Ukrainian military says ‘numerous explosions’ at Novoshakhtinsk refinery; Zelenskyy says ‘very good’ talks held with Trump envoys. What we know on day 1,402 Ukraine used British Storm Shadow missiles to attack a Russian oil refinery on Thursday, the country’s military said. The Novoshakhtinsk refinery was hit by the missiles and “numerous explosions” were recorded, the Ukrainian armed forces’ general staff said in a social media post. It has already used the British missiles to attack targets inside Russia. The military also said the Novoshakhtinsk plant was one of the main suppliers of petrol products in southern Russia “and is directly involved in supplying the Russian Federation’s armed forces”. Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on Thursday that he had “very good” talks with Donald Trump envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner about how to end the war. “It was a really good conversation: many details, good ideas, that we discussed,” the Ukrainian president said on Telegram. “There are some new ideas on how to bring the real peace closer, and it concerns formats, meetings, and, certainly, the timeline.” Zelenskyy’s post came a day after he said Ukraine had won some limited concessions in the latest version of a US-led draft peace plan, which is being reviewed by Moscow. A court in Russia has convicted a pro-war activist and critic of Vladimir Putin of justifying terrorism and sentenced him to six years in prison . Sergei Udaltsov, the leader of the Left Front movement that opposes the Russian president and is affiliated with the Communist party, was arrested last year. According to Russian independent news site Mediazona, the charges against him stem from an article Udaltsov posted online in support of another group of Russian activists accused of forming a terrorist organisation. Those activists were convicted earlier this month and given sentences from 16 to 22 years in prison. Udaltsov has rejected the charges against him as fabricated. On Thursday, he denounced the verdict as “shameful” and said he was going on a hunger strike, Mediazona reported. The Kremlin has said it is in contact with the French authorities over the fate of a French political scholar serving a three-year sentence in Russia and reportedly facing new charges of espionage. Russia has made “an offer to the French” regarding Laurent Vinatier, arrested in Moscow last year and convicted of collecting military information , and “the ball is now in France’s court”, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov told reporters on Thursday. He refused to provide details. French president Emmanuel Macron is following Vinatier’s situation closely, his office said in a statement. A French foreign ministry spokesperson said all government services were fully mobilised to provide consular support to Vinatier and push for his liberation as soon as possible The Mariupol Drama Theatre that was destroyed in a 2022 Russian airstrike while hundreds of civilians were sheltering in its basement is to open its doors again , with Russian occupation authorities heralding the reconstruction as a sign of renewal, while former actors at the theatre denounced the reopening as “dancing on bones”. The Kremlin has made the reconstruction of Mariupol a calling card of its rule in occupied Ukraine, but Moscow’s oversight is accompanied by arrests or exile of critics, along with property seizures that have stripped thousands of Ukrainians of apartments they legally owned, report Shaun Walker, Pjotr Sauer and Artem Mazhulin . The Mariupol theatre is due to reopen by the end of the month with a performance of Russian fairytale The Scarlet Flower after being rebuilt almost from scratch over the past two years. Continue reading...