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Long-range Ukrainian strikes have taken out more than half of Russia’s oil refining capacity, hampering Moscow’s ability to supply its forces during the war, the defence ministry in Kyiv has claimed. Ukrainian forces have repeatedly attacked refineries from Moscow to Siberia, sparking a widespread fuel crisis in Russia earlier this year that forced authorities to restrict petrol sales. “Fifty-one per cent of struck refining capacity is a significant blow to the enemy’s economy, to its ability to carry out aggression and supply its troop groupings,” Ukrainian defence minister Yevhenii Khmara said. “Our deep strikes continue to bring the war to Russian territory.”
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Russian officials have not released figures on damage to the country’s oil infrastructure. But in a rare acknowledgment of the strikes’ economic impact, Vladimir Putin said they had cost Russia roughly 1% of its gross domestic product. “They started attacking oil refineries and openly declared the goal of damaging our economy. Did they achieve their goal? Partially,” the Russian president told a meeting of the Valdai Club forum of international foreign policy experts last Thursday.
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Donald Trump has blamed Ukrainian attacks on Russian oil refineries for high petrol prices, saying the Iran war was no longer responsible. “What’s driving up Gasoline is no longer the strait of Hormuz, because Record Numbers of Barrels are coming out now on an almost daily basis, but the word, ‘Refineries,’ where Russia’s are being blown up by Ukraine,” the US president posted on his Truth Social platform.
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Six people were killed and nearly 60 injured when Russian bombs struck a residential area of Ukraine’s north-eastern city of Kharkiv on Monday, officials said. Rescue workers led stunned residents out of badly damaged buildings and flats, guiding them carefully around piles of rubble. Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second-largest city, lies close to the Russian border and has come under regular shelling and drone attacks since Moscow invaded in February 2022. French president Emmanuel Macron condemned Russia’s decision to scale up strikes on civilian infrastructure, saying Moscow “has made the irresponsible choice to intensify its strikes on civilian infrastructure and targets”.
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Russian drones struck a grain ship in the Black Sea on Monday, Volodymyr Zelenskyy said, after Romania reported a ship had caught fire and sunk near its coast with two crew members killed. “A horrific strike by two Russian drones on a civilian vessel in neutral waters carrying corn,” the Ukrainian president said on X, adding that the ship was Turkish-owned and that Azerbaijani and Indian nationals were onboard. Romanian authorities said two crew members had died and 11 were rescued after the 139-metre-long (455 foot) Royad Mammadov caught fire in the Black Sea, an increasing battlefield for drone attacks in the war. War-related objects found in the Black Sea had more than doubled in six months, maritime risk expert Ambrey said last month in a report. At least a third of them carried live payloads. The objects include unexploded ordnance, drones and other unmanned vehicles found washed ashore or floating at sea, it said.
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Ukrainian drones attacked two facilities at the Russian-held Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant in south-eastern Ukraine overnight on Monday, but there was no threat to nuclear safety, the head of Russia’s state nuclear corporation said. Alexei Likhachev, director general of Rosatom, said a driver delivering food for plant employees was killed in the drone attack. According to Likhachev, a laboratory building and a radioactive waste processing plant were the targets. Ukraine has not commented on the incident.
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Ukraine has begun using artificial intelligence-enabled robot guns to take down Russia’s new and fast-moving jet-powered drones. For months, Kyiv has been seeking a way to intercept the new Russian drones pounding the Ukrainian capital, even as it faces a dire lack of suitable ammunition to take them out. Presidential adviser Serhii “Flash” Beskrestnov said on social media that 12 automated turrets had been installed in Kyiv to counter jet-powered Shahed drones, with more planned. Ukraine’s air force later said it had used the robotic turrets to successfully shoot down Russian jet-powered drones, including the Geran-5, for the first time. “It’s machine vision that is used for the shootdowns,” air force spokesperson Yurii Ihnat said on Ukrainian television. “Artificial intelligence makes it possible to engage even jet-powered drones.”
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Germany’s foreign intelligence chief has warned that the country risks being drawn into a conflict with Russia as hybrid attacks ordered by Moscow increase. Martin Jaeger, head of Germany’s BND spy service, told lawmakers on Monday that Russia’s undeclared “shadow war” against Germany and its allies was escalating further and has “taken on a new, more dangerous character”. Berlin has invested record sums into rebuilding its military to deter Russia, and is among the largest supporters of Ukraine in the war with Moscow. In Brussels, EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas said Russia was putting lives at risk across Europe with hybrid attacks.
