Russia said on Thursday that its forces had carried out strikes on Ukrainian energy infrastructure, ammunition depots and drone facilities, while Ukraine on the same day reported attacks on multiple Russian oil refineries.
In its latest briefing on Thursday, the Russian Defense Ministry said that over the past 24 hours, Russian military forces had shot down a Ukrainian Su-27 fighter jet, while its air defense systems intercepted one guided bomb and 250 Ukrainian drones.
Also on Thursday, the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine announced that its troops launched early-morning strikes on multiple oil refineries in Russia and carried out attacks on Russian military targets in the Donetsk Region.
Russia News Agency reported the same day that an oil facility in Russia's Tatarstan Republic had been attacked by Ukrainian drones, triggering a fire that was later extinguished. The fire did not affect normal operations of the equipment and caused no casualties.
Regarding the recent drone attack on the Russian presidential residence, the Russian Defense Ministry said in a statement on Thursday that it had decoded data from a Ukrainian unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) involved in the attack, confirming that its mission was to attack the Russian presidential residence.
The ministry later said the decoded data had been given to the U.S. side.
According to the statement, Russian forces shot down multiple Ukrainian drones on the night of Dec 29 in the airspace of the Novgorod region, and managed to retrieve a flight assignment file stored in the memory of one downed UAV.
The examination of the routing data showed that "the Ukrainian drone attack on Dec 29 targeted one of the facilities of the Russian President's residence in the Novgorod region," the statement said.
The findings were consistent with an earlier announcement by the ministry that Ukrainian forces has launched an attack on the Russian Presidential Residence with 91 UAVs. Forty-one of those were shot down over the Novgorod region, while the rest were intercepted en route, according to the ministry. An examination of the wreckage found that one of the drones was carrying six kilograms of explosives.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Dec 29 denied the attack, calling it a pure fabrication and accusing Moscow of using the claims as a pretext to escalate attacks and obstruct the efforts to end the conflict.
Russia reports strikes on Ukrainian targets, Ukraine says it hits Russian oil refineries
China's two major power grid operators -- the State Grid Corporation of China (State Grid) and China Southern Power Grid (CSG) -- reported a surge in investment in the first quarter of 2026, underscoring efforts to strengthen infrastructure construction and support high-quality socioeconomic development in China.
The State Grid said it completed fixed-asset investment worth 129 billion yuan (about 18.77 billion U.S. dollars) in the first three months of this year, up 37 percent the corresponding period of the previous year. The spending has driven more than 250 billion yuan (36 billion U.S. dollars) of investment across the wider industrial chain.
Key projects such as the Panxi ultra-high-voltage (UHV) alternating current (AC) line and the Anhui-Hubei back-to-back direct current (DC) project have seen ground broken for their construction, while several west-to-east power transmission projects have been upgraded.
Investment in connecting renewable energy generation to the grid was reported to have exceeded 10 billion yuan (1.45 billion U.S. dollars) from January to March, a year-on-year rise of more than 50 percent.
The CSG also reported robust growth in investment in the three-month period, with fixed-asset investment reaching 38.45 billion yuan (5.58 billion U.S. dollars), up about 50 percent from a year earlier.
Among its achievements, the company completed and commissioned 80 key projects, including the 220 kV cross-sea power grid interconnection project, which was officially put into operation on March 20. The project ended years of grid isolation on the Weizhou Island in south China by linking it to the main power system of the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region.
The construction of 17 other major energy projects, including one linking the power grid of the Xizang Autonomous Region in southwest China with that of Guangdong Province in south China, is advancing rapidly. These projects are expected to bolster regional industries, the maritime economy, digital collaboration and the transition to green energy.
"By accelerating major project construction, investment during the 15th Five-Year Plan period (2026-2030) is expected to approach 1 trillion yuan (145 billion U.S. dollars), driving a further 2 trillion yuan (290 billion U.S. dollars) of investment across upstream and downstream industries," said Dong Yanle, deputy general manager of the Engineering Construction Department under the China Southern Power Grid.
China ramps up power grid investment in January-March to boost growth
