标签： Europe

Overnight attacks carried out by Ukrainian drones have ignited large blazes at key Russian energy sites, marking the latest escalation in Kyiv’s campaign targeting Moscow’s oil infrastructure that funds its ongoing invasion, Russian regional officials confirmed Saturday.

Two separate regions across southern Russia reported drone-related fire incidents at oil storage and logistics hubs. In the Rostov region, falling debris from a downed Ukrainian drone sparked a blaze at an oil depot located in the port city of Taganrog, damaging the storage facility and a parked oil tanker. Just across the regional border in Krasnodar, local authorities recorded a second fire at another oil depot in Armavir, also caused by falling drone wreckage.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy publicly acknowledged the attack in a post on social media platform X Saturday, highlighting that the Armavir facility sits more than 500 kilometers from Ukraine’s official border. “We are rightfully bringing the war back to where it came from,” Zelenskyy wrote, framing the strikes as a legitimate retaliatory measure against Russian aggression.

The coordinated attacks come as Ukraine has steadily expanded its mid- and long-range strike capacity over the course of the four-year full-scale invasion, leveraging domestically developed drone and missile systems to target Russian assets deep behind front lines. Strikes on critical oil infrastructure — a core revenue stream for Moscow that funds its military operation in Ukraine — have grown into a near-daily occurrence in recent months.

This latest wave of attacks also unfolds against a backdrop of escalating Russian strikes on Ukrainian critical infrastructure, and growing international concern over the war spilling beyond Ukraine’s borders. Just one day prior, a Russian drone launched in an attack on Ukraine strayed off course and slammed into an apartment building in eastern Romania, a NATO member state. The incident wounded two civilians, drew widespread condemnation from European capitals, and amplified fears that the conflict could draw in the entire transatlantic military alliance.

For its part, Russia has repeatedly launched large-scale barrages of long-range ballistic missiles against Ukraine’s national power grid and urban population centers in recent months. The Kremlin’s Foreign Ministry confirmed earlier this week that Moscow plans to launch new “systemic strikes” against the Ukrainian capital Kyiv, leaving local authorities and military units bracing for imminent heavy bombardment. On Thursday, Zelenskyy stated that he has repeatedly and forcefully urged the United States to deploy additional Patriot air defense systems to Ukraine, which Kyiv views as critical to intercepting Russia’s destructive ballistic missile attacks.

Amid crippling international sanctions and a grinding, costly war in Ukraine, Russia’s intelligence apparatus has sharply escalated its campaign to steal cutting-edge Western technology and classified defense secrets, three senior European intelligence leaders have confirmed in exclusive comments to the Associated Press. The multi-pronged operation, which spans frontline human espionage, cyber intrusions, and elaborate front company schemes, is not only intended to prop up Moscow’s war machine but also to advance its long-term strategic edge over Western allies, officials warn.

Four straight years of sweeping Western sanctions have gutted Russia’s ability to legally import critical industrial machinery, advanced research, and high-tech components from European markets. Combined with the massive resource drain of its full-scale invasion of Ukraine, the restrictions have pushed key domestic industries to the breaking point and brought the country to the brink of a potential full-blown financial crisis. That mounting pressure has forced Russian intelligence to double down on illicit procurement, targeting a broad range of sensitive assets that directly serve the Kremlin’s war and strategic goals.

“They really know what they need, and are putting serious effort” into acquiring everything from advanced industrial machine tools and factory equipment to cutting-edge research and dual-use technology that can serve both civilian and military purposes, explained Christoffer Wedelin, deputy head of operations at Sweden’s Security Service.

In Sweden alone, Russian operatives have focused heavily on the country’s defense sector and top-secret research into its most advanced military hardware, including the Saab Gripen fighter jet. Wedelin added that Moscow is also actively seeking to obtain civilian-developed camera and laser technology that can be repurposed for integration into Russian weapons systems.

Juha Martelius, director of Finland’s Security and Intelligence Service, noted that Russia’s espionage push extends beyond immediate war needs: the Kremlin is also stealing technology to secure a long-term competitive advantage over the West for decades to come. Key high-priority sectors include space technology, quantum computing, arctic resource technology, and advanced marine technology. Martelius specified that space technology, which powers satellite imaging, military communications, and navigation, is an urgent requirement for Moscow right now, though he declined to share further details. Russia is also desperate to access Western computer technology and proprietary software updates for industrial machine tools, all of which are blocked under current sanctions, he added.

