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Top Democratic leaders on Sunday warned that President Donald Trump’s drive to go after his political opponents is putting America on a path to becoming a dictatorship and a “banana republic.”These dramatic statements came a day after Trump’s public call for the Justice Department to take action against perceived enemies and after prominent late-night talk show host Jimmy Kimmel was yanked off the air, following a threat from regulators loyal to Trump — among other aggressive Trump behavior that critics have described as authoritarian.Turning the Justice Department “into an instrument that goes after his enemies, whether they’re guilty or not… is the path to a dictatorship,” Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer Schumer said on CNN. “That’s what dictatorships do.”Connecticut Senator Chris Murphy, meanwhile, suggested that the United States was turning into a “banana republic.””The president of the United States is now employing the full power of the federal government, the FCC (Federal Communications Commission), the Department of Justice, in order to punish, lock up, take down off the air all of his political enemies,” Murphy said on ABC.”This is one of the most dangerous moments America has ever faced. We are quickly turning into a banana republic,” Murphy said.In a social media post on Saturday addressing “Pam” — apparently Attorney General Pam Bondi — Trump fumed over the lack of legal action against California Senator Adam Schiff and New York Attorney General Letitia James, both Democrats.Schiff and James are among a handful of people who have been accused by a close Trump ally, Federal Housing Finance Agency Director Bill Pulte, of falsifying documents on mortgage applications.”We can’t delay any longer, it’s killing our reputation and credibility,” Trump said.On Friday, Trump fired the federal prosecutor who was overseeing the probe into James, after the attorney reportedly insisted there was insufficient evidence to charge her with mortgage fraud.Erik Siebert, US attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia, told staff of his resignation via an email on Friday, the New York Times and other US media outlets reported.”I fired him, and there is a GREAT CASE, and many lawyers, and legal pundits, say so,” Trump said Saturday, apparently referencing the probe into James.On Friday, asked by a reporter to comment on the case, Trump said: “I am not following it very closely. It looks to me like she’s very guilty of something, but I really don’t know.”Former US Secretary of State and Trump’s White House challenger, Hillary Clinton, echoed Schumer’s criticism, calling his moves a “very dangerous turn in our politics.””What we’re hearing now from the White House and their supporters (is) that this may, you know, lead to even further political action, legal action, prosecutorial action, intimidation of all kinds,” Clinton said on CNN.Schiff and James have separately clashed with Trump, leading investigations that the Republican president alleges were political witch hunts.During Trump’s first term in the White House, Schiff, then a member of the US House, led the prosecution at the president’s first impeachment trial, which was based on allegations he pressured Ukraine to interfere in the 2020 election.After Trump left the White House, James brought a major civil fraud case against him, alleging he and his company had unlawfully inflated his wealth and manipulated the value of properties to obtain favorable bank loans or insurance terms. A state judge ordered Trump to pay $464 million in that suit, but a higher court later removed the financial penalty while upholding the underlying judgment.

An Afghan government defence official said Sunday that a deal over Bagram air base was “not possible”, after US President Donald Trump said he wanted the former US base back. Bagram, the largest air base in Afghanistan located north of the capital Kabul, was the centre of US operations in their 20 year-war against the Taliban.Trump threatened unspecified punishment against Afghanistan if it was not returned — four years after it was abandoned by US troops. “If Afghanistan doesn’t give Bagram Airbase back to those that built it, the United States of America, BAD THINGS ARE GOING TO HAPPEN!!!” the 79-year-old leader wrote on his Truth Social platform.On Sunday, Fasihuddin Fitrat, chief of staff of Afghanistan’s ministry of defence, said “some people” want to take back the base through a “political deal”.”Recently, some people have said that they have entered negotiations with Afghanistan for taking back Bagram air base,” he said in comments broadcast by local media. “A deal over even an inch of Afghanistan’s soil is not possible. We don’t need it.”Later in an official statement, the Afghan government said warned that “Afghanistan’s independence and territorial integrity are of the utmost importance”.Trump has repeatedly criticised the loss of the base, noting its proximity to China.But Thursday while on a state visit to Britain was the first time he publicly raised the idea of the United States retaking control of it.US and NATO troops chaotically pulled out of Bagram in July 2021, under Joe Biden’s presidency but as part of a 2020 Trump-brokered deal with Taliban insurgents. The loss of crucial air power saw the Afghan military collapse just weeks later and the Taliban sweep back to power.Trump was asked by reporters at the White House if he was considering sending US troops to retake Bagram.”We won’t talk about that, but we’re talking now to Afghanistan, and we want it back and we want it back soon, right away. And if they don’t do it, you’re going to find out what I’m going to do,” he said.A massive, sprawling facility, Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch and others have repeatedly raised allegations of systematic human rights abuses by US forces at Bagram, especially pertaining to detainees in Washington’s murky “War on Terror”.The original airfield was built with assistance from what was then the Soviet Union in the early 1950s, expanded with US help during the Cold War, and significantly developed further by Moscow during the decade-long Soviet occupation of Afghanistan.At the height of US control around 2010 it had grown to the size of a small town, with supermarkets and shops including outlets such as Dairy Queen and Burger King.It was visited by several US presidents including Barrack Obama in 2012 and Trump in 2019. 

