Here are the key events from day 1,352 of Russia’s war on Ukraine.
Published On 7 Nov 2025
Here is how things stand on Friday, November 7:
Fighting
Ukraine attacked Russia with at least 75 drones on Thursday, sparking a fire in an industrial area in the southern city of Volgograd, which killed at least one person and halted dozens of flights across the country, Russian officials said.
Russian oil firm Lukoil’s refinery in Volgograd has also halted operations after it was struck by Ukrainian drones, the Reuters news agency reports, citing three sources familiar with the matter.
The sources said Lukoil’s primary processing unit, CDU-5, with a daily capacity of 9,100 metric tonnes, or 66,700 barrels per day – a fifth of the plant’s total capability – and another with a capacity of 11,000 tonnes per day were damaged during the attack.
Russia’s Ministry of Defence said its forces have advanced in the battered Ukrainian city of Pokrovsk and were fighting house-to-house battles in a bid to eject Ukrainian troops.
Russia said it captured 64 buildings in Pokrovsk over the past 24 hours and repelled Ukrainian attacks from Hryshyne to the west.
Moscow says taking Pokrovsk would give it a platform to drive north towards the two biggest remaining Ukrainian-controlled cities in the Donetsk region, Kramatorsk and Sloviansk.
South Africa’s government said it received distress calls from 17 citizens who had joined mercenary forces in the Russia-Ukraine conflict. The men are between the ages of 20 and 39 years and are trapped in Ukraine’s war-torn Donbas region. It is unclear who they were fighting for.
Military aid
Ukraine is engaged in “positive” talks on the purchase of Tomahawk missiles and other long-range weaponry with the United States, Ukraine’s ambassador to Washington, Olha Stefanishyna, told Bloomberg News.
Swedish Defence Minister Pal Jonson said Sweden and Ukraine have signed a letter of intent that includes establishing a joint hub in Ukraine “where Swedish personnel will be working on defence innovation”.
Ukraine has also asked Sweden to start training Ukrainian pilots on Swedish Gripen fighter jets as soon as possible, Kyiv’s Defence Minister Denys Shmyhal said.
Sanctions
Swiss commodity trader Gunvor said it has withdrawn its proposal to buy the foreign assets of sanctioned Russian energy company Lukoil after the US Treasury called the firm Russia’s “puppet” and signalled Washington’s opposition to the deal.
The US Treasury said in a post on X that President Donald Trump “has been clear that the war must end immediately. As long as [Russian President Vladimir] Putin continues the senseless killings, the Kremlin’s puppet, Gunvor, will never get a license to operate and profit”.
Lukoil has started diverting Caspian oil flows from the Azeri capital of Baku to the Russian port of Makhachkala in response to Western sanctions, Reuters reports, citing two industry sources. One of the sources said a tanker, Lady Leila, under the Russian flag, arrived late on Thursday at Makhachkala with a cargo of 5,000 metric tonnes of crude oil from Lukoil’s Korchagin oilfield in the Caspian Sea.
Regional security
Flights have resumed at Sweden’s second-largest airport, Gothenburg-Landvetter, after a drone incident prompted a sabotage investigation and halted air traffic. It was the latest in a series of incidents European officials have said are part of hybrid warfare being waged by Russia on European countries.
Belgian Defence Minister Theo Francken said his country will work to improve surveillance of its airspace following repeated sightings of drones over its airports and military bases in recent months.
NATO countries have been on high alert in recent weeks after drone sightings and other air incursions, including at airports in Copenhagen, Munich and in the Baltic region. Some 20 Russian drones also entered Polish airspace in September. Moscow has denied any connection with the incidents.
Poland will roll out a new military training programme this month as part of a broader plan to train about 400,000 people in 2026, the Defence Ministry said. Galvanised by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Poland now spends more of its gross domestic product (GDP) on defence than any other NATO member.
Russian affairs
The Russian government has agreed to phase in a planned lowering of its value-added tax thresholds for small businesses from 2026 rather than impose it in one go, Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin said after a backlash from business owners over the measure intended to fund Moscow’s war in Ukraine.
Two lawmakers from Germany’s biggest opposition party, the far-right Alternative for Germany, will travel to Russia next week for a BRICS summit. The party is under fire from opponents over its ties to the Kremlin and accusations – strongly denied – that it could be passing on sensitive military information.
War crimes
A Ukrainian court has sentenced a Russian soldier to life in prison after finding him guilty of killing a Ukrainian prisoner of war, the first time Kyiv has jailed a suspect on such charges.
The court in the southeastern city of Zaporizhzhia found Dmitry Kurashov guilty of shooting dead Vitalii Hodniuk, a Ukrainian soldier who had surrendered in January 2024 when his dugout was captured by Russian forces.
