The Trump administration on Friday renewed a waiver allowing countries to buy sanctioned Russian oil at sea for about a ⁠month, even as lawmakers accused the government of going easy on Moscow as its war on Ukraine grinds on.

The Treasury Department’s waiver lets countries purchase Russian oil and petroleum products loaded on vessels as of Friday through 16 May.

It replaces a 30-day waiver that expired on 11 April and excludes transactions involving Iran, Cuba and North Korea.

The move is part of the administration’s effort to control global energy prices that have shot higher during the US-Israeli war ⁠on Iran.

It came after countries in Asia, suffering from the global ​energy ⁠shock, pressed Washington to allow alternative supplies to reach markets.

Soldiers fighting in Ukraine are increasingly turning to the supernatural, seeking solace and solutions from figures like self-described witch Natalia Malinovskaya.

Operating from her darkened Moscow apartment, Malinovskaya, who claims to have inherited her powers from her grandmother and frequently appears on Russian television, offers a range of services from love spells to protection from evil.

Demonstrating her method of detecting negative energy by wafting a lit match over a glass, she notes that most clients seek help for relationship problems, including soldiers worried about their partners’ faithfulness.

Ukraine’s Zelensky said on Friday that Ukraine believes Russia is making preparations to involve its ally Belarus in the war.

“According to intelligence, road construction in areas leading to Ukraine and the establishment of artillery positions are going on in the Belarusian border area,” Zelensky wrote on Telegram, referring to a report from Ukraine’s top commander.

“We believe that Russia will once again try to involve Belarus in its war.”

Zelensky said Ukraine had issued instructions to warn the Belarusian leadership of “Ukraine’s readiness to defend its land and independence”.

Volodymyr Zelensky on Friday called for joint efforts to ensure freedom of navigation in the Strait of Hormuz – and said Kyiv’s wartime experience in the Black Sea could help.

The Ukrainian president told a video conference attended by 50 countries and chaired by France and Britain that in the course of four years of war with Russia, Ukraine had “already carried out a very similar mission in the Black Sea”.

“In Hormuz, there are security challenges that cannot be addressed by political decisions alone,” he added, without elaborating.

Positioning Ukraine to assist in a maritime security mission, he also made the case that Kyiv had also sent specialists throughout the Middle East to help countries benefit from its experience in defending against Russian drones, many designed in Iran.

Slovakia will file a lawsuit in the coming days challenging the European Union’s decision to ban Russian gas imports, adopted by a qualified majority, and will seek a preliminary injunction, Prime Minister Robert Fico said on Friday.

The suit will be filed with the EU’s Court of Justice, Fico said, criticising the way the regulation was adopted.

The ban on Russian gas imports, to be implemented by late 2027, was cleared by a reinforced majority of countries, allowing the EU to overcome opposition from Slovakia and Hungary when it approved the measure earlier this year.

“According to the Slovak government, this is a clear violation of all the principles on which the EU treaties are based,” Fico said, adding that decisions on sanctions and foreign policy issues should be taken unanimously.

Hungary has already filed a lawsuit against the ban, and Slovakia had previously said it would do the same. Fico said the government would submit its lawsuit by an April 27 deadline.

Both countries have maintained Russian gas supplies despite EU efforts to end the bloc’s reliance on Russian energy and cut funding for Moscow’s war with Ukraine.

Governor Alexander Drozdenko confirmed the new units would be deployed to the “premises of enterprises and critically important infrastructure,” though his statement notably omitted any direct mention of Ukraine.

He further stated on his Telegram account that a meeting of federal and security agencies had “decided that protection of the sky over the Leningrad Region against drone attacks must be strengthened and reinforced.”

A former British army officer and government counterterrorism adviser has warned that the UK is likely to face a Russian attack.

The warning follows the Kremlin’s statement that British drone firms assisting Ukraine’s war efforts are considered ‘potential targets’.

Colonel Richard Kemp told The Mirror that the UK is ‘seen as vulnerable’ and should expect deniable sabotage operations from Russia.

Dmitry Medvedev, Russia’s former president and head of its security council, explicitly stated that a list of European facilities involved in Ukrainian drone production are ‘potential targets’ for Russian armed forces.

This development occurs as Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky labelled Vladimir Putin a ‘truly global threat’ following a deadly Russian air bombardment in Ukraine.