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A top aide to President Donald Trump has accused India of financing Russia’s war in Ukraine by buying oil from Moscow, after the US leader escalated pressure on Delhi to stop buying Russian oil. “What he [Trump] said very clearly is that it is not acceptable for India to continue financing this war by purchasing the oil from Russia,” said Stephen Miller, deputy chief of staff at the White House and one of the US president’s most influential aides. Miller’s criticism on Sunday was some of the strongest yet by the Trump administration about one of the US’s major partners in the Indo-Pacific. “People will be shocked to learn that India is basically tied with China in purchasing Russian oil. That’s an astonishing fact,” Miller said on Fox News’ Sunday Morning Futures. Indian government sources were quoted by various media on Saturday saying Delhi would keep purchasing oil from Moscow despite US threats.
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A blaze at a Russian oil depot in Sochi in southern Russia caused by a Ukrainian drone attack was extinguished on Sunday, local authorities said. Veniamin Kondratyev, the governor of the surrounding Krasnodar region, said more than 120 firefighters were deployed. The overnight attack on the Ilsky refinery near the city of Krasnodar had set two oil tanks on fire.
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The Ukrainian air force said on Sunday that Russia had launched 76 drones and seven missiles against Ukraine overnight. It said it destroyed 60 drones and one missile but 16 others and six missiles hit targets across eight locations. The Russian defence ministry said its air units intercepted 93 Ukrainian drones overnight, including one over the Krasnodar region and 60 over the Black Sea.
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Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on Sunday that Ukraine and Russia had agreed to exchange 1,200 prisoners after their latest round of talks in Istanbul in July. “There is an agreement to exchange 1,200 people,” the Ukrainian president wrote on X, saying the lists of individuals to be swapped was still being determined to “unblock the return of our civilians”. “Preparations for a new meeting” were also under way, Zelenskyy said.
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A Russian attack killed three people in south-eastern Zaporizhzhia region on Sunday, the regional governor said. Governor Ivan Fedorov, writing on the Telegram messaging app, said the three were killed in the daytime strike on the town of Stepnohirsk. Private homes were destroyed. The report could not be independently confirmed.
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The Russian and Chinese navies are carrying out artillery and anti-submarine drills in the Sea of Japan as part of scheduled joint exercises, the Russian Pacific Fleet was quoted as saying on Sunday. The drills are taking place two days after Donald Trump said he had ordered two nuclear submarines to be positioned in “the appropriate regions” in response to remarks by former Russian president Dmitry Medvedev. However, they were scheduled well before Trump’s action.
