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Get you up to speed: Ukraine destroys 49 of Russia’s shadow fleet ships in crippling strikes | News World
Ukrainian strikes targeted the shadow fleet and oil depots in Russia, with 14 new attacks today resulting in a total of 49 vessels lost this week. The strikes included an overnight assault on Taganrog port, which caused an inferno at the Kurgannefteprodukt oil depot and prompted an emergency evacuation of residents.
The recent strikes have resulted in a substantial reduction in oil trading volumes, with figures dropping to 53% of January levels and prices soaring to 146%. Russian authorities are working to conceal the extent of damage to oil refineries while also struggling to secure diesel supplies crucial for the 2026 harvest season.
Kremlin reports indicate a catastrophic fuel crisis following Ukrainian drone strikes, with authorities attempting to conceal the full extent of damage to oil infrastructure. As fuel shortages escalate and prices soar—rising to 146% of pre-war levels—Russia is reportedly seeking to import supplies to address the immediate needs of both civilian and agricultural sectors.
What remains unclear — The Kremlin has not disclosed the extent of damage to Russian oil refineries following the attacks.
Ukraine targets 49 ships from Russia’s shadow fleet in recent attacks

Ukrainian strikes have crippled the shadow fleet and oil depots in Russia(Picture: east2west)
Vladimir Putin’s shadow fleet was rocked by 14 new attacks today as the chaos at Russia’s petrol stations deepens.
This brings the total to 49 the vessels lost this week – almost all of them oil tankers supplying fuel to Crimea and other Ukrainian territory annexed by the Kremlin.
The crisis is now ‘catastrophic,’ with the Kremlin scrambling to hide the consequences, one report warned.
In more bad news for Vladimir Putin, Ukraine also staged crippling overnight strikes on Taganrog port, triggering an inferno at the Kurgannefteprodukt oil depot and an emergency evacuation of residents.
Meanwhile, queues for petrol are growing and prices escalating, even in faraway Siberia, as Putin refuses to halt the war or give up his aim of grabbing the entire Donbas region of eastern Ukraine.

Putin’s shadow fleet helps transport sanctioned oil (Picture: Getty)
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Independent Russian news outlet Meduza analysed oil trading data and concluded: ‘The situation with fuel after the Ukrainian drone attacks appears to be simply catastrophic.
‘The authorities are trying to keep information about the extent of the damage to Russian oil refineries secret.
‘Under these circumstances, the fuel shortage can be indirectly assessed, for example, by analysing exchange trading data. We have studied this data. The picture resembles a collapse.’
Even before the latest strikes, the volume of trading fell to 53% of the January level, while the price rose to 146%.
Footage also highlighted Ukrainian kamikaze drones targeting military trucks filled with Russian occupiers in the rear areas of the Luhansk region.
Russia, the world’s second-largest oil producer, is now seeking to import supplies due to the carnage caused by Ukrainian drones
Russia also faces damage to its harvest, with grain lost due to chronic diesel shortages.
‘The 2026 harvest season is turning into a nightmare for Russian farmers, who are facing a shortage of diesel fuel, restrictions on its sale, and rising prices,’ the Moscow Times reported.
‘The shortage of diesel fuel for combine harvesters and other equipment is particularly acute in key southern regions.’
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‘Cheer up, you caught the bad guy,’ says killer Virginia McCullough as she is arrested for murdering her parents
A woman who murdered her parents “in cold blood” before hiding them in makeshift tombs for four years told officers to “cheer up, you caught the bad guy” as she was arrested in her home.
Virginia McCullough, 36, poisoned her father John McCullough, 70, with prescription medication and fatally stabbed her mother Lois McCullough, 71, shortly afterwards in 2019.
She ran up large debts on credit cards in her parents’ names and after their deaths, she continued to spend their pensions until she was finally caught in 2023.
In body-worn video footage released by police, a handcuffed – and eerily calm – McCullough told officers: “I did know that this would kind of come eventually.