The warnings from Scandinavian and Baltic intelligence come just days after Anne Keast-Butler, director of the United Kingdom’s signals intelligence agency, publicly accused Russia of “relentlessly targeting” the UK and its European allies through technology theft, sabotage plots, and assassination attempts.

The scope of Russia’s illicit procurement network was highlighted earlier this year, when Swedish police arrested two individuals on suspicion of sanctions violations linked to a Turkish front company that had shipped dozens of industrial metalworking and metal-turning machine tools to Russia. As these networks grow more sophisticated and layered, Wedelin warned that private European companies must increase their vigilance to avoid unknowingly becoming complicit in Russia’s war supply chain. “All of the security and intelligence services in Russia are helping out on the state’s efforts to get this,” he emphasized.

Beyond traditional procurement schemes, Russian intelligence has also ramped up cyberattacks against European private firms and critical infrastructure to gather intelligence that can be exploited at a moment’s notice, Wedelin said. He pointed to a high-profile attempted cyberattack on a Swedish power plant last year as a clear example of this new, more aggressive posture. Russian-linked actors attempted to destroy the plant’s core operating systems, but the attempt failed after internal security systems detected the intrusion. The attack was partially designed to erode public and political support for Ukraine in Western Europe, Wedelin added.

Prior to that incident, Swedish intelligence had only observed Russian actors conducting reconnaissance for potential future attacks, gathering general intelligence, or engaging in activity tied to independent cybercriminals. The power plant attack marked a dramatic shift in Russia’s operational style, Wedelin argued: “They’re no longer caring as much about potential attribution after their activities, so they are taking greater risks to achieve their goals.”

Top intelligence leaders say this increasingly brazen behavior directly reflects growing internal economic panic inside the Kremlin. “Russia’s economy is not doing well at all,” said Kaupo Rosin, head of Estonia’s Foreign Intelligence Service. Current data shows that roughly one-third of Russia’s entire gross domestic product is now diverted to funding the war effort in Ukraine, Martelius confirmed. Years of sanctions and war-related disruptions have crippled long-term growth and locked in persistent, high inflation that has eroded living standards for ordinary Russians.

By the end of February 2026, Russia had already hit 3.4 trillion rubles ($47.9 billion) of its 3.7 trillion ruble ($52.1 billion) full-year budget deficit, Rosin revealed. While the recent conflict between Iran and Israel that began in late February drove global oil prices sharply higher, and limited Western concessions — including U.S. sanctions waivers for Russian oil sales and a softening of UK oil sanctions to lower global fuel costs — have given a temporary boost to Russian export revenues, the reprieve is not enough to reverse long-term decline. “It doesn’t save them,” Rosin said, warning that Moscow could face a full-blown financial crisis by the end of 2026 if Western pressure remains unchanged.

Intelligence assessments collected by Estonian intelligence show that elite Russian officials have grown far more pessimistic about the country’s trajectory over the past six months, with the official narrative of “total victory” in Ukraine having largely disappeared from private discussions. Keast-Butler, the UK intelligence chief, recently confirmed that nearly 500,000 Russian soldiers have been killed in Ukraine since the 2022 full-scale invasion — a figure that Moscow has never publicly confirmed, as Russia has kept all official combat casualty data classified since the war began.

With stalled progress on the battlefield and mounting economic troubles, many mid-ranking Russian officials are now privately questioning the purpose of the war, Rosin said, citing internal intelligence reports. Martelius added that even though some negative news about the war and economy may be sanitized before it reaches President Vladimir Putin, he believes the Russian leader has a broadly clear understanding of the severity of the challenges his country faces. Even so, Martelius warned that economic trouble should not be expected to trigger spontaneous political change in the near term: “It is very dangerous to start analyzing Russia as if it is some country like ours. It is not.”

On June 1, Pedro Sánchez will mark eight years since he first took office as Spain’s prime minister. For a leader hitting this milestone, celebration would be the expected norm—but this year, Sánchez is not planning anniversary events. Instead, he is locked in a desperate battle to hold onto power, as his Socialist Workers’ Party (PSOE) and ruling coalition are engulfed in a cascading series of corruption investigations that have shaken the foundations of his administration.

