A civilian was killed and dozens more wounded in overnight Russian attacks across Ukraine, local officials said Saturday.
One person was killed in a strike on Mykolaivka in Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk region, local leader Vadym Filashkin said in a post on social media. Other officials reported at least 26 people had been hurt in attacks across northern and eastern Ukraine, including a strike on port infrastructure in the city of Odesa.
Elsewhere, a Ukrainian drone strike targeted industrial areas in Novokuibyshevsk and Syzran in Russia’s Samara region, Gov. Vyacheslav Fedorishchev said Saturday. He did not give further details, but the General Staff of Ukraine’s Armed Forces said in a statement that it had hit major oil refineries in both cities. It also said that its attacks had sparked fires at the Vystosk oil terminal in Russia’s northwestern Leningrad region and an oil refinery in the southern Krasnodar region, with the blazes later confirmed by Russian officials.
Russia’s Ministry of Defense said that its forces destroyed 258 Ukrainian drones overnight over 16 Russian regions, as well as over the annexed Ukrainian peninsula of Crimea and the Black and Azov seas.
Ukraine increasingly targeting Russian oil
Ukraine has repeatedly targeted Russian oil facilities in the past, but the strategy has gained more attention since the Trump administration gave Russian oil a temporary waiver from sanctions to ease supply constraints.
The U.S. Treasury Department extended its pause on sanctions on Russian oil shipments on Friday, despite complaints from Kyiv officials that Russia will use the additional revenue on new weapons to hit Ukraine harder.
The so-called general license means U.S. sanctions will not apply for 30 days on deliveries of Russian oil that has been loaded on tankers as of Friday. It extended a similar 30-day license issued in March for Russian oil that had been loaded by March 11.
Ukraine seeks to strengthen air defenses
Strengthening Ukraine’s air defenses has been a key priority for Kyiv since the start of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine more than four years ago, resurfacing again on the global stage as U.S.-led peace talks have ground to a halt.
In the worst aerial attack in weeks, Russia hammered civilian areas across Ukraine on Thursday, killing at least 16 people and wounding more than 100 others, Ukrainian authorities said.
Ukraine has developed a significant domestic arms industry, especially in the production of drones and missiles, but cannot yet match the sophistication of U.S. Patriot air defense systems.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy traveled to Germany, Norway and Italy earlier this week to discuss the issue, while Andrii Sybiha said Saturday that he had discussed “steps to enhance protection” with the Deputy Secretary General of NATO, Radmila Shekerinska, at the Antalya Diplomatic Forum. “Amid intensified Russian air terror, our priority number one is to strengthen our air defense,” he said.