“It’s proper that I serve my punishment.”
She said she had slipped something into her father’s drink then put his body under a bed on the ground floor, and put her mother’s body in an upstairs wardrobe.
McCullough, having been arrested on suspicion of double murder, told an officer: “Cheer up, at least you’ve caught the bad guy.”
She added: “I know I don’t seem 100% evil.”
At the police station, she told officers where a kitchen knife was, which she described as a “murder weapon”, and a hammer which she said “will still have blood on it”.
McCullough, of Pump Hill, Chelmsford, Essex, was sentenced to life imprisonment on Friday with a minimum term of 36 years at Chelmsford Crown Court, after she admitted to their murders between 17 and 20 June 2019 at an earlier hearing at the same court.
Chelmsford Crown Court heard how she hid their bodies in makeshift tombs at the family home in Great Baddow in Essex, then told persistent lies to cover her tracks.
The court heard she cancelled family arrangements and frequently told doctors and relatives her parents were unwell, on holiday or away on lengthy trips.
But concerns over Mr and Mrs McCullough’s welfare were raised in September 2023 by a GP at their registered practice, and Essex County Council’s safeguarding team referred these to police.
The GP had not seen the couple for some time and said Mr McCullough had failed to collect medication and attend scheduled appointments. It was found McCullough had frequently cancelled appointments, using a range of excuses to explain her father’s absence.
Police said a missing persons investigation was initially launched and McCullough lied to officers, claiming her parents were travelling and would be returning in October.
It became a murder investigation, and when officers forced entry to the house in Pump Hill on September 15 2023, McCullough confessed that her parents’ bodies were in the house and that she had killed them.
Nicola Rice, a specialist prosecutor for the Crown Prosecution Service, said: “McCullough callously and viciously killed both of her parents before concealing their bodies in makeshift tombs within their home address.
“She spent the next four years manipulating and lying to family members, medical staff, financial institutions, and the police, spending her parents’ money and accruing large debts in their name.”
She added: “This was a truly disturbing case, which has left behind it a trail of devastation, and I can only hope that the sentence passed today will help those who loved and cared for Lois and John begin to heal.”
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Defense alliance NATO chief Mark Rutte has met US President-elect Donald Trump to discuss global security issues, according to a NATO spokesperson.
The meeting took place in Palm Beach, Florida.
During his first term as US president, 2017-2020, Trump pushed for European NATO countries to spend more on defense and described the alliance’s cost-sharing as unfair to the US.
Rutte took over as NATO chief from Norwegian Jens Stoltenberg in November.
Before taking office in January, Trump has nominated Pete Hegseth for the post of defense secretary, which has raised eyebrows among many allies.
Hegseth, 44, has served as an infantry captain in Iraq and Afghanistan, but has no senior military or government officer experience.
Multiple missiles were fired in an airstrike towards a densely populated part of Lebanon’s capital early on Saturday.
The huge airstrike targeted Beirut’s Basta neighbourhood, and no prior warnings were given by the Israeli military. The largely residential area was struck last month.
At least one violent explosion was heard across the city, Reuters witnesses said, and plumes of smoke could be seen. Scenes of massive destruction at the site were shared online, including a massive crater in the ground.
“Beirut, the capital, woke up to a horrific massacre, as the Israeli enemy’s air force completely destroyed an eight-story residential building with five missiles on Al-Mamoun Street in Basta,” the state-run National News Agency reported.
The health ministry put the initial death toll at four, with 23 wounded. The number is expected to climb in the coming hours as search and rescue efforts continue.
It came after a long day of Israeli airstrikes on Beirut’s southern suburbs, which have been non-stop since last week.
The cross-border fighting between Israel and the Iran-backed Hezbollah militant group escalated into a full-blown war in mid-September.
Israel has bombed southern Lebanon, Beirut’s southern suburbs and the eastern Beqaa region, and has sent ground troops across the border. Hezbollah has continued to fire rockets deeper into Israel.
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