Ukrainian Drones Hit Russian Oil Depot Near Sochi, Killing 3
Russia launched a missile attack on Kyiv early Sunday, with witnesses reporting a loud blast shaking the Ukrainian capital shortly after midnight, according to the city’s military administration on Telegram. This follows Russia’s deadliest airstrike of 2025 on Kyiv, which killed at least 31 people, including five children, and wounded over 150.
On Saturday, Ukraine conducted drone attacks on Russian military targets and a gas pipeline, killing three and wounding two, Russian officials reported. Ukraine’s Security Service (SBU) said the Friday night strikes hit a military airfield in Primorsko-Akhtarsk, Krasnodar Krai, sparking a fire where Iranian-built Shahed drones, used by Russia against Ukraine, were stored. The SBU also targeted the Elektropribor plant in Russia’s Penza region, which supports the Russian military-industrial complex by producing digital networks, aviation devices, armored vehicles, and ships. Penza’s governor, Oleg Melnichenko, confirmed one woman’s death and two injuries in the attack.
Russia’s defense ministry reported destroying 112 Ukrainian drones over its territory, including 34 over Rostov, from Friday night to Saturday morning. In Samara, an elderly man died in a house fire caused by drone debris, said governor Vyacheslav Fedorishchev. In Rostov, a guard at an industrial facility was killed in a drone-induced fire, according to acting governor Yuri Sliusar, who noted the military repelled attacks across seven districts. In Sochi, Krasnodar region, over 120 firefighters battled a blaze at an oil depot with a 2,000-cubic-meter fuel tank, ignited by a Ukrainian drone, prompting Russia’s civil aviation authority, Rosaviatsia, to halt flights at Sochi’s airport for safety.
Both sides deny targeting civilians in the war, ongoing since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. Kyiv asserts its strikes inside Russia target infrastructure critical to Moscow’s war efforts, responding to Russia’s relentless attacks on Ukraine.
Indian oil refineries will continue purchasing Russian oil despite looming U.S. sanctions next week on Moscow’s trading partners, officials clarified, countering media reports suggesting India would halt imports. U.S. President Donald Trump called such a move, if true, a “good step” but expressed uncertainty.
On Saturday, Ukraine’s National Anti-Corruption Bureau (NABU) and Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office (SAP) uncovered a major corruption scheme in the defense sector, involving inflated prices for electronic warfare and drone equipment, with 30% of contract funds siphoned off. Suspects include a member of parliament, district and city administration heads, National Guard members, and defense company executives. Four arrests were made, with identities undisclosed. President Volodymyr Zelenskyy praised the agencies, noting a Thursday law restored their independence after protests and allied pressure following a July law placing them under the prosecutor general’s control.
A fire near the Russian-occupied Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, sparked by Ukrainian shelling, was contained, the plant’s Russian-installed administration said Saturday. One civilian died, but no plant staff or emergency workers were harmed. Seized in February 2022, the plant—Europe’s largest—remains non-operational but needs power to cool nuclear fuel. Both sides accuse each other of risking a nuclear incident.
