Russian president Vladimir Putin has spoken to United Arab Emirates president Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, the Kremlin said on Friday.

The pair discussed the situation in the Gulf, where Iranian and Omani negotiators are seeking to fix an impasse over the Strait of Hormuz.

They also discussed the war on Ukraine, with Putin expressing his gratitude to the United Arab Emirates for its role in organising exchanges of prisoners of war and detainees between Russia and Ukraine, the Kremlin said.

Sweden’s Supreme Court has cleared the transfer of the 96-metre Russian “shadow fleet” cargo ship Caffa to Ukraine, rejecting an appeal by its owner.

Swedish police seized the vessel off Trelleborg in March after a Ukrainian request for legal assistance, Euro News reported.

Ukraine alleges the ship transported grain stolen from Russian-occupied Ukrainian territory, including a shipment from Sevastopol in July 2025.

The ship was reportedly sailing under a false Guinean flag and had 11 crew members, 10 of them Russian nationals.

Since 18 July, around 20 Wildberries sites have been attacked, with at least 1.18 million sq m of storage space – more than a fifth of the company’s capacity – damaged or destroyed, according to Reuters’ satellite analysis.

The attacks have hit tens of thousands of sellers and franchise-run pickup points as well, the news agency reported.

One Moscow pickup-point operator said his sales had “dropped by about 50 per cent” as deliveries collapsed, forcing him to try to sell his business.

More than 3,100 Wildberries pickup points were reportedly listed for sale.

The economic fallout is also worrying Russia’s central bank and Kremlin.

Economists warn supply disruptions could fuel inflation and complicate interest-rate cuts. A source was reported as saying: “There will be a wave of bankruptcies. No one has the kind of money needed to support sellers; we’re talking hundreds of billions of roubles. That’s a significant blow to the economy.”

Wildberries says it has offered discounts, payment deferrals and compensation to more than 97,000 sellers whose stock was destroyed.

Ukraine says the attacks are intended to “bring the war home” and raise the cost of the conflict for Russia.

Wildberries, the Russian online retailer at the heart of a three-week Ukrainian drone campaign, said on Friday that it will open new “partner hubs” to store goods.

It is the first time the company has revealed how it will attempt to compensate for the destruction of more than a fifth of its storage capacity in attacks on at least 20 of its warehouses since 18 July.

Owners and tenants of suitable premises will be able to set up a partner hub and be paid for processing, storing and dispatching goods from marketplace sellers, it said.

Kyiv has launched yet another strike on Russian online retailer Wildberries, as it continues a three-week campaign aiming to “bring the war home” to ordinary Russians.

The site in Yekaterinburg, 1,400 km (870 miles) east of Moscow, was the 20th Wildberries site to be attacked since 18 July. Satellite imagery from Reuters news agency shows that one-fifth of the company’s storage space has now been destroyed.

A blaze at Yekaterinburg was contained with most goods undamaged, the company said on Telegram, after a local governor said three drones had hit the roof of the logistics centre.

A logistics hub of Russia’s leading online retailer Wildberries in the Sverdlovsk region is on fire after an attack, the company has said.

The incident is the latest in a series of strikes targeting the retailer’s logistics network as Ukraine intensifies its attacks inside Russia.

Today’s attack comes just a day after another Wildberries logistics hub in Tula caught fire after a Ukrainian drone attack.

Tula ​regional governor Dmitry Milyayev ​said on Telegram on Wednesday that one person was injured.

Most operations had resumed by Wednesday morning as one runway was reopened, but the southern strip stayed closed while analysts examined the drone and removed its detonator, according to authorities.

Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky announced on Thursday that Kyiv had struck further oil facilities deep inside Russia during nighttime attacks, intensifying its strategy to cripple Moscow’s wartime economy and embarrass the Kremlin.

These persistent strikes have caused fuel shortages and rattled Russians, while heartening Ukrainians who face regular Russian barrages that Kyiv’s weakened air defences struggle to counter.

Zelensky, speaking on social media, specified two targets: a refinery in Bashkortostan, over 1,300 kilometres (800 miles) behind the eastern front line, and another in the Yaroslavl region, nearly 700 kilometres (400 miles) from the Ukrainian border.

Also, Ukrainian forces hit two Russian military patrol boats in the Black Sea, according to Zelensky, as well as vessels belonging to Moscow’s so-called shadow fleet, which Russia uses to evade Western restrictions on its oil exports. He did not provide details about the vessels or the extent of the damage.

Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky is visiting Serbia on Saturday for the first time since Russia attacked Ukraine in 2022.

“We need to pull the Serbs away from Russia’s side,” a senior Ukrainian official was quoted as saying by AFP.

The official also reportedly called Zelensky’s visit to Serbia a “slap in the face for the Russians”.

Vucic has maintained close ties with Moscow while pursuing Serbia’s bid to join the European Union.

According to the Guardian, his office confirmed an “official visit” by Zelensky, saying the Ukrainian president would present his position, but Serbia’s policy towards Russia “will remain the case until further notice”.

According to The Kyiv Independent, Serbian president Aleksandar Vucic made his first official visit to Ukraine in June last year, attending the Ukraine-Southeast Europe summit in Odesa.

Volodymyr Zelensky says the Ukrainian government will offer assistance to farmers impacted by Russia’s strikes on shipping and port facilities.

Subsidised loans and other financing support would “begin to be implemented in the coming days”, he said.

The announcement came after a Russian attack damaged a foreign-flagged wheat ship in the Black Sea near Odesa, killing one crew member and sparking a fire, according to regional governor Oleh Kiper.

Ukraine’s seaports authority said the vessel was sailing under the Guinea-Bissau flag.

Ukraine has established a Black Sea shipping corridor along its coast towards Romania, but vessels have recently come under attack in the area.