US President Donald Trump and top officials in his administration will lead tributes to Charlie Kirk on Sunday at a stadium gathering in Arizona, after the influential conservative activist was gunned down last week.Kirk, 31, was fatally shot in the neck on September 10 while speaking at a Utah university as part of his popular public debate series.Authorities arrested a suspect after a 33-hour manhunt, with prosecutors seeking the death penalty in the case.The killing of the young conservative leader, founder of the Turning Point USA right-wing youth action campaign, has further deepened acrimonious political divisions in the United States.Authorities say the suspected 22-year-old gunman cited the “hatred” he believed was stoked by Kirk — who was a vitriolic critic of transgender people, Muslims and others.Kirk used his millions of social media followers, the massive audience of his podcast and appearances at universities to bolster Trump with young voters and fight for a nationalist, Christian-centric political ideology.Even before the alleged killer was identified or arrested, Trump called Kirk “a martyr for truth and freedom” and blamed the rhetoric of the “radical left.”The US president has lauded Kirk’s role in helping him get re-elected in November last year.In Phoenix, outside Turning Point USA’s headquarters, hundreds marched on Saturday to lay flowers, American flags, and red, white and blue balloons.The sidewalk was filled with tributes to Kirk, depicted in photos with the slogan “Faith, Family, Freedom.””He was an amazing young man, who was taken away from us much too soon,” said Patti Peteque, 53.- Crackdown on liberal ‘terrorism’ -Trump, Vice President JD Vance, Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth will all speak at the memorial on Sunday.Also speaking will be Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard, Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., conservative commentator Tucker Carlson and other prominent Trump administration officials.Kirk’s widow, Erika Kirk, who is taking over the reins of Turning Point USA, will also address the audience at the 63,000-seat State Farm Stadium in Glendale. In response to the killing, the White House last week declared it would crack down on what it terms “domestic terrorism” by the political left. Trump said he would designate “Antifa” — a shorthand term for “anti-fascist” used to describe diffuse far-left groups — as “a major terrorist organization,” a move he threatened in his first term.Prominent late-night talk show host Jimmy Kimmel was yanked off the air Wednesday, hours after the government threatened to cancel broadcasting licenses because of comments he made about Kirk’s killing.The moves have sparked alarm among Trump’s critics who warn of possible steps to silence dissent of his divisive right-wing White House tenure, marked by a rolling back of social justice policies and an immigration crackdown that has seen widespread complaints of rights abuses.”All over the world, Amnesty International has worked for decades to expose and document the silencing of dissent through a range of tactics, and we are deeply concerned such efforts are becoming normalized here,” said the rights group’s Executive Director Paul O’Brien on Friday.Many on the right-wing in the United States, however, see things differently.”The left is just getting a taste of their own medicine. Who stood up when we felt censored, when we felt canceled?” said Peteque, the mourner in Phoenix.

