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.
