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Zelensky orders 40 days
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky approved a 40-day influence operation for the Security Service of Ukraine to pressure Russia to end the war, after consulting with the head of the Ukrainian Security Service about strikes against Russian targets.
“I approved a 40-day operation to be carried out by the Security Service”
Zelensky wrote on Telegram on Thursday, "I approved a 40-day operation to be carried out by the Security Service to influence the aggressor state in order to press for an end to the war."
The plan comes as Ukraine has for months launched waves of medium- and long-range strikes at targets inside Russia or in areas controlled by Russia, primarily focusing on the oil sector.
In Crimea, local Russian authorities reported two people killed, one of them a child, and two others injured in overnight Ukrainian attacks, while the Ukrainian military also reported a separate civilian death in the Belgorod region.
In the Krasnodar region, a fire broke out at the Poltavskaya oil depot in Krasnoarmeysky "after a drone wreckage fell," according to local official Alexander Kharytonov via social media.
Drones, refineries, and claims
The Al-Jazeera Net account said that in total, 269 Ukrainian drones were shot down overnight in Russian airspace and over the Crimean peninsula.
Ukrainian strikes on Russian energy facilities are described as targeting oil refineries, pipelines, and storage facilities, with the stated aim of depriving Moscow of revenue from fuel sales used to finance its war effort since 2022.
Reuters reported that the Norsi refinery, described as the fourth-largest oil refinery in Russia and the second-largest producer of gasoline, suspended operations on Wednesday following a Ukrainian drone attack.
The two informed sources cited by Reuters said the attack damaged the CDU-5 main refining unit at the Norsi refinery, which has a capacity of 12,000 tons per day, about a quarter of the refinery's total capacity.
Ukrainian officials said the campaign aims to weaken a key source of funding for the war and move the conflict so that Russian citizens feel it, while Russian President Vladimir Putin said such attacks on civilian infrastructure aim to sow discord among the population.
Diplomacy and internal security
Beyond the battlefield, the dispute between Hungary and Ukraine over Russian oil and EU aid remained a central thread, with Le Devoir reporting that Budapest blocked a €90 billion EU aid loan and Ukraine denounced Hungary’s arrest of seven Ukrainian fund couriers.
“We will stop allowing transit through Hungary of things important for Ukraine”
Le Devoir quoted Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiga on X saying, "They are now safe and have already crossed the Ukrainian border," after Hungary freed and expelled seven Ukrainian citizens.
In the same dispute, Le Devoir said Viktor Orbán told a radio station, "We will stop allowing transit through Hungary of things important for Ukraine, until we receive Kyiv’s approval for deliveries of Russian oil," and it said Zelensky threatened on Thursday that Ukraine would give the address of a blocker to its armed forces.
Separately, mezha.net reported that Kyiv’s Shevchenkivskyi District Court sentenced former SBU Anti-Terror Center head Dmytro Kozyura to life for spying for Russia, after an internal investigation under the codename "Rat."
The SBU case materials described 14 episodes of unlawful activity under "Rat," and the agency said the investigation documented his transmission of secret information about Ukrainian weaponry, the state of critical infrastructure facilities, the consequences of shelling, and the personal data of the country’s leaders.