Ukraine is continuing its attacks on Russian oil infrastructure despite calls from the West seeking to end such strikes.
Russian officials on Sunday said Ukrainian drones struck an oil refinery operated by Lukoil and a Baltic pipeline near St Petersburg. The governor of Russia’s Nizhny Novgorod region said air defence units had repelled a 30-drone barrage.
Last week, Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky said that some allies have signalled for Ukraine to reduce long-range strikes on Russia's oil sector due to rising global energy prices.
Zelensky said he would be happy to do so – but only if Russia reciprocates by stopping its own attacks on the Ukrainian grid.
The Institute for the Study of War said Ukraine had noticeably stepped up its attacks on Russia’s oil infrastructure, “focusing on the Russian Baltic Sea port and oil infrastructure in Leningrad oblast critical to Russian oil exports”.
The attacks include three strikes targeting Primorsk port infrastructure in the space of just two weeks.
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Child among three killed in Russian drone attack on Ukraine's Odesa
Russia launched a drone attack on Ukraine's Black Sea port of Odesa overnight, killing three people, including a child, and damaging infrastructure, residential and administrative buildings, the regional governor said.
“Overnight, Odesa came under another heavy attack by the enemy," Oleh Kiper, Odesa regional governor, said on the Telegram app. As well as the three dead, 10 people were injured, he said.
“Residential buildings, critical infrastructure and administrative facilities were hit. There is significant damage," Kiper said.
Moscow has escalated its attacks on Odesa, a key logistics hub in southern Ukraine and the country's largest port, handling the majority of the Ukrainian grain and other maritime exports.
Russia says it downed 148 Ukrainian drones in three hours
Russia's military said its air defence units had downed 148 Ukrainian drones over a three-hour period and officials said emergency crews were restoring power to nearly half a million households in outages linked to air attacks.
On Sunday evening, a drone killed a civil defence volunteer in Russia's border region of Belgorod, a frequent target of the Ukrainian military, and drones also hit an apartment building in Russia's Black Sea port of Novorossiysk.
A Russian defence ministry statement said air defence units had intercepted 148 drones, mostly in central and southern areas of the country, between 8pm and 11pm (1700-2000 GMT) on Sunday.
The mayor of the port of Novorossiysk, Andrei Kravchenko, said drone debris had struck a high-rise apartment building. There was no word on casualties.
Russia says eight injured in Ukrainian drone attacks on largest Black Sea oil port
At least eight people were injured, including two children, during Ukrainian drone attacks on the Black Sea port city of Novorossiysk, with a number of residential houses sustaining damage, Russian authorities said this morning.
Russia did not say if the port of Novorossiysk, Russia's largest exporting outlet on the Black Sea, was struck.
Ukraine has significantly intensified attacks on Russia's energy facilities, including the largest oil exporting hubs both on the Baltic and Black seas, seeking to reduce Moscow's revenues from the sales of oil, the lifeblood of its economy.
The area of the port of Novorossiysk is also a location for the Caspian Pipeline Consortium's terminal, which exports oil from Kazakhstan and whose shareholders include US majors, such as Chevron and Exon Mobil.
Usually, when the alerts for air raids are issued, the oil terminals suspend operations. There was no immediate comment from Ukraine.
Russia's military said in the early hours today that air defence units had downed 148 Ukrainian drones over a three-hour period and officials said emergency crews were restoring power to nearly half a million households in outages linked to air attacks.
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Child among three killed in Russian drone attack on Ukraine's Odesa
Russia launched a drone attack on Ukraine's Black Sea port of Odesa overnight, killing three people, including a child, and damaging infrastructure, residential and administrative buildings, the regional governor said.
“Overnight, Odesa came under another heavy attack by the enemy," Oleh Kiper, Odesa regional governor, said on the Telegram app. As well as the three dead, 10 people were injured, he said.
“Residential buildings, critical infrastructure and administrative facilities were hit. There is significant damage," Kiper said.
Moscow has escalated its attacks on Odesa, a key logistics hub in southern Ukraine and the country's largest port, handling the majority of the Ukrainian grain and other maritime exports.
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