Lithuanian FM: West 'chose to be caught off guard' by Russia

Explosions were reported in Russia's Saratov Oblast overnight on Dec. 13 as officials warned of a possible drone attack, with unverified local reports indicating the Saratov oil refinery had been targeted.

Ukraine's Security Service (SBU) carried out a second drone strike this week on Russia's Vladimir Filanovsky oil production platform in the Caspian Sea, also hitting the nearby Korchagin platform, an SBU source said Dec. 12.

Russia’s Slavneft-YANOS oil refinery in Yaroslavl, one of the country’s five largest, is reportedly on fire after being struck in an overnight drone attack on Dec. 12, officials and local Telegram channels said.

"You don't need to hide; I will come after each of you personally," said Prosecutor General Ruslan Kravchenko, responding to a wave of anonymous posts alleging he had submitted a letter of resignation.

The Russian Central Bank said in a press release that it had sued Euroclear, the Belgian financial institution holding the vast majority of Europe's frozen assets, in a Moscow court on Dec. 12.

Ukraine’s Security Service said Friday that it detained three men suspected of planting two homemade bombs that killed a National Guard serviceman and wounded four other people in Kyiv a day earlier.

President Volodymyr Zelenskyy praised troops in the Kupiansk direction and said battlefield gains strengthen Ukraine’s diplomatic position, as the National Guard’s 2nd Khartiia Corps reported a counterattack north of the city.

"We must be prepared for the scale of war our grandparents and great-grandparents endured," NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte warned.