Ukraine says a major Russian oil refinery and the Engels airfield were hit in overnight strikes deep inside Russia, raising the pressure on a war that has settled into a punishing cycle of drone attacks, retaliatory fire and economic disruption. President Volodymyr Zelensky said the targets in Russia’s Saratov region were struck hundreds of miles from Ukraine’s border.
Zelensky said the airfield and the refinery were among the main sites hit, along with an oil depot in the Kaluga region and a drone launch site in Bryansk. He called the attacks Ukraine’s “long-range sanctions” on facilities he said help finance Moscow’s war. The Ukrainian military said a blaze broke out at Engels, which it described as one of Russia’s key bases for strategic aviation.
Russia’s authorities gave a far different account of the night’s violence. Moscow said eight people were killed in the Ukrainian strikes and claimed 635 drones were shot down or intercepted. It also said a warehouse belonging to Wildberries, Russia’s largest online retailer, was hit again. In the Samara region, Governor Vyacheslav Fedorishchev described the warehouse fire as another Ukrainian terrorist act and said there were no casualties.
Officials in Saratov said a drone attack damaged civilian infrastructure in Saratov and Engels. Governor Roman Busargin later said two people were killed. Separate reports from Russia said three people died in a drone attack on a civilian vehicle in Udmurtia and another three were killed in the Belgorod region near the Ukrainian border.
The latest Ukraine oil refinery strike comes as both sides have widened attacks on energy sites, warehouses and major cities while the front line has moved little. Moscow said its forces responded overnight by striking two Ukrainian ports and two vessels in the Black Sea. Later on Sunday, Ukraine said one person was killed in a Russian strike on a postal terminal near Kharkiv.
