Ukraine-Russia war latest: Kyiv strikes key Russian oil depot after Trump talks about US troop deployment

Russia launched more than 100,000 drones, around 60,000 guided aerial bombs, and about 2,400 missiles at Ukraine this year, according to Ukrainian statistics.

Air raid alerts sounded 19,033 times across the country in the year.

The data comes from the Air Force of Ukraine and United24, which is the Ukrainian government’s official fundraising platform.

The Russian leader is trying to navigate between keeping Donald Trump on board as a de facto partner in geopolitics, while frustrating his ambitions to be a peacemaker worthy of a Nobel Peace Prize by ending the world’s worst war, writes Mark Almond, director of the Crisis Research Institute, Oxford:

By The Independent’s world affairs editor Sam Kiley:

President Donald Trump’s advisers have held talks today with Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky and national security advisers from the UK, France and Germany to discuss the next steps in ending Russia’s war, US special envoy Steve Witkoff says.

“We focused on how to move the discussions forward in a practical way on behalf of @POTUS’ peace process, including strengthening security guarantees and developing effective deconfliction mechanisms to help end the war and ensure it does not restart,” Mr Witkoff wrote in a social media post.

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Mr Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner and Ukraine’s top negotiator Rustem Umerov also participated.

Mr Zelensky said on Tuesday that national security advisers from Kyiv’s “coalition of the willing” backers would meet in Ukraine on Saturday, and then country leaders would gather in France on Tuesday, 6 January.

Ukraine’s military says it has struck an oil refinery in the southern Russian port of Tuapse and an oil terminal on the Taman peninsula in Russia’s Krasnodar region.

Kyiv’s General Staff added that processing units at the refinery and two piers at the Krasnodar terminal had been damaged.

The attacks are separate from the earlier drone attack on the key Temp oil depot in the Russian city of Rybinsk, north of Moscow.

Russian leader Vladimir Putin has expressed confidence in his country’s eventual victory in the war.

In his traditional new year’s address to the nation, he gave special praise to troops deployed in Ukraine, describing them as heroes “fighting for your native land, truth and justice”.

“We believe in you and our victory,” Mr Putin said, as cited by Russian state news agency Tass.

He delivered his recorded speech against the backdrop of a snowy Kremlin, a tradition broken only in 2022 – the year the invasion began – when the Russian leader gave his address flanked by men and women in military fatigues.