KYIV, Ukraine — Ukrainian forces executed a comprehensive assault on Russian petroleum infrastructure Sunday, targeting the nation’s primary Baltic Sea oil export facility and multiple vessels allegedly circumventing international sanctions.
Overnight drone attacks ignited fires at Primorsk, Russia’s most significant oil shipping terminal on the Baltic coast, regional Governor Alexander Drozdenko confirmed. The facility, managed by state energy company Transneft, processes hundreds of thousands of barrels daily and sits more than 620 miles from Ukrainian territory, positioned between the Finnish border and St. Petersburg.
Governor Drozdenko reported the drone assault did not result in petroleum spills but declined to provide immediate details about potential injuries or infrastructure damage.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy announced his nation’s military successfully eliminated multiple strategic targets while inflicting substantial harm to oil terminal operations.
“One more Russian carrier of Kalibr missiles is out of action. Major General Yevhen Khmara reported on the successful destruction of targets in the Primorsk port,” Zelenskyy posted on Telegram Sunday.
Zelenskyy detailed that Ukrainian drones successfully engaged a Karakurt missile vessel, patrol craft, and a tanker from Russia’s covert oil transportation network designed to circumvent Western economic restrictions and energy price limitations.
In an earlier Sunday statement, Zelenskyy revealed Ukrainian forces had attacked two additional shadow fleet tankers near Novorossiysk, a major Russian Black Sea shipping hub.
“These tankers were actively used to transport oil. Now they won’t,” he stated, crediting the operation to Ukraine’s general staff chief, Andrii Hnatov.
Russian authorities have not yet responded to Zelenskyy’s assertions regarding either military operation.
Kiev has intensified its campaign against Russian petroleum export systems in recent months. Ukrainian leadership maintains that oil profits directly finance Moscow’s ongoing military invasion, now entering its fifth year.
Meanwhile, Russian drone strikes killed two civilians and injured three others in Ukraine’s southern Odesa region during overnight attacks, the nation’s Emergency Service announced. The bombardment damaged three residential structures and targeted port facilities, sparking fires that emergency crews subsequently controlled.
Russian nighttime assaults also wounded six individuals in the central Dnipropetrovsk region. A passenger vehicle carrying 40 children sustained damage, though no occupants were harmed, officials reported.
Inside Russia, a Ukrainian drone strike west of Moscow claimed the life of a 77-year-old man near Volokolamsk, approximately 75 miles from the capital’s center, local Governor Andrei Vorobyov confirmed via Telegram.
Vorobyov added that six drones were intercepted in the Moscow region, while Mayor Sergei Sobyanin reported at least five additional aircraft were destroyed approaching the capital itself.
In Russia’s western Smolensk region, falling drone debris injured a man, woman, and child after striking an apartment complex, Governor Vasiliy Anokhin stated.
Russia’s Defense Ministry claimed Sunday that 334 Ukrainian unmanned aircraft were eliminated overnight across Russian territory and occupied Crimea.
Ukrainian Air Force officials reported Russia launched 269 drones and ballistic missiles against Ukraine during the same period. Ukrainian defenses successfully intercepted 249 drones, while ballistic missiles and 19 drones struck targets in 15 locations nationwide, the air force announced on Facebook.
