The presidents of the United States and France said they would hold Russia accountable for its actions in Ukraine, and the European Union on Thursday reached a tentative deal to cap the price of oil to deprive Moscow of crucial revenue.

The main thing from Friday, the 282nd day of the Ukrainian war, LIVETEXT:

09:45 EU countries have agreed on a price ceiling for Russian oil. A mechanism so that Moscow does not collect the market price, regardless of the quotation

09:24 Russia tested a new missile defense system on Friday, the Defense Ministry said, according to Reuters.

The launch took place at the Sara Shagan training ground in Kazakhstan, the Ministry of Defense reported. Apart from the fact that the test was successful, the ministry did not release many other details.

Big problems for Russian logistics

09:12 Britain’s Friday morning assessment underscores the logistical challenges currently facing Vladimir Putin’s army in Ukraine:

• Russia’s withdrawal from the west bank of the Dnieper last month gave the Ukrainian armed forces the opportunity to strike at new Russian logistical hubs and lines of communication.
• It is likely that this threat prompted Russian logisticians to move supply nodes, including railway transshipment points, further south and east.
• Russian logistics units will have to perform additional time-consuming loading and unloading operations from rail transport to road transport. After that, road vehicles will remain vulnerable to Ukrainian artillery as they move to secure Russian forward defense positions.
• Russia’s ammunition shortage (exacerbated by these logistical problems) is likely one of the main factors currently limiting Russia’s ability to resume effective, large-scale offensive ground operations.

09:06 What Sanna Marin says about Europe’s military potential against Russia: “I have to be very frank”

The ruble continues to devalue

08:55 Analysts: The creation of a gas hub in Turkey may allow Moscow to disguise its exports with fuel from other sources.

08:45The ruble continued this week’s downtrend on Friday morning, hitting fresh lows against the US dollar, euro and yuan as the Russian currency traded without support from a favorable financial period at the end of the month.

At 06:10 GMT (08:10 Romania), the ruble weakened 0.4% against the dollar to 61.73 per dollar, having earlier been within a step of the 62 mark.

08:26The employees of the military commissariats in the Republic of Crimea are preparing another wave of mobilization, writes the Ukrainian press with reference to the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine

08:20 About 40 shells were fired in the Nikopol area (Dnipropetrovsk) during the night from Thursday to Friday, the head of the military administration of the Dnipropetrovsk region Valentyn Reznichenko said, as quoted by Pravda.ua. Fortunately, there were no injuries.

Lukashenko has no intention of fighting

07:52 The main conclusions of the latest assessment of the Institute for the Study of War:

• The President of Belarus, Oleksandr Lukashenko, continues to create conditions for countering Russian pressure regarding the war against Ukraine. Minister of Defense of Belarus Viktor Khrenin stated that there is no direct preparation for war and that Belarus will only defend its territory.
• Russian troops continued their defense against Ukrainian counteroffensive operations on the Svatove-Kremin line.
• Muscovite troops continued to achieve minimal success around Bakhmut and conduct offensive actions in the area of ​​the city of Avdiyivka.
• Russian troops continued to deploy defensive measures and transfer personnel to the eastern bank of the Dnieper in the Kherson region.
• The movement of Russian troops in the Zaporizhzhia region may indicate that Russian forces are unable to protect key areas against the backdrop of increased Ukrainian strikes.
• Putin’s army keeps reserves in Crimea to support defense operations in the Zaporizhzhia region and on the east bank of the Dnieper.
• The Kremlin’s financial restrictions continue to fuel internal unrest.
• New evidence is emerging of continued partial mobilization amid low morale and high desertion rates among Russian troops.

How many soldiers has Ukraine lost today?

07:39 Ukraine’s security forces have been tasked with investigating the activities of a branch of the Orthodox Church linked to Russia, Zelenskyi said.

According to him, the investigation will find out whether the Moscow branch of the church has the right to operate in one of the holiest places in Ukraine – the Pechersk Lavra complex in Kyiv.

“We need to create conditions so that no entity dependent on the aggressor state (Russia) can manipulate Ukrainians and weaken the country from within,” Zelenskyy said (Reuters).

07:05 Ukraine contradicts von der Leyen regarding the number of military casualties: “We have official estimates from the General Staff”

A quick recap of the latest developments on Friday morning:

• The Ministry of Defense of Russia and the head of the Presidential Administration of Ukraine reported that in the course of the latest exchange of prisoners, each country returned 50 servicemen.
• Russian rockets hit the outskirts of Kherson, knocking out power in the city, where electricity was just beginning to be restored nearly three weeks after Russian troops left the city.
• The armed forces of Ukraine reported heavy shelling of several villages on the eastern front line near the city of Bakhmut.
• The Ukrainian military said it had found debris from Russian missiles capable of carrying a nuclear warhead, but without warheads, and that their purpose was apparently to distract air defenses.
• Kyiv Mayor Vitaliy Klitschko called on residents to stock up on water, food and warm clothes in case of a complete blackout due to Russian strikes.
• Biden and Macron presented a united front against Ukraine at the White House, with Biden saying he would talk to Putin if he wanted to end the invasion.
• European Union governments have previously agreed on a price cap for Russian offshore oil at $60 a barrel, with an adjustment mechanism to keep the cap 5 percent below the market price, an EU diplomat said.
• Russian attacks on Ukrainian civilian infrastructure have raised the cost of supporting Ukraine’s economy next year, adding up to $1 billion a month to previous estimates of $3 billion to $4 billion, the head of the International Monetary Fund told the Reuters NEXT conference.
• The EU should be patient when imposing sanctions against Russia, as most of the measures will have an impact only in the medium and long term, the Lithuanian Prime Minister said.
• Spain has stepped up security at government and diplomatic buildings after a series of trap letters, including one sent to the prime minister and another at the Ukrainian embassy in Madrid, where an official suffered minor injuries.
• Wagner’s company of mercenaries created the “Savage Company” from the most brutal prisoners recruited.
• In the occupied territory of the Zaporizhzhia region, the Russians are withdrawing their army from some settlements, the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine announced.
• Jens Stoltenberg said that it is still too early to draw conclusions regarding the negotiations regarding Poland’s request to transfer German Patriot systems to Ukraine.
• A new impressive video shows how only two Ukrainian soldiers manage to repel an “invisible” attack by a group of 10 mercenaries of the “Wagner” PMK.

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• Thursday’s events were broadcast live on HotNews.ro