Drone strikes hit St. Petersburg; Russian oil depot on fire

A spokesperson for Russia’s Foreign Ministry said Friday that Pierre Levy, the French ambassador to Russia, had been summoned to the ministry over accusations of French mercenaries in Ukraine.

Levy was presented with allegations of France’s “increasing involvement in the conflict around Ukraine,” said Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova, according to a translation of a post on the Telegram messaging app.

Zakharova said a Russian strike Tuesday on the temporary deployment of foreign fighters in Kharkiv resulted in the deaths of a group of French mercenaries. “According to available information, about 60 militants were killed and about 20 were injured. Most of them were French citizens,” Zakharova said, without providing further evidence.

France rejected the allegations, Reuters reported. A spokesperson for the French embassy in London was not immediately available to comment when contacted by CNBC.

— Sam Meredith

Four oil tanks at a depot in the western town of Klintsy caught fire after the Russian military downed a Ukrainian strike drone which crashed into the facility, regional governor Alexander Bogomaz said Friday.

There were no casualties and more than 140 firefighters are tackling the blaze, Bogomaz posted on Telegram alongside footage and images of the huge fire.

“An aircraft-type unmanned aerial vehicle was suppressed by electronic warfare equipment of the Russian Ministry of Defense,” Bogomaz said, according to a translation.

“When an air target was destroyed, ammunition was dropped onto the territory of the Klintsovsk oil depot.”

He added that air defense units had since downed two more Ukrainian drones over other areas of the Bryansk region, which borders Ukraine.

– Elliot Smith

French Ambassador to Moscow Pierre Levy arrived at the Russian foreign ministry after being summoned to respond to Russia’s claim that French mercenaries have been fighting alongside Ukrainian troops, an allegation Paris denies.

The Russian Defense Ministry claimed on Wednesday that Russian forces had killed more than 60 foreign mercenaries in a strike in Kharkiv, most of whom were French citizens, but did not supply any supporting evidence.

– Elliot Smith

Russia’s State Duma, the lower house of parliament, is considering formally asking France’s National Assembly about its awareness of French mercenaries fighting for Ukraine, Duma Chairman Vyacheslav Volodin said in a Telegram post on Friday.

The Russian Defense Ministry claimed on Wednesday that Russian forces had killed more than 60 foreign mercenaries in a strike in Kharkiv, most of whom were French citizens, but did not supply any supporting evidence. Mercenary activity is prohibited in French law.

French Ambassador to Russia Pierre Levy was summoned to the Russian Foreign Ministry on Thursday, but France has denied operating mercenaries in Ukraine or elsewhere.

“Taking this into account, the topic deserves to be addressed by the State Duma deputies to the National Assembly of the French Republic,” said Volodin, an ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin.

“It is important for us to know whether they are aware that someone, violating the law, is sending militants to fight in Ukraine.”

— Elliot Smith

A rare protest broke out in the capital of Russia’s Bashkortostan republic on Friday in support of a jailed rights activist, Reuters reported, citing Russian news outlets.

Hundreds gathered in the city of Ufa despite warnings from the region’s leader, Radiy Khabirov, and footage shown by Russian station SotaVision reportedly showed police detaining a number of demonstrators.

That was the third protest this week in support of minority rights activist Fail Alsynov, who was charged with inciting ethnic hatred, a charge he denies, and sentenced Wednesday to four years in a penal colony.

— Elliot Smith

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Thursday night urged allied countries to ensure that sanctions against Russia are fully enforced.

“The terrorist state manufactures weapons, including missiles. There are dozens of critical components in each of them that were manufactured abroad, many of which were produced by companies from the free world,” he said in a post on X.

“Blocking sanctions evasion loopholes means literally blocking terror. I am grateful to all of our partners who understand this, as well as everyone around the world who supports our relevant efforts.”

— Elliot Smith

Ukrainian Minister of Foreign Affairs Dmytro Kuleba said he’s seen no change in tone from the U.S. administration when it comes to how they want Ukraine to approach the war and diplomacy.

“I have no reasons to doubt the sincerity of the commitments of the Biden administration to continue helping Ukraine,” he told CNBC.

“Nor do I have reasons to believe that the Republican Party as a whole does not realize how fundamental it is to defeat Russia in Ukraine and not to allow Russia to continue destroying the world order built by America,” he said.

“I mean let’s be honest, the word we live in was built under American leadership.”

The U.S. administration has recently stepped up the pressure on Congress to provide billions more in aid to Kyiv in its war with Russia.

—Matt Clinch

Russian armed forces said they had have taken control of the village of Vesele in the eastern Ukrainian region of Donetsk.

“In the Donetsk direction, as a result of successful active actions by units of the ‘southern’ group of troops, the village of Veseloye [Vesele in Ukrainian] of the Donetsk People’s Republic was liberated,” the Russian Ministry of Defense said Thursday, according to news agency Interfax.

The “Donetsk People’s Republic” is a self-proclaimed pro-Russian, separatist area of eastern Ukraine that Russia supported years before the 2022 invasion of Ukraine.

When Russia first invaded, part of its justification was protecting the “independence” of the so-called DPR and the neighboring Luhansk People’s Republic. It has since fully annexed those regions, as well as the southern Ukrainian regions of Kherson and Zaporizhzhia, claiming they are now Russian territory.

Ukraine has not commented on the latest claim and CNBC was unable to verify the defense ministry’s assertion.

Fighting in Donetsk remains intense although defense officials have commented that neither Russian nor Ukrainian forces have seen significant gains in recent weeks.

— Holly Ellyatt

Ukraine has reached energy independence when it comes to natural gas, Naftogaz CEO Oleksiy Chernyshov told CNBC at the World Economic Forum.