KYIV: Ukrainian drones attacked energy facilities and a missile storage facility in Russia overnight, a security source in Kyiv said Friday, while a Russian aerial attack wounded several in Ukraine.
The Ukrainian and Russian drone barrages were less intensive compared to previous days and came after US-Ukraine talks in Jeddah proposed a 30-day ceasefire that the Kremlin on Friday said it was ‘cautiously optimistic” about.
The source said drones dispatched by the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) had hit gas compressor systems in the western Russian regions of Tambov and Saratov.
It added that a Ukrainian drone also hit a warehouse storing missiles used for S-300 and S-400 Russian air defense systems.
“The SBU conducted another successful special operation on enemy territory, which caused significant losses to the Russian budget, reduced its ability to finance the war against Ukraine and the military potential of the Russian army,” the source said in written comments.
The mayor of Moscow meanwhile said Russian air defense systems had shot down four Ukrainian drones that were heading toward the capital.
The Russian defense ministry said Ukraine had launched 28 drones overnight against over 300 in the early hours of Tuesday, when three people were killed.
The governor of the southern Krasnodar region said a Ukrainian attack had sparked a fire at an oil refinery in the Black Sea resort town of Tuapse.
A fuel tank containing up to 20,000 tons of oil products was on fire at the refinery, officials said.
Kyiv said Russia had attacked Ukraine with 27 drones overnight, a fraction of the number it usually sends over, with some recent barrages comprised of more than 100 drones.
Authorities in the eastern Kharkiv region said eight people were wounded by the Russian attacks overnight.
Ukraine drones hit Russian energy sites, Kyiv source says
Ukraine drones hit Russian energy sites, Kyiv source says
- Drones dispatched by the Security Service of Ukraine had hit gas compressor systems in the western Russian regions of Tambov and Saratov
Britain, Japan agree to deepen defense and security cooperation
- “We set out a clear priority to build an even deeper partnership in the years to come,” Starmer said
- Takaichi said they agreed to hold a meeting of British and Japanese foreign and defense ministers this year
TOKYO: Britain and Japan agreed to strengthen defense and economic ties, visiting Prime Minister Keir Starmer said on Saturday, after his bid to forge closer links with China drew warnings from US President Donald Trump.
Starmer noted that Japan and Britain were the leading economies in a trans-Pacific that includes fellow G7 member Canada, as well as other international trade and defense pacts.
“We set out a clear priority to build an even deeper partnership in the years to come,” Starmer said as he stood beside Japan’s Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi after a bilateral meeting in Tokyo.
“That includes working together to strengthen our collective security, across the Euro-Atlantic and in the Indo-Pacific.”
Takaichi said they agreed to hold a meeting of British and Japanese foreign and defense ministers this year.
She said she also wanted to discuss “cooperation toward realizing a free and open Indo-Pacific, the Middle East situation and Ukraine situation” at a dinner with Starmer later on Saturday.
Starmer arrived on a one-day Tokyo stop after a four-day visit in China, where he followed in the footsteps of other Western leaders looking to counter an increasingly volatile United States.
Leaders from France, Canada and Finland have all traveled to Beijing in recent weeks, recoiling from Trump’s bid to seize Greenland and tariff threats against NATO allies.
Trump warned on Thursday it was “very dangerous” for its close ally Britain to be dealing with China, although Starmer brushed off those comments.
Tokyo’s ties with Beijing have deteriorated since Takaichi suggested in November that Japan could intervene militarily during a potential attack on Taiwan.
China regards the self-ruled democratic island as its territory.
Starmer met Chinese President Xi Jinping and Premier Li Qiang on Thursday, with both sides highlighting the need for closer ties.
He also signed a series of agreements there, with Downing Street announcing Beijing had agreed to visa-free travel for British citizens visiting China for under 30 days.
No start date for that arrangement has been given yet.
Takaich said the two leaders agreed during discussions on economic security that a strengthening of supply chains “including important minerals is urgently needed.”
There is concern that Beijing could choke off exports of the rare earths crucial for making everything from electric cars to missiles.
China, the world’s leading producer of such minerals, announced new export controls in October on rare earths and associated technologies.
They have also been a major sticking point in trade negotiations between China and the United States.
Britain, Japan and Italy are also developing a new fighter jet after Tokyo relied for decades on the United States for military hardware.
