Ukraine strikes Russian Oil depot as Moscow reports progress in Donetsk region

• Russia’s Defense Ministry reported shooting down seven Ukrainian drones over Russian territory overnight.
• The strikes in the Donetsk region resulted in the deaths of five civilians and injuries of 15 more.
• Russian shelling wounded additional civilians, including children, in the east and south.

On Sunday, Ukraine reported that it struck an oil depot in southern Russia, which supplies the Kremlin’s troops. Meanwhile, Russian strikes in Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk region, where Moscow claimed further gains, resulted in the deaths of five civilians and wounded 15 others.

Ukraine’s General Staff stated that Kyiv’s security services conducted a drone strike on an oil depot in Russia’s southern Kursk region that morning. The depot, which serves the Russian military, houses 11 tanks with a total capacity of 7,000 cubic meters (about 247,202 cubic feet). The strike caused “powerful explosions and a fire … probably involving containers with oil products.”

“The defense forces continue to take all measures to undermine the military and economic potential of the Russian occupiers and force the Russian Federation to stop its armed aggression against Ukraine,” the statement said.

Earlier on Sunday, Russia’s Defense Ministry reported shooting down seven Ukrainian drones over Russian territory overnight. A regional official stated that a drone strike set fire to the oil depot in Kursk province. Acting regional Governor Alexey Smirnov reported that firefighters were battling the blaze on Sunday morning after three fuel tanks ignited. He also noted that no one was injured.

The Kursk region borders Ukraine’s Sumy province, where Ukraine has repeatedly targeted various sites, including oil depots and other military infrastructure, inside Russian territory using drones and other weapons in recent months. Ukrainian officials have been pressuring Western allies to provide modern and more sophisticated weapons to strike more valuable targets within Russian territory.

Ukraine has systematically targeted Russian transport, energy, and military infrastructure to disrupt the Kremlin’s economy and its ability to fund the war, which Russia began with a full-scale invasion of its smaller neighbor in 2022.

On Sunday, Russian troops continued to make gains in Ukraine’s war-torn eastern Donetsk province, advancing westward toward the towns of Pokrovsk and Kurakhove. Russia’s Defense Ministry reported that its forces had taken control of two neighboring villages, Prohres and Yevhenivka, about 30 kilometers (19 miles) east of Pokrovsk. The day before, Moscow claimed control of the nearby village of Lozuvatske, one of nearly a dozen villages it says it has captured in the province this month.

Taking control of all of Donetsk, a part of the country’s industrial heartland scarred by years of fighting, is one of the Kremlin’s main war goals. Local Governor Vadym Filashkin reported on Telegram that Russian strikes in the Donetsk region on Saturday and overnight resulted in the deaths of five civilians and injured 15 more. Shortly after, other Ukrainian officials reported that Russian shelling wounded additional civilians, including children, in the east and south.

Local Governor Serhii Lysak reported that on Sunday, Moscow’s forces struck the eastern Ukrainian city of Nikopol, wounding at least eight people, including a toddler and a 10-year-old girl. Six of the victims required hospitalization. Additionally, Russian shelling on Sunday wounded eight more civilians, including a 10-year-old and two teenagers, in a village in Ukraine’s southern Kherson province, according to local official Roman Mrochko.

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