel as saying Ukrainian UAVs hit the Lukoil refinery. Other reports of the attack were circulating online. Volgograd lies about 350km from the Ukrainian border. Ukraine’s air force said Russia attacked overnight with 14 Shahed drones from the directions of Primorsko-Akhtarsk in Russia and Chauda in Crimea, as well as two KH-59 guided air missiles from the Belgorod region in Russia. “The enemy directed a significant part of the Shaheds at the energy infrastructure facilities in the Dnipropetrovsk region. Mobile fire groups of the air force and the defence forces of Ukraine destroyed nine enemy UAVs in the Dnipropetrovsk, Odesa, Mykolaiv and Zhytomyr regions.” France’s president, Emmanuel Macron, has confirmed two French aid workers were killed in a Russian strike in Ukraine, condemning the attack as “outrageous”. In Paris, the prosecutors’ anti-terrorist office announced on Friday that it had opened a war crimes investigation. Aid workers are non-combatants under international law. Ukrainian officials said the men died in a drone attack in Beryslav, southern Ukraine. “The brave French aid workers assisted people and we will always be grateful for their humanity,” said Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy. “My condolences go out to their loved ones.” Zelenskiy has welcomed the arrival of two new air defence systems that he said could “shoot down anything”, though he could give no details. Separately, US under-secretary of state Victoria Nuland said in Kyiv this week that a new “small-diameter” bomb able to hit targets at greater distances would soon arrive. Ukrainian military intelligence spokesman Andrii Yusov said Russia continued to refuse to hand over the bodies of prisoners of war who Moscow claims were killed in the downing of a Russian military transport plane. Russia has produced no proof that PoWs were onboard. The Ukrainian general staff said its forces had repelled 19 attacks around Avdiivka in the Donetsk region and a further 10 in nearby areas. The top UN court, the international court of justice (ICJ), has confirmed its jurisdiction to rule in most parts of a case brought by Ukraine over Russia’s 2022 invasion. US Senate negotiators have reached a deal on a proposal to overhaul the asylum system at the US border with Mexico. It clears the way for Democratic and Republican Senate leaders to begin the difficult task of convincing Congress to pass a national security package that will include tens of billions of dollars for Ukraine and immigration enforcement, as well as funding for Israel and other American allies. Ukraine’s defence minister, Rustem Umerov, announced he had suspended Toomas Nakhkur, who led the defence ministry’s department for technical policy and weapons development, while authorities investigate suspected corruption in the procurement of weapons.