Daily Briefing

Key Takeaways

• Ukraine launched its deepest-ever drone strikes — SSO FP-1 drones flew 3,300 km to hit gas condensate plants in Yamalo-Nenets AO (Novy Urengoy and Purovsky), setting a new range record and reaching Russia's Arctic energy heartland for the first time (9 sources corroborated).
• A coordinated Ukrainian strike on Novorossiysk naval base hit the frigate Admiral Essen (Kalibr carrier), the Sheskharis oil terminal, military harbor facilities, a Su-33 fighter, an Mi-8 helicopter, and S-300/400 air defense components — confirmed by Zelensky and multiple Ukrainian agencies (13 sources corroborated).
• Russia conducted a mass overnight attack with Iskander-M and S8000 Banderol ballistic missiles plus 196 drones across 10+ oblasts; 165 drones intercepted but strikes killed civilians in Mykolaiv, Dnipro, Kharkiv, and Kyiv (9 sources corroborated). A Russian drone also struck the Starokozache border crossing on the Ukraine-Moldova border, killing civilians (35 sources corroborated).
• Trump publicly praised a 'great' call with Putin and said Putin wants a deal, while the FT reports CIA Director Ratcliffe is set to take a more active role in peace diplomacy — even as Bloomberg reports officials concede the war will extend into at least 2027.
• Ukraine's Patriot interceptor stockpiles are reportedly near exhaustion; Germany and the UK announced new Patriot and drone packages at Ramstein-36, and four EU nations are pushing to seize €200 billion in frozen Russian assets.