In a video published by the Security Service, Viktor Medvedchuk asks Russian President Vladimir Putin to take him to Russia in return for a safe passage for residents of besieged Mariupol and the Ukrainian soldiers defending the city. Putin’s ally Medvedchuk was captured on April 12 after he escaped from house arrest in late February.
Ukraine's Foreign Ministry spokesperson Heorhii Tykhyi, speaking to Reuters, called the footage "laughable."
Ukraine's military reportedly struck oil depots in the various Russian and Russian-occupied regions late on Dec. 30, Russian Telegram media channels reported.
Targets included Russia's Tuapse Oil Refinery, the Tamanneftegaz oil terminal, a Rosreserv oil base, a temporary military base for river boats, and ammunition depots in occupied Ukraine, the General Staff said.
The operation targeted a large oil depot in Rybinsk, a city 160 miles north of Moscow in Yaroslavl Oblast, the sources said.
The Kyiv Independent's Tim Zadorozhnyy speaks with Meaghan Mobbs, head of the R.T. Weatherman Foundation and the daughter of President Donald Trump's outgoing special envoy on Ukraine, Keith Kellogg.
Over 170,000 people are without power after the attack, Ukraine's Energy Ministry said on Wednesday morning.
Romania will contribute 50 million euros ($59 million), according to a press release by the Romanian government.
The number includes 1,000 casualties that Russian forces suffered over the past day.
The Ukrainian Air Force reported intercepting 101 of the 127 drones launched by Russia overnight.
U.S. President Donald Trump said Dec. 29 that Russian President Vladimir Putin told him Ukraine had tried to attack Putin's residence, an allegation Kyiv has denied. "I learned about it from President Putin today. I was very angry about it," Trump said.
"Where is their condemnation of the fact that our children are being bombed and people are being killed all this time? I don't hear India, frankly, nor the United Arab Emirates," President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Dec. 30.
National security advisers from the Coalition of the Willing countries, led by the U.K. and France, have agreed to meet in Ukraine on Jan. 3, according to Zelensky. The meeting will be followed by another meeting among state leaders, planned for Jan. 6 in France.
