Ukraine-Russia war latest: Multiple oil tankers struck off Russian coast in attack while unloading – UK Times

At least four people were injured after a Ukrainian drone attack overnight caused two fires at an industrial facility in southern Russian port of Rostov-on-Don, officials said.

Yuri Slyusar, governor of Rostov region, said four people, including a four-year-old child, were injured when falling debris from downed drones damaged their apartments.

Rostov-on-Don is the Rostov region’s administrative centre.

All of the injured people were hospitalised, Slyusar said.

The official did not disclose the details of the industrial facility set ablaze in the attack. He added that one of the fires was extinguished by early morning.

Aleksandr Skryabin, the mayor of Rostov-on-Don, said temporary accommodation was arranged for the families from the damaged apartments.

The full-scale impact of the attack was not immediately known.

The UK is assessing plans to use oil seized from Russia’s shadow fleet vessels to fund Ukraine’s war effort, a government source told The Times.

“There would be a double impact on Russia’s war machine — we wouldn’t just be depriving them of illicit war revenues but also finding a way to help fund Ukraine’s resistance,” the source told The Times.

It is one of a number of options being considered at a time when two vessels from Russia’s shadow fleet are on course to enter the Channel at lunchtime today. These two vessels, Spring Fortune and Range Vale, have been sanctioned by Britain.

The Times reported that British special forces were being readied in case the order is given to storm the shadow fleet vessels as part of a crackdown on the Russian economy.

Multiple oil tankers were reportedly struck by drones while unloading crude oil at a terminal on Russia’s coast on Tuesday.

The Greek-managed vessels, identified as Delta Harmony, Matilda, and Delta Supreme, were hit near the Russian Black Sea’s Caspian Pipeline Consortium (CPC) terminal.

The identity of those responsible for the drone attacks remains unclear, with both the Ukrainian military and the CPC declining to comment.

The incident follows Russia’s most intense aerial bombardment of Ukraine this year, which killed at least four people and targeted Kyiv and Kharkiv overnight.

Estonia has said it will ban 261 Russian combatants who fought in the war against Ukraine from entering the country.

The bans are unavoidable, Estonian interior minister Igor Taro said, adding that those who have committed atrocities in the name of Vladimir Putin have no place in a free and democratic world.

“There is no doubt that these are individuals with a hostile attitude toward Europe. They have combat experience and military training. They often also have a potential prior criminal background,” he said, justifying the ban.

“In addition, they have been psychologically traumatised. The threat posed by them is not just abstract. It includes both the possible conducting of tasks for Russian special services and participation in organised crime,” Taro said.

Ukrainian drone attack sparked an industrial fire and damaged apartment buildings in the southern Russian port of Rostov-on-Don, mayor Aleksandr Skryabin said this morning.

Air defences were trying to repel the attack over the city’s western districts, where falling debris caused the fire and damaged the buildings, Skryabin said on the Telegram messaging app.

Ukrainian lawmakers on Tuesday voted against naming outgoing defence minister Denys Shmyhal as energy minister after president Volodymyr Zelensky proposed him for the top job.

A total of 265 MPs voted in favour of dismissing Mr Shmyhal from his decision, according to Ukrainska Pravda.

Mr Zelensky had previously said he had expected parliament would approve Mr Shmyhal for the posts of deputy prime minister and minister of energy.

Russian drones attacked infrastructure in the central Ukrainian city of Kryvyi Rih, forcing emergency power blackouts for more than 45,000 customers and disrupting heat supplies, officials said.

“Please fill up on water and charge your devices, if you have the chance. It’s going to be difficult,” military administration head Oleksandr Vilkul said on the Telegram messaging app.

Water utility pumping stations switched to generators and water remained in the system, but there could be pressure problems.

The full scale of the attack was not immediately known.

Russia has repeatedly struck Ukraine’s power plants, substations and transmission lines with missiles and drones, seeking to knock out electricity and heating and hinder industry during the nearly four-year war.

Kyiv says the campaign has forced rolling outages and emergency cuts to cities across the country, as repair crews work under fire and Ukraine relies on air defences and electricity imports to stabilise the grid.

Kryvyi Rih, a steel-and-mining hub in the Dnipropetrovsk region and president Volodymyr Zelensky’s hometown, has been hit repeatedly, with strikes killing civilians and damaging homes and industry.

Germany indicted two Ukrainians linked to an alleged Russian spy plot to detonate packages while they were being transported across Europe, prosecutors said on Tuesday.

In March 2025, suspects named as Daniil B, Vladyslav T and Yevhen B, sent two packages with GPS trackers from the western German city of Cologne to Ukraine on the orders of Russian intelligence agents in Mariupol, prosecutors said.

The aim was to look at logistics routes to allow them to later send packages with explosive devices which would ignite in Germany or elsewhere.

Russia has denied any involvement.

Daniil B and Vladyslav T were arrested in Germany in May and remain in pre-trial detention. Yevhen B, who was arrested in Switzerland that same month, was extradited to Germany on December 23, with charges expected to be filed shortly.

As Ukraine is gripped by a bitter cold snap, more than one million people have been left without heating and electricity as Russia ramps up attacks on energy infrastructure.

Elderly residents and those with vulnerable family members told The Independent they are cold and unable to cook proper meals as they face temperatures as low as -15C.

Despondent and fearing death, many are struggling through the winter as blackouts plunge Ukraine’s cities into darkness, lit up only by the bright flash of Russian drone and missile attacks.

“It gives you depression,” 33-year-old Dnipro resident Kyril Tulenev says. “You cannot do anything. You cannot check the news. You cannot properly use your things. Sometimes you cannot call anyone because there is no connection.”

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