No direct link to Sánchez has emerged in any of the ongoing probes, but the investigations have ensnared his closest political allies, senior party figures, and even his own immediate family. The latest wave of scandals began this week with the trial of David Sánchez, the prime minister’s brother and a professional musician. He stands accused of influence peddling, after allegedly securing a senior musical leadership post in the southwestern region of Badajoz without following required competitive selection processes, and failing to fulfill the core duties of the role after taking office. Even more consequentially, a Spanish judge has been probing the business dealings of Begoña Gómez, Sánchez’s wife, since 2024, and has recommended that she stand trial on charges of influence peddling and misuse of public funds. She is scheduled to attend a preliminary hearing on June 9. Sánchez has pushed back hard against the cases targeting his family, arguing they originated from unsubstantiated accusations pushed by far-right political groups.

The scandals extend far beyond the prime minister’s family circle. José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, a former Socialist prime minister and one of Sánchez’s most prominent and respected allies, has been named in a money laundering investigation connected to a 2021 €53 million government bailout for the collapsed airline Plus Ultra. Prosecutors allege Zapatero used his political influence to secure the bailout in exchange for a private commission. Zapatero, who is set to appear in court for questioning on June 17, has repeatedly denied any illegal activity, and Sánchez has repeatedly reaffirmed his “full support” for the former leader. For the Spanish left, Zapatero’s connection to the investigation carries unique symbolic weight: during his 2004-2011 tenure, he oversaw landmark progressive reforms including the legalization of same-sex marriage, stricter gender violence laws, and the peaceful end of ETA’s four-decade separatist insurgency, earning him a reputation as a moral reference point for the Socialist movement.

“Symbolically, this is extremely significant,” explained Paco Camas, head of public opinion for the polling firm Ipsos in Spain. “This is the first former Spanish prime minister ever to face formal investigation, which makes the situation unprecedented. On top of that, Zapatero has long been a moral anchor for the entire Socialist Party.”

The scandal that has amplified pressure on Sánchez most dramatically in recent days is the probe that led to a 12-hour police raid on PSOE’s national headquarters in Madrid earlier this week. Investigators are probing allegations that senior party figures paid party member Leire Díez to orchestrate a “dirty tricks” campaign to discredit police officers, judges, and prosecutors leading ongoing corruption investigations into Socialist figures, including party third-in-command Santos Cerdán. Cerdán has been named as a suspect in this new probe, and Díez has denied all allegations against her.

The current wave of investigations traces back to 2023, when José Luis Ábalos, a former Socialist deputy party leader and transport minister, was implicated in a probe into a criminal network accused of collecting millions in kickbacks from the €50 million sale of face masks at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. Ábalos, who has always denied wrongdoing and was expelled from PSOE, recently went on trial and is awaiting a verdict. Last year, he was also linked to a broader kickbacks-for-public-contracts scandal alongside Cerdán. The revelation hit Sánchez particularly hard, as he had publicly defended Cerdán against media allegations before investigation evidence was made public. “The Socialist Party and I were wrong to trust him,” Sánchez acknowledged at the time. Both Cerdán and Ábalos maintain their innocence.

Even traditionally pro-Socialist media has voiced harsh criticism of the accumulating scandals. Centre-left newspaper El País, which has historically been sympathetic to PSOE, warned in a recent editorial: “The growing number of cases makes clear these are not isolated incidents or the product of shadowy conspiracies. The investigations are directly linked to the core of power that has governed Spain for the past eight years.”

Spain’s centre-right opposition, led by the Popular Party (PP), has led growing calls for Sánchez’s immediate resignation and an early general election, which is not scheduled to be held until 2027. PP leader Alberto Núñez Feijóo has described the string of scandals as a “criminal carousel.”

Sánchez, who has gained a reputation across Spanish politics for his almost unmatched resilience, has repeatedly insisted he intends to serve out the full remaining term of the current parliament. His government is a minority coalition that has long struggled to maintain stable support from a fragmented bloc of regional nationalist and left-wing parliamentary partners, failing to pass a single new national budget in this legislative session. Now, key allies are showing signs that their patience is running out. The Basque Nationalist Party (PNV), one of the coalition’s supporting parties, has already suggested that waiting until 2027 to hold a new election would be “irresponsible.”

