Russo-Ukrainian war, day 1506: Russia races to triple drone army as Ukraine strikes oil artery feeding Black Sea port

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Exclusives

Moldova formally exits Russia’s post-Soviet CIS as Sandu signs withdrawal decrees. President Sandu’s decrees complete a break that parliament voted through on 2 April.

France calls Hungary a traitor as recordings reveal Szijjártó fed Lavrov closed EU summit intel. Hungary’s FM Szijjártó briefed Lavrov during EU summits, offered to send EU docs via Budapest’s Moscow embassy, and coordinated sanctions obstruction.

WP: Hungary is sharing intelligence with Iran, while Vance flies to Budapest to back its leader amid election campaign. Vance is Campaigning for a man whose minister offered Iran his intelligence services.

Hungary robbed $82 million from Ukraine’s state bank, now it has fabricated subtitles on a toilet-office joke video to justify it. They took a year-old private video from an illegally seized phone of couriers joking about preparing documents in a public restroom and added a phrase about “corruption money” that was never spoken to the subtitles.

Ukraine and Croatia are building underground drone factory to kill Chinese supply chain. General Cherry and ORQA sign first joint production deal on Ukrainian soil, targeting full localization of drone components.

Oil posts biggest crash since 1991—but the Gulf ceasefire has two versions. Brent fell 15%. Missiles kept flying. Iran’s “open” Strait comes with a $2 million entry fee.

Military

Ukraine hits oil-pumping station on route to Russia’s biggest Black Sea export port, triggering fire. The Krymskaya station pumps crude toward Novorossiysk.

“If we don’t hit them in the face, they will hit us and won’t feel what war is” – Zelenskyy on Ukraine’s energy strikes. Ukraine will keep targeting Russian energy infrastructure until Moscow stops hitting Ukraine’s own, the president says.

Promised in 2023. Grounded in Belgium. Norway’s F-16s still haven’t reached Ukraine. A Western advisor says the jets were urgently needed this winter – and could have saved lives.

Ukraine’s drone forces destroy 9th Tor-M1 in 9 days in occupied Donetsk Oblast. Russia uses the Tor-M1 to shield frontline positions — USF says that makes it a priority target.

Russia building a 165,000-strong drone army. We cannot afford to stop — Syrskyi says. Ukraine’s drone units have neutralized more Russian personnel than Moscow recruits for four straight months, Commander-in-Chief said, as intelligence data shows Russia racing to triple its unmanned troop numbers by year’s end.

Ukraine’s interceptor drones just set record, as industry has crossed threshold. Ukraine is paying drone companies per Shahed they shoot down — and it’s working.

Ukraine’s Leopard 2A6 reportedly hit Russian T-72B3 at 5.5 km — this may be longest kill in this war. Ukraine is turning the Leopard 2A6 into a sniper rifle against Russian armor.

Ukrainian intelligence called it “the last Russian railway ferry in the Kerch Strait still afloat” — now it’s out of action too. The Slavyanin carried fuel, weapons, military equipment, and ammunition to Russian forces in occupied Crimea. HUR says it destroyed its ability to operate with a drone strike on the night of 5–6 April.

Ukraine hit Crimea’s key fuel hub and struck deep into Luhansk Oblast — while clearing more air defenses across the occupied south. The Feodosiia Marine Oil Terminal fire was visible over 20 km away and confirmed by NASA FIRMS; in separate strikes that week, Ukrainian forces also destroyed a Buk-M3, Tor-M2, and a Zoopark-1M radar.

Intelligence and technology

“Will not be tolerated” – UK exposes Russian spy submarine operation targeting its undersea cables. A decoy Akula and two GUGI mini-sub carriers operated covertly north of Britain before the Royal Navy intervened.

Japan is sending engineers to Ukraine’s frontline — and they’re coming back with $2,500 weapon. Saudi Arabia and the UAE are watching a Ukrainian drone startup more closely than Raytheon.

German, Japanese, and Swiss machines are inside Russia’s missile factories. None are sanctioned. Russia builds Iskander missile components on German lathes and Swiss machining centers.

International

“They trust Putin”: Zelenskyy says US ignored proof of Russia-Iran military cooperation. Zelenskyy says Russia passed US base coordinates to Iran and Washington ignored it — because it trusts Putin. Trump envoys visited Moscow 5 times, never Kyiv.

Pentagon called in Vatican’s top US diplomat over Pope’s anti-war remarks, media reports. The Pentagon summoned Pope Leo XIV’s Vatican envoy over his anti-war remarks. Sources describe a “bitter lecture.”

While West watches Middle East, Russia quietly secured foothold in world’s second-largest graphite producer. Russia got cobalt, graphite, rare earths, and access to a key Indian Ocean shipping route.

Russia’s buffer zone wishlist now includes Vinnytsia — via Moldova’s Transnistria, Ukrainian official says. Zelenskyy’s office deputy chief Palisa said this is the first time such plans have been recorded, though he stressed Russia currently lacks the forces to act on any of its territorial ambitions.

Humanitarian and social impact

“Incapable to proceed”: man who killed Ukrainian refugee Iryna Zarutska ruled incompetent. DeCarlos Brown, accused of stabbing Ukrainian refugee Iryna Zarutska on a Charlotte train, has been found mentally unfit for trial, stalling death penalty proceedings backed by Trump.

Artemis II just flew around Moon. Path that got humans there started with Ukrainian engineer from Poltava in 1929. He died in WWII and never saw the Moon landing he made possible.

ISW: Russians “weaponizing civilian harm as an intentional tool of war” by pervasively employing human safari tactics. The assessment follows two FPV strikes on civilian buses in Dnipropetrovsk Oblast on 7 April — part of a pattern that the UN has previously confirmed as crimes against humanity.

Ukraine’s greatest philosopher visited this estate. Russia burned it down 242 years later. The Donets-Zakharzhevskyi estate in Velykyi Burluk — a locally protected architectural monument where Hryhorii Skovoroda once stayed — was completely consumed by fire on 7 April after two direct drone strikes; no casualties were reported.

Political and legal developments

German AfD party will expel from its ranks a Chechen who advocates for Germany’s “unity” with Russia. A Chechen-born influencer Murad Dadaev met Kadyrov-linked officials, trained with a Kalashnikov, and gifted a Wehrmacht swastika dagger during a Chechnya trip.

Leaked documents show Hungary agreed to Russian teachers, energy deals, and circus cooperation with Moscow. Magyar calls it outright betrayal. Hungary and Russia signed a 12-point cooperation plan.

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