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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
World
Vivian Ho and Lili Bayer

Russia-Ukraine war: Ukrainian drone attack sparks fire at Rostov oil depot – as it happened

Ukraine United Kingdom Russia Rostov Oil Drone Kursk (Facility) Telegram

Summary

  • A Ukrainian drone attack sparked a fire at an oil depot in the Kamensky district of Russia’s southern region of Rostov, its governor said on Wednesday, confirming media reports that several tanks were on fire. The attack comes while tanks were still on fire at another oil depot in Rostov’s Proletarsk district, about 10 days after a Ukrainian attack, Russian Telegram channels said.

  • Following these attacks, a drone attacked an oil products reservoir in Kotelnich in Russia’s Kirov oblast, more than 1,500 km (930 miles) from the Ukrainian border. It is unclear at this time if the drone was Ukrainian, but purported footage from the drone strike showed flames and smoke.

  • However,. flights in and out of airports in Kazan and Nizhnekamsk in Russia’s Tatarstan region were temporarily suspended for safety reasons on Wednesday morning. While Rosaviatsia, Russia’s federal air transport agency, did not say why the airports were closed, similar restrictions have been put in place in the past at other Russian airports due to Ukrainian drone activity – the closures coincided with the drone attack in Kotelnich.

  • UK and Germany have reaffirmed their commitment to “stand with Ukraine as long as it takes”. In working out a new treaty between the UK and Germany, UK prime minister Keir Starmer and German chancellor Olaf Scholz discussed at length the two countries “unyielding support Ukraine”. “As Europe’s largest contributors to Ukraine’s war efforts, and as the nations with the highest defence expenditure among European countries in Nato, we know only too well the debt we owe to the Ukrainian people, who fight not just to defend themselves, but for the people and all the people across Europe,” Starmer said in a joint press conference.

  • Meanwhile, Ukraine’s foreign minister Dmytro Kuleba said in Poland today that the biggest problem facing Kyiv is that its allies are afraid of approving new policies to support Ukraine out of fear of escalation. “Ever since the beginning of the large-scale invasion, the biggest problem Ukraine has been facing is the domination of the concept of escalation in the decision-making processes among our partners,” said Kuleba.

  • Two days after a Russian missile strike on a hotel in Kryvyi Rih killed four people and injured five, another Russian attack on the central Ukraine city has injured nine civilians and destroyed 230 cars, Dnipropetrovsk oblast regional governor Serhii Lysak said on Telegram. “When Kryvyi Rih is in mourning, the enemy attacks again,” Lysak said. “And once again he aims at civilians.”

  • An entire family was killed after a Russian warplane dropped an aerial bomb on their home in the village of Izmailivka in the Donetsk oblast on Wednesday, said the Ukrainian prosecutor general’s office. The prosecutor general’s office, which has been documenting and investigating all possible war crimes committed by Russia in Ukraine, said Russian forces had previously targeted the area with guided aerial bombs.

  • The Kremlin has dismissed Volodymyr Zelenskiy’s claims about a plan he has to end the war, with spokesman Dmitry Peskov telling reporters that Russia will continue what it calls its “special military operation” in Ukraine. “We are continuing our special military operation and will achieve all of our goals,” Peskov said.

Three people were injured and a city administration building damaged in a Russian attack on central Kupyansk in the Kharkiv oblast, said regional governor Oleg Sinegubov.

Russian forces used a guided bomb in the attack, Sinegubov said.

Ukraine foreign minister: Allies fear escalation

Ukraine’s foreign minister Dmytro Kuleba said that the biggest problem facing Kyiv is that its allies are afraid of approving new policies to support Ukraine out of fear of escalation, Reuters is reporting.

“Ever since the beginning of the large-scale invasion, the biggest problem Ukraine has been facing is the domination of the concept of escalation in the decision-making processes among our partners,” said Kuleba, who is in Poland today.

David Cohen, the deputy director of the CIA, is speaking at the intelligence and national security summit in Washington and sharing his thoughts on the situation in Ukraine.

Cohen told summit attendees that the significance of Ukrainian forces holding ground in Russia’s Kursk region “remains yet to be seen” – while Kyiv does not appear to want to annex the region, it will be a tough fight for Russia to take back.

Here are some of the latest images coming through from photo agencies:

Earlier today, UK prime minister Keir Starmer said in a joint press conference with German chancellor Olaf Scholz that the UK and Germany will “stand with Ukraine as long as it takes”.

The German foreign office has added some comments to the mix as well:

The German foreign office’s reference to former attempts at peace talks comes after the Kremlin dismissed Volodymyr Zelenskiy’s claims about a plan he has to end the war.

“We are continuing our special military operation and will achieve all of our goals,” said Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov.

Russia’s federal air transport agency has reopened two airports in Kazan and Nizhnekamsk in the Tatarstan region after briefly suspending operations for flight safety reasons on Wednesday morning.

