MOSCOW: Ukraine fired drones at a key Russian oil port near the Finnish border on Monday, both Moscow and Kyiv said, triggering a huge fire at the facility.

Satellite images showed flames and thick plumes of black smoke rising into the air from the oil terminal in the Russian town of Primorsk, which sits on the Gulf of Finland and is about 50 kilometres (30 miles) from the EU and NATO member.

Russia has been pummelling Ukraine with near-daily air strikes, repeatedly hitting its energy infrastructure and triggering blackouts that plunged millions into cold and darkness during the winter months.

Ukraine has retaliated by launching drone attacks at Russia, mainly at Moscow’s energy and military facilities.

“A fuel tank was damaged in the port of Primorsk, causing a fire,” said Alexander Drozdenko, governor of Russia’s western Leningrad region.

Drozdenko said Russian air defence systems had destroyed more than 70 drones over the region, which has not been a main front in Russia’s war with Ukraine.

The General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine said it had “struck key fuel and energy infrastructure facilities in the Russian Federation”, including at Primorsk.

“According to preliminary information, both the tank farm and the oil loading infrastructure were hit,” the General Staff said on social media on Monday.

The satellite images appeared to show fires and smoke rising from several cylindrical fuel tanks at the site.

Ukraine said Primorsk handles approximately 60 million tonnes of oil per year.

“The aggressor country uses the proceeds from oil sales to continue the war against Ukraine,” it added.

The General Staff also claimed a hit on an oil refinery in the central Russian city of Ufa, around 1,400 kilometres (870 miles) from the front line.

It said the strike caused “a fire on the facility’s grounds”.

Ukraine’s air force said on Monday that Moscow fired 251 drones at Ukraine overnight, 234 of which were shot down.

• NBC reports both pilots killed.
• LaGuardia airport closed until 2pm ET on Monday, FAA says.
• Photos taken after accident show damage to plane’s nose.

NEW YORK: The pilot and co-pilot of an Air Canada Express regional jet were killed after it collided with a fire truck while landing at New York’s LaGuardia airport late on Sunday, in an incident that closed the airport, authorities and US media said.

NBC News, which reported the deaths, said dozens others were injured in the incident.

The news channel said that the fire truck was manned by police officers, citing sources. It had earlier said ⁠a sergeant and an officer had broken limbs and were in stable condition at a hospital.

The Air Canada Express CRJ-900 plane, operated by its partner Jazz Aviation, was carrying 72 passengers and four crew members from Montreal, based on a preliminary passenger list that remained subject to confirmation. Jazz is owned by Chorus Aviation.

The aircraft struck the fire vehicle at a speed of about 24 miles per hour (39 kph), said flight tracking website Flightradar24, which last recorded data at 11:37pm ET (0337 GMT).

Photos taken by Reuters after the accident showed visible damage to the nose of the plane, which was tilted upward.

Authorities and emergency agencies did not offer any ⁠immediate comments on deaths or injuries.

The US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) said the airport was expected to remain shut until 2pm ET on Monday (1800 GMT). Flightradar24 said 18 flights had been diverted to other airports, mostly in the New York area, or returned to their point of origin.

Air Canada referred Reuters to Jazz’s statement and said it was aware of ⁠the incident. The National Transportation Safety Board and the FAA did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey said the firefighting vehicle was responding to a separate incident when it was struck ⁠by the aircraft at the airport’s Runway 4.

New York City’s emergency notification system said people could expect cancellations, road closures, traffic delays and emergency personnel near the airport.

LaGuardia served over 30 million annual passengers in 2025, ⁠according to the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, and a wide range of US airlines operate at the airport.

• SPA unanimously re-elects Kim.
• 687 deputies elected to new SPA term.
• 99.93% backing for deputies, 0.07% against.

SEOUL: North Korea’s legislature has re-elected Kim Jong Un as president of state affairs, state media reported on Monday.

Kim’s reappointment as head of the nation’s highest policymaking and governing body, the State Affairs Commission, was announced by the state news agency KCNA.

Critics argue that elections in North Korea are pre-determined and designed to give the country’s leadership a veneer of democratic legitimacy.

“The Supreme People’s Assembly of the DPRK reelected Comrade Kim Jong Un as President of the State Affairs of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea at the First Session, the first state affairs activity of its 15th term, on March 22,” KCNA reported.

The report said the decision to re-elect Kim to the “top post” reflected “the unanimous will and desire of all the Korean people”.

Kim is the third-generation ruler of the nuclear-armed state founded by his grandfather Kim Il Sung in 1948. He has ruled the country since his father’s death in 2011.

The election is a “highly choreographed event with a pre-determined outcome”, said Lee Ho-ryung of the Korea Institute for Defence Analyses.

“Throughout the third-generation rule, the North has staged such events to showcase a procedure in an attempt to achieve political legitimacy,” she said.

“But no one thinks any different outcome would emerge from it.”

Photos released by KCNA show Kim dressed in a formal western suit and seated at the centre of a stage, flanked by top officials in front of two giant statues of his father Kim Jong Il and grandfather.

Barometer

Prior to the event, 687 deputies were elected to the SPA, with North Koreans over 17 given the choice of approving or rejecting the sole candidate put forward by the ruling party.

The new deputies were duly approved with 99.93% of votes in favour and 0.07% against, KCNA reported earlier, with turnout at 99.99%.

The Pyongyang assembly hall was “full of the extraordinary political awareness and revolutionary enthusiasm” by the newly elected members, it said.

Analysts say the current assembly session may also take up possible constitutional amendments that could include formally codifying inter-Korean relations as those between “two hostile states”.

The language Kim uses to describe his stance towards South Korea in his assembly speech will be a “barometer” of his inter-Korea plans, Hong Min, a senior analyst at the Korea Institute for National Unification, told AFP.

“The extent to which terms such as ‘national unification’ or ‘Korean unity’ are removed and replaced by aggressive expressions including ‘territorial control’ could serve as a barometer of his ideological framework,” he said.

The key point lies in how far he will “flesh out issues of territory, territorial waters and airspace” in dealing with Seoul, he added.

The gathering follows a five-yearly meeting of the ruling party last month.