Ukraine announced the first combat use of its FP-7 tactical ballistic missile, a domestically produced short-range weapon with roughly 200km range that its manufacturer, Fire Point, is developing as part of the European missile defence programme Freyja. Zelenskyy confirmed the deployment on Telegram without specifying the target, adding only: "First combat use. Thank you for the result. Next — production." Ukrainian military analysts compare the FP-7 to the US Army Tactical Missile System (ATACMS) but at significantly lower cost — a critical distinction for a country whose missile production still trails Russia's by a wide margin. The missile debut arrived against a backdrop of intensifying Russian drone attacks on Kyiv. Drones struck a school early Thursday — all students were sheltered, no injuries — and hit the Southern Bridge over the Dnipro twice, with a late evening strike damaging a support structure, road surface, and protective metro infrastructure. On Wednesday, Ukrainian officials described the start of a deliberate cold-weather strike campaign targeting the country's power grid, a familiar Russian escalation pattern heading into winter. Kyiv's own offensive tempo has not slowed. Ukraine struck an oil facility in Russia's Samara region overnight, hit a Russian vessel in the Black Sea, and targeted a drone launch and storage site in Oryol region. Drones also struck industrial facilities in Volgograd, home to a major oil refinery. Ukrainian estimates claim these sustained strikes have knocked out more than 45% of Russia's total refining capacity in recent months, producing fuel rationing and long queues at Russian petrol stations — a genuine strategic effect achieved with relatively cheap weapons. The refinery campaign has global consequences. Europe, already dependent on US fuel after banning Russian imports and losing Middle Eastern supply following the US-Israeli war against Iran, faces tightening diesel markets. The Trump administration has told Germany and France to draw down emergency diesel inventories to ease global prices, or face a potential US diesel export ban — converting energy dependency into direct political leverage. Ukraine is defying Trump's characterisation that its strikes exacerbate a global diesel shortage, pressing on with the campaign that represents one of its most effective asymmetric tools. At the G20 trade ministers' meeting in Milwaukee, European leaders pushed back against Russia's attacks on Ukraine's grain sector. France's trade minister Nicolas Forissier said ministers agreed it was "not acceptable" for countries to target food supplies in conflicts, framing the European position as simply "the truth" about Russian aggression. The grain dimension adds agricultural supply chains to an already volatile global commodity picture. Moscow escalated its nuclear rhetoric around Kaliningrad, warning NATO it would not hesitate to use nuclear weapons to defend the Baltic exclave against any blockade. Several Russian embassies issued coordinated statements claiming NATO is preparing an air and naval blockade. Putin characterised the warnings not as intimidation but as "a response to an attempt to intimidate us" — calibrated ambiguity that keeps the nuclear threshold in play without committing to action. Putin also dangled two olive branches of uncertain sincerity: suggesting seized Western corporate assets — including those of Nestlé, Auchan, the former Leroy Merlin chain, and Metro — could be returned in a "favourable scenario," and stating Russia would prefer to end the conflict through talks, with a neutral Ukraine as the desired outcome. Both offers come after Russia ordered the seizures last month, making the return conditional on concessions Russia has not specified.