While Rosaviatsia, the federal air transport agency, did not say why the airports were closed, similar restrictions have been put in place in the past at other Russian airports due to Ukrainian drone activity. Earlier today, a drone attacked an oil products reservoir in Kotelnich in Russia’s Kirov oblast, about 500 km (310 miles) from the closed airports.

A Russian missile attack which hit Kryvyi Rih wounded eight people, local administration head Oleksandr Vilkul said, the Associated Press reported.

Footage released today shows an oil depot ablaze in Russia’s Rostov region.

Today so far

  • UK and Germany have reaffirmed their commitment to “stand with Ukraine as long as it takes”. In working out a new treaty between the UK and Germany, UK prime minister Keir Starmer and German chancellor Olaf Scholz discussed at length the two countries “unyielding support Ukraine”. “As Europe’s largest contributors to Ukraine’s war efforts, and as the nations with the highest defence expenditure among European countries in Nato, we know only too well the debt we owe to the Ukrainian people, who fight not just to defend themselves, but for the people and all the people across Europe,” Starmer said in a joint press conference.

  • A Ukrainian drone attack sparked a fire at an oil depot in the Kamensky district of Russia’s southern region of Rostov, its governor said on Wednesday, confirming media reports that several tanks were on fire. The attack comes while tanks were still on fire at another oil depot in Rostov’s Proletarsk district, about 10 days after a Ukrainian attack, Russian Telegram channels said.

  • Following these attacks, a drone attacked an oil products reservoir in Kotelnich in Russia’s Kirov oblast, more than 1,500 km (930 miles) from the Ukrainian border. It is unclear at this time if the drone was Ukrainian, but purported footage from the drone strike showed flames and smoke.

  • Two days after a Russian missile strike on a hotel in Kryvyi Rih killed four people and injured five, another Russian attack on the central Ukraine city has injured five civilians, Dnipropetrovsk oblast regional governor Serhii Lysak said on Telegram. “When Kryvyi Rih is in mourning, the enemy attacks again,” Lysak said. “And once again he aims at civilians.”

  • An entire family was killed after a Russian warplane dropped an aerial bomb on their home in the village of Izmailivka in the Donetsk oblast on Wednesday, said the Ukrainian prosecutor general’s office. The prosecutor general’s office, which has been documenting and investigating all possible war crimes committed by Russia in Ukraine, said Russian forces had previously targeted the area with guided aerial bombs.

  • The Kremlin has dismissed Volodymyr Zelenskiy’s claims about a plan he has to end the war, with spokesman Dmitry Peskov telling reporters that Russia will continue what it calls its “special military operation” in Ukraine. “We are continuing our special military operation and will achieve all of our goals,” Peskov said.

Updated

The Kremlin has dismissed Volodymyr Zelenskiy’s claims about a plan he has to end the war, with spokesman Dmitry Peskov telling reporters that Russia will continue what it calls its “special military operation” in Ukraine, Reuters is reporting.

Earlier this week, Zelenskiy said Kyiv’s three-week-old incursion into Russia’s Kursk region was part of a plan that he was looking to present to US president Joe Biden and his two potential successors, Kamala Harris and Donald Trump. While he did not provide details of the plan, Zelenskiy said that in addition to the push into Russian territory, the plan included steps on the economic and diplomatic fronts that would force Moscow to end the war.

“This is not the first time that we have heard such statements from representatives of the Kyiv regime. We are aware of the nature of this Kyiv regime,” Peskov told reporters when asked about Zelenskiy’s plan.

“We are continuing our special military operation and will achieve all of our goals.”

UK and Germany reaffirm commitment to 'stand with Ukraine as long as it takes'

UK prime minister Keir Starmer is in Berlin today to meet with German chancellor Olaf Scholz to discuss a new treaty between the two countries, at the heart of which lies a defence agreement regarding Ukraine.

At a joint press conference, Starmer said this new defence agreement expands the “formidable defence cooperation” between UK and Germany “to face the threats of a volatile world together”.

“That, of course, means a shared resolve to stand up for the security of our people and the wider European continent – and that begins with our unyielding support for Ukraine,” Starmer said.

He continued: “As Europe’s largest contributors to Ukraine’s war efforts, and as the nations with the highest defence expenditure among European countries in Nato, we know only too well the debt we owe to the Ukrainian people, who fight not just to defend themselves, but for the people and all the people across Europe.

“Today, we have reaffirmed our commitment to stand with Ukraine as long as it takes”.

Updated

Purported footage of the drone strike on an oil products reservoir in Kotelnich in Russia’s Kirov oblast – an attack being reported by Reuters and Russian media – shows flames and smoke in the aftermath of a hit.

Family of four killed in Russian attack in Donetsk oblast

An entire family was killed after a Russian warplane dropped an aerial bomb on their home in the village of Izmailivka in the Donetsk oblast on Wednesday, said the Ukrainian prosecutor general’s office.

Rescuers recovered the bodies of the parents – ages 45 and 53 – as well as their 17-year-old son and 24-year-old daughter in the rubble.

The prosecutor general’s office, which has been documenting and investigating all possible war crimes committed by Russia in Ukraine, said Russian forces had previously targeted the area with guided aerial bombs.