The Statue of Liberty makes a cameo in the Metropolitan Opera’s season opener, invoking a time when New York stood as a beacon of hope for Jews desperately fleeing Nazism.The image from “The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay” — which kicks off the Met’s 2025-26 cycle on Sunday — resonates at a time when President Donald Trump’s government is cracking down on the media and immigration.The opera tells the fictitious tale of Joe Kavalier’s escape from Nazi-occupied Prague in 1939 to Brooklyn, where he joins forces with cousin Sam Clay to try to raise funds to attempt to save Kavalier’s family.Their money-making venture? A comic strip featuring an superhero called “The Escapist,” who fights fascists. Tenor Miles Mykkanen, who plays Clay, calls the work “a 21st century opera with stories that we want to hear nowadays and stories that affect our lives, which I don’t think we can say about a lot of the standard repertoire.”- ‘Never done with fascism’ -The ambitious piece, based on a Pulitzer Prize-winning novel published in 2000 by Michael Chabon, alternates in music and sets between Prague, Brooklyn and the fantastic world of The Escapist.The meditation on love, loss, family and the necessity of art comes on the heels of other recent Met productions that have sought to reinvent the medium.The world of professional boxing, a magical realist universe evocative of Gabriel Garcia Marquez, the debate over the death penalty in American and the ravages of the AIDS era have all been handled on the Met’s stage.But “Kavalier & Clay” represents the first work in the Met’s 142-year history that revolves around a comic book superhero — a pop culture mainstay that may provide an entry point for those who may not usually try opera.Chabon’s book was the first time “a big serious art form like the novel had taken comic books so seriously,” said composer Mason Bates.”We still embrace superheroes because we are never done with fascism and authoritarianism,” he said. “We long for the simplicity of a good guy to fight back.”- ‘The stuff of opera’ -With a huge symphonic burst, the opera starts in the ominous fog of Nazi-occupied Prague at night before shifting to Clay’s Brooklyn brownstone and his bustling office.The novel was published at more than 650 pages, necessitating a heavy streamlining by librettist Gene Scheer. Choruses and dancers come and go in a quickfire staging that includes frequent jolts of animation beamed to a busy stage.Some moments link worlds, as when Kavalier reads a letter from his mother, who is shown as he imagines her in Prague.New York is “the city of freedom and hope,” she tells her son, who is played by baritone Andrzej Filonczyk, before the tone shifts.”I want you to forget us,” she adds, leaving a crestfallen Kavalier as Prague inevitably darkens further.Bates, who is known for works that combine symphonic and electronic music, said he immediately thought “Kavalier & Clay” would work as opera, a medium of “storytelling on a grand scale” he said.”You’ve got desperation, passion, art, Nazis and superheroes,” he said. “Mix all that together. That’s the stuff of opera.”Bates pitched the idea to Met General Manager Peter Gelb, who greenlighted the commission in 2018. For director Bartlett Sher, the opera is landing at a moment when the rise of fascism in World War II and the response of artists to that calamity feels particularly resonant.People go to theater and opera “to learn from our own history who we are,” said Sher.He said he is especially moved when characters “talk about what it means to be an immigrant fleeing a country politically and the refuge you seek in the United States.”That allows the audience to “think to ourselves, ‘Well, is that who we are?'” Sher added.

These days, Martina Grifaldo begins her mornings by posting a special Facebook message for her immigrant community.”May everyone who goes out today make it home safely,” Grifaldo writes in Spanish to her 171,000 followers.The Facebook page, managed with fellow activist Francisco Mendoza, aims to warn migrants where possible raids are happening in real time using photos and videos submitted by community members.Since President Donald Trump began his immigration crackdown after returning to power in January, federal authorities have increased their detention of undocumented migrants, asylum seekers, and even those with Latino features who have US citizenship or permanent residency.Social media has flooded with pictures and videos of these arrests, some of which turn violent, despite uproar from civil rights groups.Several times a week, Grifaldo, 62, goes out on patrol before the crack of dawn to monitor areas where immigration authorities usually operate in Houston, the fourth most populous city in the United States and the largest in the southern US state of Texas.”We start around 5:30 or 6 am with a ‘good morning’ message, and people send each other blessings. Then we ask: how are the roads?” said Grifaldo, director of the nonprofit Alianza Latina Internacional.- ‘Terrorized’ -US Immigration raids are carried out by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents, with images of frozen water becoming synonymous with migrant detentions.A common roadside warning sign, “Beware of ice on roads,” now carries a double meaning for Latino communities.”In our posts, we put a picture of an ice cube next to an image of a police officer, and we ask the public to help report” where they are, Grifaldo explained.Through their own observations and submissions from followers, Grifaldo and her collaborator Mendoza share information about raids taking place in the city.On several occasions, ICE agents carrying out raids did not identify themselves, did not wear official uniforms, and did not even show arrest warrants.This makes Grifaldo and Mendoza suspect that the raids are sometimes carried out by bounty hunters, though federal immigration officials have denied employing such methods.Even so, it is common for ICE agents to wear masks, military-style vests, and use violence when carrying out raids.”Every time we go out and check the reports, and we see them, we see how they treat our people, we feel… terrorized, because at any time it could happen to us,” said Mendoza, 57, head of Disaster Management at Alianza Latina Internacional.Grifaldo, who works as a public notary and researcher, volunteers her time to conduct the patrols along with Mendoza, a Mexican immigrant himself who runs an air conditioning and plumbing business.