Still, even if Sánchez loses the support of some minor partners, a collapse of the government is not guaranteed. The opposition currently lacks enough parliamentary support to pass a no-confidence vote—an ironic turn of events, given that Sánchez himself seized power via a successful no-confidence vote against the PP government in 2018. Crucially, regional autonomy-focused parties like the PNV remain deeply wary of the centralizing agenda of a potential PP government, which could govern in coalition with the far-right Vox party, giving them little incentive to force early elections.

“I don’t see any incentive for the current government to call early elections, no matter how blocked the legislative process is or how badly it is damaged by these scandals,” Camas noted. “Sánchez can absolutely dig in and hold on.” Camas added that, much like after the 2023 Ábalos-Cerdán scandal, the upcoming summer parliamentary recess could give the government much-needed breathing room to regroup and rebuild political momentum when legislators return in September.

Another looming risk for Sánchez is growing internal dissent within the Socialist Party itself. Prominent internal critics including Castilla-La Mancha regional president Emiliano García-Page and former Socialist prime minister Felipe González have already called for early elections. Political observers warn that if more regional and municipal Socialist leaders come to believe the scandals will damage their electoral prospects ahead of the 2027 local elections, a broad internal rebellion could break out. But for now, that revolt has not materialized.

“Right now, we are not seeing that kind of internal revolt,” said Lluís Orriols, a political scientist at Madrid’s Carlos III University. Orriols added that Sánchez’s long-term political future will ultimately depend on how the ongoing investigations unfold. If new explosive evidence emerges, particularly evidence connecting the Socialist Party to illegal financing, it could trigger an exodus of parliamentary allies that would make pressure on Sánchez unbearable—even for a politician famous for political survival.

“This government has been in an extremely fragile position for some time,” Orriols said. “We cannot rule out the possibility that it will run out of political air very soon.”

In a sweeping step to roll back climate-focused regulations implemented during the Biden administration, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) announced Friday a formal proposal to scrap a landmark rule requiring certain publicly traded companies to disclose their greenhouse gas emissions and detail the financial risks they face from global warming.

The climate disclosure mandate has been frozen in legal limbo since last year, after the SEC’s new Republican majority paused its legal defense of the rule amid multiple lawsuits filed by industry groups and Republican state attorneys general. In its official statement announcing the proposal, the commission argued the rule must be rescinded entirely because it oversteps the agency’s legal authority granted by Congress. The 2024 finalized rule, the SEC added, imposes steep, disproportionate costs on public companies and their shareholders that cannot be justified by the limited informational benefits it might deliver to a subset of investors.

SEC Chairman Paul Atkins emphasized that eliminating the rule will prevent the agency from indirectly coercing corporate climate policy choices, and will uphold the commission’s commitment to only enacting regulations where projected benefits clearly outweigh the associated costs and burdens.

The proposed repeal is part of a far broader series of environmental deregulatory actions launched during the second term of President Donald Trump. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), led by Administrator Lee Zeldin, has already scrapped major federal climate programs, canceled billions of dollars in Biden-era environmental justice grants, and revoked the foundational scientific finding that has served as the legal backbone for U.S. greenhouse gas regulation for decades. Zeldin has framed these actions as striking a decisive blow against what he calls “climate change religion.”

Critics of the SEC’s proposal, however, warn that rolling back the disclosure rule will leave investors without the standardized, material data they need to accurately evaluate climate-related financial risks to their holdings. Kathy Fallon, director of land systems at the non-profit environmental advocacy group Clean Air Task Force, noted that while the 2024 rule was not perfect, it represented a critical step toward delivering consistent, transparent information to investors about financially material climate risks, including the use of carbon offsets. Fallon called on the commission to keep the rule in place and enforce disclosure requirements that meet the transparency needs of both investors and the general public.

Democratic Massachusetts Senator Ed Markey, a longstanding proponent of the climate disclosure mandate, called the SEC’s announcement the end result of years of lobbying by corporate polluters aimed at weakening and dismantling protections that safeguard investments from high-risk business models. Markey stressed that the SEC’s core mission is to protect Americans’ retirement savings, union pensions, and personal investments, not put those assets at risk by shielding companies whose profitability relies on unregulated pollution and exposure to climate volatility. Tom Zimpleman, an attorney with the Natural Resources Defense Council, echoed this criticism, arguing the commission is abandoning its statutory responsibility to protect investors by ignoring the reality that climate risk is inherently financial risk.

