Damage to an apartment block from a Russian drone strike, Dnipro, Ukraine, November 8, 2025
EA on Ukraine’s War and Politics 24: Will Putin’s Invasion End in His Fall from Power?
Friday’s Coverage: Ukrainian Court Sentences Russian Soldier for Killing of POW
UPDATE 0725 GMT:
The Trump Administration has granted Hungary a one-year exemption from US sanctions over imports of Russian oil and gas.
A White House official confirmed the exemption after Hungary’s Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, a long-time ally of Vladimir Putin, met Donald Trump in Washington.
The official said Hungary committed to buying US liquefied natural gas with around $600 million of contracts.
Last month, the US imposed sanctions on Russia’s largest oil companies Lukoil and Rosneft, threatening secondary sanctions on entities trading with the firms.
Alongside Orbán, Trump rambled:
We’re looking at it, because it’s very different for him to get the oil and gas from other areas. As you know, they don’t have…the advantage of having sea. It’s a great country, it’s a big country, but they don’t have sea. They don’t have the ports.
But many European countries are buying oil and gas from Russia, and they have been for years. And I said: “What’s that all about?”
Hungary relied on Russia for 74% of its gas and 86% of its oil in 2024.
ORIGINAL ENTRY: Power is out in areas across Ukraine, after Russia’s latest mass drone and missile strikes on energy infrastructure and residential blocks.
Moscow fired Kinzhal hypersonic missiles, as well as cruise and ballistic missiles, at the cities of Kyiv, Kremenchuk, Dnipro, Kharkiv, and Chernihiv and on the Dnipropetrovsk, Kharkiv, Sumy, Odesa, and Poltava regions. In Kyiv, explosions were heard just before 4:30 a.m.
In Dnipro in south-central Ukraine, at least one civilian was murdered and 11 injured, including children aged 2 and 13, by a drone strike on a multi-story residential building. Fire broke out, and several apartments were destroyed between the fourth and sixth floors.
Officials said rescue efforts are ongoing and the number of casualties may rise.
Energy Minister Svitlana Hrynchuk reported the power outages. She said consequences are being determined and electricity will be restored “once the situation in the energy system stabilizes”.
In the latest initiative to cope with the Russian attempt to break the energy grid, Ukraine will import at least 300 million cubic meters of US liquid natural gas through an agreement with Poland’s gas trader Orlen.
“Despite the enemy’s plans, Ukraine will have light and heat this winter,” Hrynchuk said.