- ‘They keep us informed’ -As the pair drive in their truck, they continue to broadcast live on their page.They later stop for a bite at a fast food restaurant, invited by local employees in a show of thanks for their work.”I respect them because they are taking risks for us,” said Elizabeth, a 35-year-old woman who works at the restaurant and is seeking legal status in the United States.She came to the United States from El Salvador over a decade ago with her mother and son.”I take care of my mother, who has fallen ill. Imagine if she was waiting for me, and I did not come home,” she continued.Mendoza said it was “heartbreaking” how America treats migrants.”Undocumented people pay so much taxes… and we don’t receive anything back,” Mendoza told AFP. Undocumented workers paid $97 billion in taxes in 2022 alone, according to Americans for Tax Fairness.As Mendoza and Grifaldo conduct their patrols, they inspect work vehicles, such as vans and pickup trucks, that appear to be abandoned, as they can be left behind by migrant workers who have been detained.By the late afternoon, they wind down their patrol, and Grifaldo pens another message for the Facebook page:”Good night, warriors. Even though it’s hard, we have to rest. Tomorrow will be another day to continue resisting.”

US President Donald Trump on Saturday threatened Afghanistan with unspecified punishment if the Taliban-controlled country did not “give Bagram Airbase back.””If Afghanistan doesn’t give Bagram Airbase back to those that built it, the United States of America, BAD THINGS ARE GOING TO HAPPEN!!!” the 79-year-old leader wrote on his Truth Social platform.The vague threat came just days after he raised the idea of the United States retaking control of the base while on a state visit to the United Kingdom.Bagram, the largest air base in Afghanistan, was a linchpin of the US-led war effort against the Taliban, whose government Washington toppled following the September 11, 2001 attacks on the United States. A massive, sprawling facility, Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch and others have repeatedly raised allegations of systematic human rights abuses by US forces at Bagram, especially pertaining to detainees in Washington’s murky “War on Terror.”Trump has often lamented the loss of access to Bagram, noting its proximity to China, but Thursday was the first time he has made public that he was working on the matter.”We’re trying to get it back, by the way, that could be a little breaking news. We’re trying to get it back because they need things from us,” Trump said at a press conference with British Prime Minister Keir Starmer.US and NATO troops chaotically pulled out of Bagram in July 2021 as part of a Trump-brokered peace deal, as the resurgent Taliban took over swaths of Afghanistan before finally taking control of the entire country.Trump has repeatedly criticized the loss of the base since returning to power, linking it to his attacks on his predecessor Joe Biden’s handling of the US pullout from Afghanistan.Trump has also complained about China’s growing influence in Afghanistan.Later on Saturday, the US president was asked by reporters at the White House if he was considering sending US troops to retake Bagram.”We won’t talk about that, but we’re talking now to Afghanistan, and we want it back and we want it back soon, right away. And if they don’t do it, you’re going ot find out what I’m going to do,” he said.

At least 15 protesters were sentenced to up to nine years in prison after participating in a day of protests in Cuba last year over power and food shortages, the island’s Supreme Court said.Hundreds of people took to the streets in three Cuban cities on March 17, 2024, during a tense weekend of blackouts that lasted up to 13 hours a day in some provinces. The marches in Santiago de Cuba, Bayamo and Santa Marta were the largest since the social unrest of July 11, 2021, which saw hundreds of protesters convicted, some with sentences of up to 25 years. The People’s Supreme Court of Cuba reported in a statement on Friday night that, among the 15 people tried in the city of Bayamo, “eight were sentenced to between six and nine years in prison, five to between three and five years, and two to correctional labor without imprisonment.”It said that the detainees had committed “crimes of public disorder, assault, resistance, contempt, disobedience, and incitement.”Outbreaks of this type of protest, previously unthinkable on the island ruled by the Communist Party, have skyrocketed since 2022.Amid a worsening energy crisis, Cuba has experienced six widespread blackouts in less than three years.The country’s 9.7 million inhabitants suffer daily scheduled power cuts, which in August reached an average of 15 hours. The government says that a strict US embargo prevents it from repairing its electrical infrastructure, which requires Cuba’s scarce fuel to operate. A week ago, another march of dozens of people took place in Gibara, a picturesque town in the east. Residents complained of spending more than 20 hours without power and weeks without water, a resident who did not want to be identified for fear of reprisals told AFP. The Madrid-based Cuban Human Rights Observatory said on X that it confirmed 27 detentions, with four people still “deprived of their liberty.”Laritza Diversent, director of Cubalex, told AFP that the Miami-based NGO also verified four protesters were under arrest in Gibara. At least 180 people were apprehended at demonstrations over power outages between 2022 and September 2025, added Diversent, saying this number was “an underestimate.”