The SEC first approved the 2024 climate disclosure rule in a party-line vote, when the commission had a Democratic majority: three Democratic commissioners supported the rule, while two Republicans opposed it. Today, the commission holds three Republican members (including Chairman Atkins) and no Democratic appointees. When the rule was being developed, it became one of the most anticipated regulatory actions in recent history from the nation’s top financial regulator, drawing more than 24,000 public comments over two years from companies, auditors, lawmakers, and industry trade groups. At the time of its finalization, the rule aligned U.S. regulatory standards with the European Union and California, both of which have already implemented similar mandatory corporate climate disclosure requirements.

A 60-day public comment period will open after the repeal proposal is published in the Federal Register, which is expected to occur in the coming days.

Less than three weeks after taking office following a landslide electoral victory over long-time incumbent Viktor Orbán, Hungary’s new prime minister Péter Magyar has secured a landmark agreement with the European Union that will release €16.4 billion in previously frozen bloc funding, contingent on Budapest delivering a series of long-delayed governance and anti-corruption reforms.

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen announced the deal after meeting with Magyar, framing the agreement as a tangible vote of confidence in Hungary’s new political direction. She praised the incoming administration for sending clear, strong signals of change to the European community, noting that a perceptible “wind of change” is already sweeping across the Central European nation after years of strained relations between Brussels and Orbán’s nationalist Fidesz government.

The full €16.4 billion package splits into two core tranches: €10 billion from the EU’s Covid-19 economic recovery fund, which Magyar’s administration had raced to unlock before an approaching August deadline, and an additional €6.4 billion from EU cohesion funds earmarked for improving Hungary’s economic and social infrastructure. The funding had been frozen by Brussels for years over widespread allegations of democratic backsliding and systemic corruption during Orbán’s 12-year tenure. Unlocking these funds was the central campaign pledge of Magyar’s relatively new Tisza Party in last month’s parliamentary election, which the party won with a two-thirds legislative supermajority.

Von der Leyen emphasized that the agreement came after Magyar’s government rebuilt fractured trust between Budapest and Brussels, adding that the EU would not cut corners on holding the new administration accountable for meeting its reform commitments. She highlighted concrete early steps already taken by Magyar’s team that demonstrate a clear break from Orbán-era policies: Hungary has now joined the European Public Prosecutor’s Office, revised controversial public procurement legislation, and opened a review of the so-called public interest trusts that Orbán’s government used to transfer public institutions including hospitals and universities to the control of loyalist allies.

“We can already see strong signals that Hungary is turning the page,” von der Leyen said, confirming that Hungarian university students will also regain full access to the EU’s Erasmus student exchange program. The program had been suspended for Hungarian institutions in 2022 after Orbán’s government brought more than 20 universities under the control of the politically aligned public interest trusts.

Magyar framed the agreement as a “historic breakthrough” for Hungary, noting that the total funding equals 13% of the country’s entire annual state budget. Just two days before the announcement, he acknowledged, there was no guarantee a final deal could be reached, with negotiations only launching a few weeks prior to the final agreement.

The prime minister outlined that the funding will be directed to core public sectors: €1.5 billion will go toward upgrading Hungary’s national electricity grid with a focus on expanding solar and wind energy capacity, while €2 billion will be allocated to purchasing new intercity passenger trains. The remainder will support improvements to healthcare, education, and transport infrastructure across the country.

In a sharp rebuke of his predecessor, Magyar accused Orbán of lying to the Hungarian public for years about the root cause of the frozen funding. “The real reason was that corruption was at an incredible rate in Hungary,” he said, adding that his administration had long proven that restoring EU funding only required committing to targeted anti-corruption rules and measures to end systemic cronyism. “These steps and just a few weeks were enough to conclude a political agreement about these incredibly important funds,” he added.

The deal comes as Orbán’s political future hangs in the balance. The former prime minister stepped down from his parliamentary seat last month and has announced plans to rebuild Fidesz ahead of a party congress in June that will decide whether he retains his position as party chairman. However, his path to a return to the premiership appears effectively blocked: last week, Tisza, leveraging its two-thirds legislative majority, tabled a constitutional amendment that would cap a prime minister’s total tenure at eight years, a rule that would bar Orbán from holding the office again even if his party returns to power.