Huge blast as Ukraine’s drone strike hits Russian oil depot

A fire broke out at a major oil depot near Russia’s Black Sea resort city of Sochi after what Russian officials said was a Ukrainian drone strike.

Krasnodar Region Governor Veniamin Kondratyev said on Telegram that drone debris hit a fuel tank, and 127 firefighters were working to contain the blaze.

Flights at Sochi’s airport – the site of the 2014 Winter Olympic Games – were briefly suspended.

Meanwhile, officials in Ukraine’s southern city of Mykolaiv said a Russian missile strike destroyed homes and damaged civilian infrastructure. At least seven civilians were reported injured, with three of them treated in hospital, according to Ukraine’s State Emergency Service.

Russian authorities said the Sochi refinery strike was one of several drone attacks by Ukraine over the weekend, hitting targets in Ryazan, Penza, and Voronezh. The governor of Voronezh said four people were injured in one of the strikes.

Ukraine has not commented on the attacks. Its forces have been hitting Russian energy facilities in response to Moscow’s ongoing assaults on Ukraine’s power grid.

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Russia’s defence ministry said its air defences intercepted 93 Ukrainian drones overnight, including 60 over the Black Sea region.

Ukraine’s air force reported that Russia launched either 83 drones or 76 drones and seven missiles overnight. It said 61 were shot down, while 16 drones and six missiles hit targets in eight locations.

The strikes followed one of the deadliest weeks for Ukrainian civilians since the war began. On Thursday, an attack on Kyiv killed at least 31 people.

Ukrainian officials said more than 300 drones and eight cruise missiles were launched in that assault, calling it one of the worst attacks on the capital since Russia’s full-scale invasion in February 2022.

In response, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky urged for tougher international sanctions on Russia. U.S. President Donald Trump condemned Russia’s actions and suggested new sanctions against Moscow were coming.

Tribune Online reports that President Trump,  in July, warned that Russian oil and other exports would face severe tariffs if President Vladimir Putin did not end the war within 50 days.

The US President went ahead on Monday to set a new “10 or 12” day deadline. He later issued another, expiring on 8 August.

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