The White House issued a major clarification Saturday to its new H-1B visa policy that had rattled the tech industry, saying a $100,000 fee will be a “one-time” payment imposed only on new applicants.US Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, in announcing the major fee increase on Friday, said it would be paid annually, and would apply to people seeking a new visa as well as renewals.But White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt issued a clarification on Saturday, hours before the new policy was to go into effect.”This is NOT an annual fee. It’s a one-time fee that applies… only to new visas, not renewals, and not current visa holders,” she said in a social media post. The executive order, which is likely to face legal challenges, comes into force Sunday at 12:01 am US Eastern time (0401 GMT), or 9:01 pm Saturday on the Pacific Coast.Prior to the White House’s clarification, US companies were scrambling to figure out the implications for their foreign workers, with several reportedly warning their employees not to leave the country.Some people who were already on planes preparing to leave the country on Friday de-boarded over fears they may not be allowed to re-enter the United States, the San Francisco Chronicle reported.”Those who already hold H-1B visas and are currently outside of the country right now will NOT be charged $100,000 to re-enter,” Leavitt said.”H-1B visa holders can leave and re-enter the country to the same extent as they normally would,” she added.H-1B visas allow companies to sponsor foreign workers with specialized skills — such as scientists, engineers, and computer programmers — to work in the United States, initially for three years but extendable to six.Such visas are widely used by the tech industry. Indian nationals account for nearly three-quarters of the permits allotted via lottery system each year.The United States approved approximately 400,000 H-1B visas in 2024, two-thirds of which were renewals.- India, US business concerns -US President Donald Trump announced the change in Washington on Friday, arguing it would support American workers.The H-1B program “has been deliberately exploited to replace, rather than supplement, American workers with lower-paid, lower-skilled labor,” the executive order said.Trump also introduced a $1 million “gold card” residency program he had previewed months earlier.”The main thing is, we’re going to have great people coming in, and they’re going to be paying,” Trump told reporters as he signed the orders in the Oval Office.Lutnick, who joined Trump in the Oval Office, said multiple times that the fee would be applied annually.”The company needs to decide… is the person valuable enough to have $100,000 a year payment to the government? Or they should head home and they should go hire an American,” he told reporters.Though he claimed that “all the big companies are on board,” many businesses were left confused about the details of the H-1B order.US bank JPMorgan confirmed that a memo had been sent to its employees with H-1B visas advising them to remain in the United States and avoid international travel until further guidance was issued.Tech entrepreneurs — including Trump’s former ally Elon Musk — have warned against targeting H-1B visas, saying that the United States does not have enough homegrown talent to fill important tech sector job vacancies.India’s foreign ministry said the mobility of skilled talent had contributed to “innovation” and “wealth creation” in both countries and that it would assess the changes.It said in a statement the new measure would likely have “humanitarian consequences by way of the disruption caused for families,” which it hoped would be addressed by US authorities.

