Ukrainian forces struck an airfield in southern Russia that was being used to launch Iran-designed Shahed drones, Ukraine’s General Staff claimed Thursday, as France said it had delivered a first batch of Mirage fighter jets to Ukraine.

It came as Russia and Ukraine swapped 150 prisoners of war each and UK foreign secretary David Lammy met with Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky in Kyiv. A series of drone attacks by Ukraine on Russia's energy facilities have sparked fires in recent days at a major oil refinery in the Volgograd region,

A Ukrainian drone attack sparked a fire at an oil depot in Russia’s Krasnodar region, the area’s governor said Wednesday. The fire, which was later put out, happened in the village of Novominskaya. Krasnodar Governor Veniamin Kondratyev said debris from a destroyed drone caused the fire,

Russia said on Thursday it had refused to renew the accreditation of Le Monde's correspondent due to France's refusal to issue a visa to a Russian reporter, leaving the renowned French daily absent from Moscow for the first time since the 1950s.

The French Foreign Ministry urged Russian authorities to reconsider their 'unjustified and arbitrary' decision to revoke the accreditation of Le Monde's Moscow correspondent.