KYIV, Ukraine -- Civilians were killed and injured overnight as Russia and Ukraine continued to attack each other with waves of drones.
Two people were killed in Russia’s Tatarstan, according to local officials, while Ukrainian authorities reported Russian drone attacks on the Black Sea port of Odesa and a fire near a border crossing with Poland.
Russia has ramped up its air campaign in recent weeks, using ballistic missiles and jet-powered drones to pierce Ukraine’s defenses and capitalize on Kyiv’s dwindling stock of missile interceptors. Moscow’s attacks have targeted Ukraine’s power grid ahead of winter in what officials say is meant to demoralize civilians.
Two people were killed and 14 more injured on Sunday as Ukrainian drones struck Nizhnekamsk, a city in Tatarstan, according to the office of regional head Rustam Minnikhanov. The two civilians died after a drone slammed into a tree near their parked car, the statement staid.
Nizhnekamsk houses a key cluster of oil refineries and petrochemical, rubber and polymer plants, including some of Russia’s largest facilities of their kind. Mayor Radmir Belyaev said that a fire had broken out “at one of the city’s enterprises,” without giving detail.
Russian oil pipeline damaged
Ukraine’s recent long-range strikes have targeted Russia’s oil and gas industry, which Kyiv says both funds and directly fuels its war on Ukraine. The Ukrainian drone campaign has caused fuel rationing across Russia, despite the country being a key oil and gas exporter. Other Ukrainian strikes targeted major Russian online retailers, bringing the war ever closer to the public.
Ukraine also claimed on Sunday to have hit a major oil refinery in Slavyansk-on-Kuban, in Russia’s Krasnodar region, across from Crimea. The Defense Intelligence of Ukraine (DIU) agency said its drones struck a key oil processing unit and the refinery’s tank farm overnight, sparking a massive blaze visible from dozens of kilometers (miles) away.
Krasnodar authorities said the strike on “an enterprise” in Slavyansk-on-Kuban injured three people, damaged an oil pipeline and started a blaze. They did not directly respond to the Ukrainian claims.
Russian forces shot down 389 Ukrainian drones during the night, Russia’s defense ministry said Sunday, including over Tatarstan, other Russian regions, and Russian-occupied Crimea.
Russia targets Odesa and western Ukraine
At least nine people were injured in a “massive” Russian nighttime attack on Odesa, according to Serhii Lysak, who heads the city’s military administration. The city is home to Ukraine’s main port hub on the Black Sea and has for months faced sustained drone and missile strikes, with Kyiv accusing Moscow of trying to choke off its exports.
A Russian drone attack on Saturday struck a residential high-rise in Odesa, killing two people and injuring 26 others, Ukrainian officials said. The building’s upper floors were completely destroyed, according to regional head Oleh Kiper.
Russian strikes also pounded western Ukraine throughout the night, though there were no immediate reports of casualties. One drone struck near the Yahodyn-Dorohusk border crossing with Poland, setting fire to a petrol station, according to Ukraine’s top diplomat and a spokesperson for the local customs force.
“This is Putin’s terror `knocking’ directly on the doors of the EU and NATO. Russian barbarians are at your gate, dear partners,” Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha wrote in a post on X.
Ukraine’s border crossings with Poland are a conduit for a large proportion of the military and humanitarian aid sent into the country by Western allies.
Valentyna Chernysh, a spokesperson for the Volyn Customs Office, told The Associated Press that the Yahodyn crossing was intact. She said no one was harmed, as the crossing was temporarily closed during the air raid alert and people were directed to shelters.
Separately, Ukraine’s state rail operator said that a Russian drone attacked the locomotive of a passenger train in the Volyn region, 2 km (1.2 miles) from the Polish border.
Earlier this week, two people died when Russian drones hit the Starokozache border crossing between Ukraine and Moldova on Tuesday. The following day a “direct threat” to a Polish-Ukrainian crossing point was avoided due to the cooperation between Warsaw and Kyiv, according to Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk.
Tusk gave no further details of the incident on Wednesday or any evidence of Russian involvement. But he warned of potential intensified provocations by Moscow at border crossings between Ukraine and its European neighbors.
Ukraine’s air force said its air defenses shot down or suppressed 409 Russian drones of various types overnight, including a newer jet-powered version that is faster and more difficult to intercept. It said Russia had attacked Ukraine with 453 drones in total.
Kremlin says peace talks could restart in October
Also on Sunday, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Moscow is open to restarting peace talks in autumn featuring Russia, Ukraine and the U.S.
“We are not ruling out that possibility. We are specifically talking about the foreseeable future. That is, October cannot be ruled out,” Peskov told reporters.
Last weekend, U.S. envoys Jared Kushner and Steve Witkoff held talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow, followed by a meeting with his Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Zelenskyy in Kyiv. Despite the latest diplomatic push, the core demands of Moscow and Kyiv remain mutually exclusive, especially over territorial concessions.
The Associated Press
