War in Ukraine: 121 drones sent, attack on a Russian refinery, Trump and Putin in talks… an update on the situation

Every day, Midi Libre takes stock of the situation in Ukraine. This Friday, January 24, 2025, discover the latest news about this conflict.

121 drones

The Russian Defense Ministry said Friday that it had shot down 120 Ukrainian drones overnight over 12 of its regions, including Moscow, in one of the largest such attacks on its territory since the start of the conflict.

The ministry said in a statement that air defense forces had “intercepted and destroyed” 120 drones, most of them over Russian regions close to Ukraine's borders but also as far as the capital Moscow, as well as a 121st in Crimea, a peninsula annexed in 2014. Russian media reported damage in several regions.

Russian refinery hit

Ukraine said Friday it had targeted a Russian refinery and a microprocessor manufacturing plant in a large-scale drone attack that spanned several regions of Russia. Russia earlier said it had repelled a Ukrainian drone attack overnight, but four industry sources said the Kyiv attack damaged one of Russia’s oldest refineries in Ryazan, southeast of Moscow. The attack caused a fire at the refinery’s oil storage facility and damaged equipment including a rail loading platform and a hydrotreating unit used to remove impurities from refined products, the sources said.

A video posted on social media showed smoke and flames surrounding the Ryazan refinery and people appearing to flee the scene. Reuters was able to confirm the location of the video but not its date. The attack by Ukrainian drones on Russia appears to be one of the largest carried out by Kyiv since the conflict began nearly three years ago. According to the Russian Defense Ministry, 121 Ukrainian drones were launched against 13 regions, including the capital Moscow – 20 drones targeted the Ryazan region alone. The Ukrainian military said its drones struck oil facilities in Ryazan and a microelectronics plant in the Bryansk region in western Russia, adding that the sites targeted were involved in supplying the Russian military. The attack damaged production facilities and a warehouse, according to the Tass news agency, citing a statement from the Kremniy El microprocessor plant. Power supply was interrupted and production suspended. No casualties were reported.

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The Russian Defense Ministry announced that six other drones had been destroyed over the Moscow region and one over the capital itself. Other drones targeted the border regions of Bryansk and Belgorod as well as the Crimean peninsula annexed by Russia. The oblasts of Saratov, Rostov, Voronezh, Tula, Orel and Lipetsk and Kursk were also targeted. Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin said air defenses had intercepted Ukrainian drone attacks on four sites around the capital, without causing casualties or major damage.

“Ready” to talk to negotiate

Russian President Vladimir Putin said Friday that he was “ready” to negotiate on the conflict in Ukraine with his American counterpart Donald Trump, although neither Moscow nor Washington have put forward a timetable or agenda for this long-awaited discussion. kyiv, for its part, has rejected any discussion on Ukraine “without Ukraine”.

Read also: War in Ukraine: Putin assures that the "crisis in Ukraine&quot 2022 could have been avoided if Trump had been president of the United States

The American president “said he was ready to work together”, Vladimir Putin was satisfied on Friday during an interview on state television.“We have always said, and I want to emphasize this again, that we are ready for these negotiations on Ukrainian issues,” he added. Vladimir Putin assured that the “crisis in Ukraine” of 2022, the year the conflict began, could have been avoided if Donald Trump “had been president, if they had not stolen the victory from him in 2020.” He thus took up the unfounded claims of the American president on alleged electoral fraud in 2020. Ukraine also fears being pushed to the negotiating table in a disadvantaged position, because it is struggling on the front, and being forced to give up its territories occupied by Russia.

On Thursday, during a speech at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Donald Trump had called for hitting Russia in the wallet by lowering oil prices. If they were lower “the war in Ukraine would be over immediately”, he had estimated. Vladimir Putin, praising the “pragmatic” and “intelligent” character of Donald Trump, considered that the latter would not take such a decision which would also harm “the American economy”. Dmitry Peskov replied to him on Friday that the conflict in Ukraine “does not depend on oil prices”, but “arises from a threat to Russian national security”.