Russia see 'steady progress' in Ukraine talks - official

Russia sees slow but steady progress in peace talks with the United States on Ukraine, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova has said. A heavily damaged residential building after a Russian drone strike in one of Kyiv's residential districts earlier this week "In the negotiation process on a settlement of the Ukraine conflict, I mean in the negotiation process with the United States, there is slow but steady progress," she said. Ms Zakharova added that western European countries were trying to torpedo the progress and suggested that the US should counter such moves. Meanwhile, Ukraine has launched British-made Storm Shadow missiles and its domestically produced long-range drones to hit several Russian oil and gas facilities, Ukrainian military and security officials have said. Ukraine has previously used the missiles to attack Russian industrial targets that it says help Russia's war. The Ukrainian General Staff said that the air force used Storm Shadow cruise missiles to strike the Novoshakhtinsk oil refinery in Russia's Rostov region. "Multiple explosions were recorded. The target was hit," the General Staff said on the Telegram app. It said the refinery was one of the biggest oil product suppliers in southern Russia and was supplying diesel and jet fuel to the Russian troops fighting in Ukraine. Ukraine's SBU security service said that the locally made long-range drones hit oil product tanks in the Russian port of Temryuk in the Krasnodar region and a gas processing plant in Orenburg in southwestern Russia. The Orenburg gas processing plant, the largest facility of its kind in the world, is located about 1,400km from the Ukrainian border. In the Krasnodar region, Russian regional authorities said that two oil product tanks caught fire at the southern port of Temryuk after the drone attack. Flames covered an area of about 2,000 square metres, authorities at the Krasnodar operational headquarters said on Telegram. As Russia's war in Ukraine approaches its four-year mark and diplomatic efforts to end it have so far failed to produce any tangible results, both Ukraine and Russia have stepped up their drone and missile attacks on energy facilities. Ukraine has increased its strikes on Russia's oil refineries and other energy infrastructure since August as it seeks to cut Moscow's oil revenues, a key source of funding for its war effort. The Ukrainian General Staff also said that Ukrainian troops hit a military airfield in the Russian city of Maikop in the republic of Adygea in the North Caucasus region.

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