Crude futures settle higher

Oil prices climbed on Tuesday.

The West Texas Intermediate for April delivery gained 4.22 U.S. dollars, or 4.79 percent, to settle at 92.35 U.S. dollars a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Brent crude for May delivery added 4.55 U.S. dollars, or 4.55 percent, to settle at 104.49 U.S. dollars a barrel on the London ICE Futures Exchange.

Russia reported on Tuesday that its forces hit several Ukrainian military targets, took control of a settlement in the Kharkov region in the past 24 hours, while Ukraine on the same day claimed to have downed over 1,000 Russian drones.

The Russian Ministry of Defense said in its daily report that over the past day, Russian forces had launched a large-scale attack on Ukrainian military industrial enterprises producing various types of missiles and components, as well as military airfields, using long-range air-based and land-based high-precision weapons and drones. All designated facilities were hit. Moreover, the Russian air defense systems shot down 10 guided-missile bombs and 259 fixed-wing drones.

On the same day, the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine said that Ukrainian forces engaged in a total of 168 battles with Russia in the past day, with Ukrainian forces striking Russian personnel and equipment concentration areas, drone control points, and command and observation posts, shooting down 1,023 drones.

In addition, the Ukraine's Main Directorate of Intelligence reported on Tuesday that its unmanned systems forces destroyed a Russian Zircon hypersonic missile launcher and two missiles of the same type in Crimea that day.

The Ukrainian air force reported on Tuesday that the Russian army launched one of the largest drone attacks since the start of the conflict. On that day alone, the Russian army deployed over 550 drones to carry out the attack. Furthermore, from 18:00 on Monday, to 18:00 on Tuesday, the Russian army had already used nearly 1,000 drones of various models to strike Ukrainian targets.