Two days after a Russian missile strike on a hotel in Kryvyi Rih killed four people and injured five, another Russian attack on the central Ukraine city has injured five civilians, Dnipropetrovsk oblast regional governor Serhii Lysak said on Telegram.

Lysak said four men – ages 29, 41, 44 and 60 – are being treated at a hospital for shrapnel wounds, bruises and acubarotrauma. A 54-year-old woman will recover from her injuries at home.

The attack sparked a fire and damaged infrastructure and cars within the city, Lysak said.

“When Kryvyi Rih is in mourning, the enemy attacks again,” Lysak said. “And once again he aims at civilians.”

Russian shelling of the port city of Kherson, located in southern Ukraine, damaged a residential building on Wednesday, trapping a woman in her home, Ukraine’s state emergency service said on Telegram.

The woman refused medical assistance.

Drone strikes another Russian oil products reservoir

Reuters is reporting that a drone attacked an oil products reservoir in Kotelnich in Russia’s Kirov oblast, more than 1,500 km (930 miles) from the Ukrainian border.

Regional governor Alexander Sokolov said there were no casualties or fires from the attack.

While it is unclear at this time if the drone was Ukrainian, the attack on Kotelnich comes after Ukraine-launched drones set several oil tanks on fire at the Glubokinskaya oil depot in Russia’s Rostov oblast, just across the border from Ukraine’s Luhansk oblast. The Baza channel, which is close to Russia’s security services, said three tanks were burning after strikes by two drones.

The Glubokinskaya attack took place while tanks were still on fire at another Rostov oil depot, in the Proletarsk district, 10 days after the depot was attacked.

Updated

Emergency workers have recovered another body in the wreckage of the hotel in Kryvyi Rih that was struck by a rocket attack on Tuesday, Ukraine’s state emergency service said on Telegram.

In total, four people were killed and five people were injured in the attack.

The Kharkiv oblast in Ukraine will be experiencing power shutdowns today following the shelling of some energy facilities, Kharkiv Energy said on Telegram.

Hourly and emergency shutdown schedules have been applied simultaneously in the Kharkiv oblast that could lead to an increases in the duration of the outages, the utility warned.

Good morning and welcome to our blog covering developments in the Russia-Ukraine war.

A Ukrainian drone attack sparked a fire at an oil depot in the Kamensky district of Russia’s southern region of Rostov, its governor said on Wednesday, confirming media reports that several tanks were on fire.

“There are no casualties,” the governor, Vasily Golubev, said on the Telegram messaging app. “Firefighters are extinguishing the fire.”

Russian air defence units destroyed four drones over the region overnight, the Russian defence ministry said, without mention of an attack on the depot.

Reuters reports that earlier, the Baza Telegram channel, which is close to Russia’s security services, said three tanks were burning at the Kamensky oil depot after two drones fell on the area.

Videos posted on Russian social media showed what looked like large tanks ablaze at night. Reuters was able to identify one of the videos as locaed in Rostov’s Kamensky district. There was no immediate comment from Ukraine.

The attack comes while tanks were still on fire at another oil depot in Rostov’s Proletarsk district, about 10 days after a Ukrainian attack, Russian Telegram channels said.

In other developments:

  • Russia said on Wednesday it wanted the International Atomic Energy Agency to take a “more objective and clearer” stance on nuclear safety, a day after the head of the agency visited Russia’s Kursk nuclear plant close to where Ukraine has mounted an incursion into the country. IAEA chief Rafael Grossi said he had inspected damage from a drone strike, which Russia had blamed on Ukraine, but did not say who was responsible.

  • Ukraine’s first lady wants her country’s children to view themselves not as a generation enduring a grinding war, but rather as “a generation of winners”.
    On the sidelines of a day spent at a rehabilitation camp for Ukrainian children in the relatively safe western city of Uzhhorod, Olena Zelenska said Tuesday that working with the next generation was both a moral obligation and a “strategic priority” for Ukraine’s future.

  • Aid for Ukraine in its war against Russia is expected to be high on the agenda as the UK’s new prime minister, Keir Starmer, meets the German chancellor, Olaf Scholz, in Berlin.

  • Volodymyr Zelenskiy has called for more F-16 fighters jets and more training for pilots to fly them after revealing that the western warplanes shot down Russian missiles during the heavy attacks on Ukraine over the last few days.

  • There have been reports that Ukrainian forces have attempted to cross into Russia’s Belgorod region, which borders Ukraine and partly Ukrainian-occupied Kursk. “According to the Russian defence ministry, the situation on the border remains difficult but under control,” the regional governor said on social media.

  • Meanwhile, Ukraine’s army chief, Oleksandr Syrsky, said his forces had made fresh gains in Kursk and controlled 100 towns and villages across 1,294 sq km (almost 500 sq miles). He claimed Russian forces had redeployed about 30,000 troops because of the Kursk incursion, and that Ukraine had taken 594 PoWs there, write Luke Harding and Pjotr Sauer.

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