One person was killed and a residential building set ablaze in Odesa after a mass drone attack by Russian forces on the Ukrainian Black Sea port, officials said. Mayor Gennadiy Trukhanov reported at least 20 drones converged on the city, damaging civilian infrastructure. Rescuers pulled five people from burning apartments, but one woman later died.
The European Union agreed its 18th package of sanctions against Russia on Friday, including a moving price cap on Russian crude oil set at 15% below the average market price. The measures aim to improve on the largely ineffective $60 cap imposed by G7 economies since December 2022. EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas called it “one of its strongest sanctions packages against Russia to date”.
The UK announced it would join the price cap, with Chancellor Rachel Reeves stating at a G20 meeting that Britain and its EU allies are “turning the screw on the Kremlin’s war chest”. The Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Russia considered the sanctions illegal but had “adapted to life under sanctions”.
In other developments, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said Ukraine joining the EU by 2034 was unlikely, prioritising ending the war first. Ukraine’s top military commander Oleksandr Syrskyi said his forces were holding back intense Russian pressure on the logistics hub of Pokrovsk in eastern Donetsk region. The first tranche of 49 Australian Abrams tanks has been handed over to the Ukrainian army, with a final tranche due in coming months.
