Ukraine war: Russian activist killed fighting for Ukraine as Kyiv gets Dutch F-16s

“God save the Tsar!” was one of the first public birthday wishes for President Vladimir Putin who turns 72 today and who has been Russia’s paramount leader for nearly quarter of a century.

The greeting came from ultra-nationalist Russian ideologue Alexander Dugin on his Telegram channel minutes after midnight.

Mr Dugin, 62, has long advocated for the unification of Russian-speaking and other territories in a vast new Russian empire, which he wants to include Ukraine, where Russia has been waging a war. Mr Dugin’s daughter was killed in a suspected car bomb in 2022.

The Russian president was also wished by his close ally and Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov. “Today, friends, is the birthday of our national leader,” Mr Kadyrov, the leader of Russia’s Chechen Republic who calls himself Putin’s “foot soldier”, wrote in a congratulatory message on Telegram at midnight today.

“This is a significant day for our entire Fatherland.”

An oil depot is engulfed in a major fire after an explosion in Crimea’s Feodosia city, Russia-appointed officials in the peninsula said this morning.

Oleg Kryuchkov, advisor to the head of Crimea, said there were no casualties. Russian officials generally do not disclose the full extent of the damage suffered in strikes and explosions. He did not provide details on what had caused the massive explosion.

Unverified photos and videos of the fire in Crimea shared on social media showed a swathe of the oil depot ablaze. A thick cloud of smoke was billowing from the affected area and could be seen from kilometres away.

The Netherlands has sent its first batch of F-16 fighter jets to Ukraine, the Dutch defence minister said.

“For the first time, I can officially announce that the first Dutch F-16s have been delivered to Ukraine,” defence minister Ruben Brekelmans said on X. He did not mention how many planes have been shipped to the war-hit nation.

The first batch of planes from the Netherlands is already operating in Ukrainian airspace, according to the minister, while the others will be delivered “in the upcoming months and maybe beginning of next year.”

He paid a surprise visit to Kyiv yesterday and said that his country will invest €400m ($334m) in advanced drone development with Ukraine and deliver more F-16s in the coming months.

Well-known Russian opposition activist Ildar Dadin has been killed while fighting in Ukraine alongside Kyiv’s forces, officials and his family said.

“It is with deep regret that I must inform you that Ildar Dadin – call sign Gandhi – died yesterday in combat in the Kharkiv region” in northeast Ukraine, his friend and former Russian MP Ilia Ponomarev said on Facebook. His friend hailed Dadin as a “fearless and determined fighter” who had gone “to the front to fight Putinism”.

His death was also confirmed by the Ukrainian group that recruited him, stating that “he was, and he remains a hero”.

Dadin was imprisoned by the Kremlin authorities in 2015 for two and a half years in prison for organising peaceful solo protests against political repression.

He went on a hunger strike immediately after he was placed in a punishment cell. Dadin was then tortured by his prison guards in attempts to force him to end his hunger strike.

One person has died after Russian forces attacked Ukraine overnight with 87 Shahed drones and four different types of missiles, officials said yesterday.

A 49-year-old man was killed in the Kharkiv region after his car was hit by a drone, said regional governor Oleh Syniehubov. A gas pipeline was also damaged and a warehouse set alight in the city of Odesa, Ukrainian officials reported.

Ukraine’s air force said air defences had destroyed 56 of the 87 drones and two missiles over 14 Ukrainian regions, including the capital, Kyiv.

Another 25 drones disappeared from radar “presumably as a result of anti-aircraft missile defence,” it said.

Russia unleashed an overnight drone attack across Ukraine targeting the capital Kyiv and hitting infrastructure in the Black Sea port of Odesa, Ukrainian officials said.

The State Emergency Service said one person was wounded and warehouses and cargo trucks were damaged in Odesa during the multi-wave attack, which kept much of the country under air-raid alert for several hours.

The Ukrainian military shot down 56 out of at least 87 drones launched by Russia over various regions of the country, the air force said. It added that another 25 were “lost” due to electronic jamming but did not elaborate.

Kyiv city military administrator Serhiy Popko said air defences destroyed all the drones that had been aimed at the capital. No injuries were reported.

Air raid alerts for Kyiv and the surrounding region were announced three times throughout the night, totalling more than five hours, Popko added.

There is no prospect for negotiation “anytime soon” over the war in Ukraine, western officials have said.

They added that Ukraine was unlikely to reverse recent gains by Russia with “relative stability on the front line” expected.

Russia captured the tactically significant town of Vuhledar on Wednesday, as officials said Moscow would now “seek to exploit opportunities in villages and towns in its vicinity in the coming weeks”.

However, they added that Russia would not be able to “fundamentally capitalise on these gains”.

Western officials said: “We’re not going to suddenly see a breakthrough and a rapid advance of Russia westwards.

“It will just continue to be this slow grind.”