Russian intelligence agencies have grown more aggressive in their efforts to steal Western technology and defence secrets, as sanctions squeeze the country’s wartime economy, three senior European intelligence officials have told The Associated Press.

“They really know what they need,” and are putting “serious effort” into acquiring advanced machine tools, factory equipment, research and dual-use technology, said Christoffer Wedelin, deputy head of operations at the Swedish Security Service.

Moscow’s agents are reportedly establishing shell companies, recruiting intermediaries, and deploying cyber spies and hackers. They are gathering intelligence that could also be used to target critical infrastructure.

Four years of international sanctions have curtailed Moscow’s procurement of machinery, technology, and research from Europe. The grinding war in Ukraine has simultaneously taxed key industries, pushing the country towards a potential financial crisis.

President Volodymyr Zelensky has said Ukraine’s military was now capable of hitting Russian logistics throughout occupied areas of Ukraine and had created shortages of fuel in Crimea and other Russian-held regions.

“Our troops ‌are now capable of reaching ‌Russian military logistics across ‌virtually the entire depth of the ⁠temporarily occupied territories,” Zelensky said in his nightly video address.

“In practice, there are almost no safe ‌roads left ​for the occupier ‌in the ⁠south and east ⁠of our country,” he warned.

A peace deal to end the war against Russia by winter is a “realistic” outcome, Ukraine president Volodymyr Zelensky’s chief of staff Kyrylo Budanov has said.

His remarks come just a day after Zelensky said Ukraine has a limited window to negotiate with Russia – till the winter – as it has the advantage of holding the strategic initiative on the battlefield against Russian forces.

Budanov said he expected a US delegation to ‌visit Moscow and Kyiv in the near future, without giving details.

“This is the president’s instruction: to try to end this war as soon as possible… preferably before winter,” he told reporters at a press conference.

“In my opinion, this is absolutely correct, timely, and realistic,” he said.

Zelensky and other Ukrainian officials have said the advance of Russian forces ‌has slowed on the ground while ​Ukraine has intensified a campaign of long-range ‌strikes inside Russia, targeting ⁠mainly the oil industry.

Russian president Vladimir Putin said Ukraine had “opened a new page in a series of crimes” with its strikes on a dormitory in northeastern Luhansk region and on an apartment building in a Russian-held part of Ukraine’s Kherson region.

“Consciously committing the most ⁠serious crimes against children and ​teenagers ⁠at the teachers ‌college in Starobilsk, and now in Henichesk, the Kyiv leadership ‌has decided to open ‌a new page in the series of their crimes,” he said, at a meeting to discuss the aftermath of the attack on the dormitory in Starobilsk.

The drone strike in the Russian-held town ‌of Starobilsk killed 21 people ​in late May, ‌while a drone ⁠attack on an apartment building ⁠in the Russian-held town of ‌Henichesk on Sunday ​killed one ‌child and injured ​11.

Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky said his country’s forces have attacked at least 15 Russian oil refineries since January this year, reducing its ability to refine fuel significantly.

“Between January and May this year, our warriors struck 15 Russian oil refineries. Russia has already imposed bans on exports of aviation fuel and gasoline, and is also considering a ban on diesel exports. As of May, nearly 40 per cent of Russia’s primary oil refining capacity is offline,” Zelensky said in his nightly address.

“For a country that until very recently was called a gas station, losing even this is a major event. A major loss,” he said.

Referring to an intelligence report from yesterday on Russia’s economic losses, Zelensky said Russia “will crash into this wall of a real crisis because of its own foolishness”.

Russian air attacks on major Ukrainian cities such as Kyiv, Dnipro and Kharkiv killed at least nine and wounded more than 60 in the early hours today, authorities said, following days of warnings that Moscow was planning a major assault.

Of these, five people were killed and 25 injured in a Russian missile and drone attack on the southeastern city of Dnipro, regional governor Oleksandr Hanzha said on his Telegram channel.

All the ​injured ⁠were in hospital in moderate condition, he added, posting pictures of destroyed residential buildings, burnt-out vehicles and a damaged children’s playground.

At least four were killed and 51 injured, including children, across the capital of Kyiv, mayor Vitali Klitschko said.

A suspected missile strike on a 24-storey apartment building triggered a collapse, leaving ​people probably ⁠trapped under the rubble, Klitschko said.

Russia’s Ilsky oil refinery in the southern Krasnodar region caught fire after a drone attack, local authorities said this morning.

There were no casualties, ‌according to preliminary information, ‌the authorities said.

The ⁠Ilsky refinery, with an annual processing capacity of 6.6 million metric tonnes ‌of oil, ​or ‌133,000 barrels ⁠per day, ⁠is export-oriented.

Fuel sales in Sevastopol in Russia-controlled Crimea will be limited on Tuesday and authorities are working to resume the sales as usual from Wednesday, Mikhail Razvozhayev, the Russian-backed governor of Sevastopol, said in a Telegram post.

Drivers in Russian-controlled Crimea were ‌grappling with gasoline rationing this week after Ukrainian drone attacks constricted road supplies across south-eastern Ukraine, Reuters witnesses and officials said.

In Sevastopol, the largest city in Crimea and the traditional base ⁠of Russia’s Black Sea Fleet, Reuters witnesses reported long queues at filling stations.

Former Ukrainian lawmaker Oleg Tsaryov, a pro-Russian figure, said that the road ​that connects Crimea to the mainland in the north had been attacked by Ukraine.

“Fuel in Crimea ​is being sold ⁠in limited quantities and via rationing coupons. The reason is Ukrainian drone attacks on fuel trucks on the ‘Novorossiya’ highway – a land corridor linking mainland Russia and Crimea,” Tsaryov said.