Russian strikes kill 12 across Ukraine as Kyiv escalates attacks on Russia's oil industry
The overnight barrage came after Ukraine secured an $80 billion defense pledge at the NATO summit and an apparent green light from President Donald Trump to produce Patriot missiles domestically
Russian attacks killed at least 12 people and injured 100 others across Ukraine overnight, regional authorities said. Russia launched two Iskander-M ballistic missiles and 94 attack drones. Ukraine's air force said it intercepted 72 drones, while both missiles and 19 drones struck 13 locations.
Kharkiv Oblast saw three killed and 50 injured, including four children, while Kherson Oblast reported at least five killed and 29 injured, among them a man and woman killed when an FPV drone struck their car. Donetsk Oblast reported four killed and seven injured, with further injuries recorded in Zaporizhzhia, Dnipropetrovsk and Sumy oblasts.
President Volodymyr Zelensky said Ukrainian forces struck oil depots in Russia's Stavropol and Tver regions, a reserve fuel storage facility roughly 800 kilometers from the front, an oil pumping station in Ufa nearly 1,500 kilometers from the border, and an oil loading terminal in the Rostov region, calling it a "long-range sanctions plan" in response to Russia "dragging out the war."
Russia's Saratov oil refinery reportedly halted processing Wednesday after a drone strike damaged its primary refining unit, days after Omsk, Russia's largest refinery, was also forced offline by a drone attack. Saratov's governor said the strike killed one person and wounded several others.
Russia responded by fully banning diesel exports to prioritize domestic supply, extending an earlier partial ban, as almost all of its 83 regions have reported gasoline shortages and waits of up to 18 hours at some pumps.
The escalation comes despite Trump's statement Monday that Putin wants the war to end and a resolution is "closer than people realize." But sources close to the Kremlin told Reuters that Putin is rejecting peace calls and is likely to escalate further, hardened in part by Ukraine's refinery strikes. One of those sources said there is a "high probability" of escalation in the coming months as Putin focuses on capturing the remainder of Donbas.
The strikes and diplomatic developments came as Ukraine left this week's NATO summit in Ankara with the new aid pledge and Trump's announcement that Washington would license Ukraine to produce Patriot missiles domestically.
According to Reuters, a day after Trump's remarks, Putin sought to convince him in a phone call that Russia would take the remaining fifth of the Donetsk region of Donbas still controlled by Ukraine. The source who meets regularly with Putin said the Russian leader considers winning the region a matter of principle, saying Putin "needs some kind of victory."