A deal for the Chinese parent company of popular video-sharing app TikTok to sell its US operations would see the creation of a board dominated by Americans, the White House said Saturday.”There will be seven seats on the board that controls the app in the United States, and six of those seats will be Americans,” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told Fox News.She said a deal could be signed “in the coming days.”The United States has forcefully sought to take TikTok’s US operations out of the hands of Chinese parent company ByteDance for national security reasons.Under President Donald Trump’s predecessor Joe Biden, the US Congress passed a law to force ByteDance to sell its US operations or face a ban of the app.US policymakers, including in Trump’s first term, have warned that China could use TikTok to mine data from Americans or exert influence on what they see on social media.But Trump turned to the platform, which is hugely popular with young Americans, to garner support during his ultimately successful 2024 presidential campaign.The Republican president has repeatedly pushed off implementation of the ban while a deal has been sought.Investors reportedly being eyed to take over the app include Oracle, the tech firm owned by Larry Ellison, one of the world’s richest people — and a major Trump supporter.Leavitt seemed to confirm Oracle’s participation.”The data and privacy will be led by one of America’s greatest tech companies, Oracle, and the algorithm will also be controlled by America as well,” she told Fox News.”So all of those details have already been agreed upon. Now we just need this deal to be signed.”Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping discussed the matter in a phone call on Friday.Trump said that Xi “approved” the deal during the phone call but then said, “We have to get it signed.” China did not confirm any agreement.”We’re going to have a very, very tight control,” Trump said. “There’s tremendous value with TikTok, and I’m a little prejudiced because I frankly did so well on it.”The Wall Street Journal, quoting sources familiar with the talks, reported that the US government could receive a multi-billion-dollar fee from investors as part of the deal.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Saturday he would meet US counterpart Donald Trump on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly next week as Russia intensified deadly strikes across his country.Russia carried out one of its largest aerial attacks, firing 40 missiles and some 580 drones at Ukraine in a nightime barrage that killed at least three people and wounded dozens, Zelensky said.A Ukrainian strike killed four people in Russia’s southwestern Samara region, the local governor said, in one of the deadliest Ukrainian strikes since Russia launched its invasion in 2022.Zelensky said he would discuss security guarantees for Ukraine and sanctions on Russia during the talks with Trump in New York.Ukraine has insisted on Western-backed security guarantees to prevent future Russian attacks. Russian President Vladimir Putin has however warned that any Western troops in Ukraine would be unacceptable and legitimate targets.A US-led push for a quick end to the war has stalled and Russia effectively ruled out a  Putin-Zelensky meeting — something that Kyiv says is the only way towards peace.”We expect sanctions if there is no meeting between the leaders or, for example, no ceasefire,” Zelensky said in comments released by the Ukrainian presidency.”We are ready for a meeting with Putin. I have spoken about this. Both bilateral and trilateral. He is not ready,” Zelensky added.In Russia’s latest aerial assault, “a missile with cluster munitions directly struck an apartment building” in the central city of Dnipro, Zelensky said on social media.He posted pictures of cars and a building on fire and rescuers carrying a person to safety amid rubble scattered nearby.In the Dnipropetrovsk region, the strikes killed one person and wounded at least 30 people, with one man in a serious condition, regional governor Sergiy Lysak said.- ‘Intense’ fighting -The strikes come a day after three Russian fighter jets violated the airspace of Estonia — a NATO member on the alliance’s eastern flank — an allegation Moscow denied.But it triggered fears in the West of a dangerous new provocation from Moscow after Poland last week complained that around 20 Russian drones overflew its territory.Zelensky repeated the call for “joint solutions” to shoot down drones over Ukraine “together with other countries”.Russia, which has been chipping away at Ukrainian territory for months, announced on Saturday its troops had captured the village of Berezove in the Dnipropetrovsk region.In the northeastern Kharkiv region, there were “intense actions” in the key area of Kupiansk, Zelensky said, referring to a rail hub Ukraine recaptured in a 2022 offensive.In Russia, four people were killed “in an enemy drone attack last night,” Samara governor Vyacheslav Fedorishchev said on social media.He earlier said “fuel and energy facilities” were targeted, without specifying the damage.Ukrainian General Staff said “strategic objects of the Russian aggressor were struck”, adding its forces “inflicted damage” on the Saratov Oil Refinery and struck the Novokuybyshevsk Oil Refinery in the Samara region.A source in Ukraine’s SBU security agency said Ukrainian drone strikes “have stopped the operation of a number of oil pumping stations in Russia”.”It is this infrastructure that brings oil-dollar superprofits to the Russian budget, which fuel the war against Ukraine. Work to block these cash flows will continue,” the source said.The Russian defence ministry said its air defence alert systems “intercepted and destroyed” 149 Ukrainian drones overnight, including 27 over the Saratov region and 15 over the Samara region.Three rounds of direct talks between Russia and Ukraine in Istanbul this year only produced prisoner exchanges. Russia has maintained hardline demands, including that Ukraine fully cedes the eastern Donbas region — parts of which it still controls.Kyiv has rejected territorial concessions and wants European troops to be deployed to Ukraine as a peacekeeping force, something Moscow considers unacceptable.