Ukraine says it has started mass production of its new domestically developed interceptor drones to strengthen air defences. The first three manufacturers had begun production and 11 more were preparing to set up production lines, the defence ministry said on Friday. The drones would be based on a domestically developed technology called “Octopus” to intercept Shahed drones. It had been tested in combat and proved to be working “at night, under jamming and at low altitudes”, the ministry said. President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has said the goal is to manufacture up to 1,000 of the interceptors a day. Russia has been steadily increasing the number of drones it uses in a single strike on Ukraine.
Volodymyr Zelenskyy has described Russia’s latest attack against Ukraine as “deliberate, calculated and wicked” after six people were killed and dozens injured in a wave of night-time strikes across Kyiv, reports Luke Harding. Air raid sirens sounded in the capital shortly after midnight on Friday and Shahed drones could soon be heard in the sky, with heavy machine-gun fire from Ukrainian air defences. Zelenskyy said the country was hit by 430 drones and 18 missiles. The dead had been at home in a block of flats on Kyiv’s left bank when it was hit. Dozens of other buildings were damaged, including the Azerbaijani embassy.
Azerbaijan said it issued a strong protest to the Russian ambassador on Friday after the embassy damage. The blast from a Russian Iskander missile destroyed part of the embassy’s perimeter wall and caused serious damage to the diplomatic compound, the Azerbaijani foreign ministry said. No one was hurt, and a ministry spokesperson said the Kyiv embassy was continuing to operate.
Russia plans to manufacture up to 120,000 glide bombs this year, a senior Ukrainian intelligence official said, including 500 of a new, longer-range version that can reach more towns and cities. Reuters was unable to verify Ukraine’s claims, disclosed by defence intelligence’s deputy head, Maj Gen Vadym Skibitskyi, but it would indicate a vast increase in the manufacture of the cheap and devastating glide bombs, which use wings – and sometimes engines – to fly dozens of kilometres to their targets. Skibitskyi said Russian forces were firing 200 to 250 glide bombs a day. Last month’s daily average was about 170, according to defence ministry data.
Russia’s Black Sea port of Novorossiysk temporarily suspended oil exports on Friday – equivalent to 2% of global supply – after a Ukrainian missile and drone attack, Reuters reported industry sources as saying. Ukraine’s general staff said its forces had fired Neptune cruise missiles and used various types of strike drones in the attack on Novorossiysk “as part of efforts to reduce the military and economic potential of the Russian aggressor”. Ukraine said it separately struck an oil refinery in Russia’s Saratov region and a fuel storage facility in nearby Engels overnight.
Russia’s second-largest oil producer Lukoil said on Friday it has been in talks with potential buyers of its foreign assets after last month’s sanctions from the UK and the US as a deal with the Gunvor trading house collapsed. “The specific deal will be announced after the final agreements have been reached and the necessary regulatory approvals have been obtained,” Lukoil said.
Volodymyr Zelenskyy will visit the Spanish capital, Madrid, on Tuesday to meet with lawmakers a day after his visit to Paris, the chamber of deputies announced. The Ukrainian president would meet deputies from both chambers of parliament during his visit, the Spanish statement said.
