Russia Ukraine war latest: Kyiv strikes oil depots deep inside Russian as ballots found in Moldova region

Russia has banned 227 U.S. citizens from entering the country, including U.S. State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller, the Russian Foreign Ministry said on Thursday.

The ban, announced on its website, also included the deputy ministers of commerce, defence and energy, as well as former U.S. ambassador to Russia John Sullivan.

Since the start of the war in Ukraine, Moscow has imposed mainly symbolic entry bans on thousands of Western politicians, journalists and others it accuses of “Russophobic” actions and statements.

Russia‘s defence ministry said on Thursday it had foiled an attempt by the Ukrainian army to attack its southern Belgorod region, Interfax news agency reported.

Reuters could not independently verify the report.

Russia said earlier in the week it had beaten back attempted incursions into two southern regions which Ukraine said were staged by groups of anti-Kremlin Russian fighters not under Kyiv’s control.

Russia‘s National Guard (Rosgvardia) together with the armed forces are repelling a Ukrainian-backed armed groups attack near the village of Tyotkino in Russia‘s western Kursk region, state-owned news agency TASS reported on Thursday.

The Putin critic said he was left with a broken arm and multiple injuries after being attacked with a hammer late on Tuesday.

He alleged that the attack was carried out by agents of the Russian president. “It was a characteristic bandit greeting from Putin’s henchmen,” he said.

The Kremlin said on Thursday that comments made by Russian President Vladimir Putin in an interview to state media did not constitute a threat to use them.

Putin told the West on Wednesday that Russia was technically ready for nuclear war and that if the U.S. sent troops to Ukraine, it would be considered a significant escalation of the conflict.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Thursday that Putin was merely answering a journalist’s questions and restating the already well known circumstances in which Russia would theoretically be forced to use nuclear weapons.

The Russian defence ministry said Ukrainian “terrorist formations” backed by tanks and armoured combat vehicles tried to invade in three separate directions in Russia’s Belgorod region at about 3am Moscow time (00.00 GMT).

It said that four more attacks by Ukrainian “sabotage and reconnaissance groups” were repulsed around five hours later in Russia’s Kursk region.

In today’s update, the UK ministry of defence has reported that while Russia continues to attack along the front lines, the average number of weekly reported ground attacks has reduced by 13 per cent since February 2024.

The Russian leader issued a defiant response when asked how he would respond if America sent ground troops to Ukraine.

Speaking in an interview on Wednesday (13 Marc), Mr Putin said Moscow was prepared for a nuclear confrontation if there was a threat to Russia’s sovereignty or security.

The Russian leader said: “I don’t think that everything is rushing so head on here [with nuclear confrontation], but we are ready for this.”

Russian forces launched three-dozen drones across several Ukrainian regions overnight, hitting civilian infrastructure, authorities in Ukraine said on Thursday.

Oleh Synehubov, governor of the eastern Kharkiv region, said on Telegram that repairs were underway after “television infrastructure objects” had been struck, but offered no further details.

Authorities in the neighboring northeastern Sumy region said infrastructure in four cities had come under attack by Iranian-made drones.

Ukraine‘s military said it shot down 22 of the 36 drones launched overnight by Russia.

Five were shot down over Ukraine‘s southern Mykolaiv and southeastern Dnipropetrovsk regions, local officials said. There were no immediate details about where the other drones had struck or been shot down.

Russia has carried out regular air strikes on population centers far behind the lines of its two-year-old invasion of Ukraine.

A senior official in ex-Soviet Moldova said on Wednesday Moscow was breaking laws by printing ballot papers in the separatist region of Transdniestria ahead of this week’s Russian presidential election.

Moldova’s pro-European authorities have already summoned the Russian ambassador to complain about a decision to open six polling stations in the pro-Russian enclave.

The central government said the move broke an agreement to allow voting only at a single polling station at the Russian embassy in Chisinau.

The ambassador rejected the complaint as unfounded, telling reporters Russia was simply enabling some 250,000 Russian nationals in Moldova to vote, many of them in the separatist region.

“These ballots were more than likely printed right there (in Transdniestria) to avoid taking them through a border crossing,” Deputy Prime Minister Oleg Serebrian said before a government meeting.

“It is hard to say how they would have been brought over a border. Moldova’s borders are controlled and there is no way of legally bringing them in or taking them out.”