Ukraine-Russia war latest: Kyiv steps up attacks on Putin’s oil network in defiance of Western allies – UK Times

Ukraine struck the Bilorichenska coal mine in the ⁠Russian-controlled part of the Luhansk region, damaging a power substation and ⁠leaving ​41 mine ⁠workers trapped underground, a Russian-installed ⁠official said this morning.

“All ⁠the relevant ‌services are taking steps to rescue ‌the miners and ‌restore power to the mine,” ⁠said Leonid Pasechnik, the Moscow-appointed head of the region.

He said that contact with ‌the miners had ​already been established, ‌and ⁠that they had ⁠a supply of ‌drinking ​water.

Russia ​launched a drone attack on Ukraine’s Black Sea port of Odesa overnight, killing three people, including a child, and damaging infrastructure, residential and administrative ⁠buildings, the regional ​governor ⁠said.

“Overnight, Odesa came under another heavy ⁠attack by the enemy,” Oleh ​Kiper, ⁠Odesa regional governor, ‌said on the Telegram app. As well as the ‌three dead, 10 ‌people were injured, he said.

“Residential buildings, critical infrastructure and administrative ⁠facilities were hit. There is significant damage,” Kiper said.

Moscow has escalated its attacks on ‌Odesa, a key logistics ​hub in ‌southern Ukraine and the ⁠country’s largest port, ⁠handling the majority of the Ukrainian ‌grain ​and other maritime ‌exports.

More than 350,000 people in northern Ukraine’s Chernihiv oblast have been left without power supply due to overnight Russian attacks.

A local energy company, Chernihivoblenerho, said an energy facility in the Novhorod-Siverskyi district was damaged, and “(m)ore than 10,000 subscribers in the same district were left without power”.

Shortly after, another facility in the Nizhyn district was struck, leaving 340,000 without power, including subscribers in the cities of Chernihiv and Pryluky, the company said.

Ukraine is continuing its attacks on Russian oil infrastructure despite calls from the West seeking to end such strikes.

Yesterday, Russian officials said that Ukrainian drones struck an oil refinery operated by Lukoil and a Baltic pipeline near St Petersburg.

The governor of Russia’s Nizhny Novgorod region said air defence units had repelled a 30-drone barrage.

“As a result of the falling debris, two facilities [of the Lukoil-Nizhegorodnefteorgsintez refinery] were damaged,” governor Gleb Nikitin said.

Last week, Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky said that some allies have signalled for Ukraine to reduce long-range strikes on Russia’s oil sector due to rising global energy prices.

Zelensky had indicated Ukraine’s readiness to reciprocate if Russia ceases attacks on its energy infrastructure and expressed openness to an Easter ceasefire, which was ultimately rejected by the Kremlin.

Ukraine is ramping up its attacks on Russia’s oil infrastructure, according to a think-tank monitoring the war.

Last night, Ukrainian drones attacked the Sheskharis oil terminal at the Black Sea port of Novorossiysk in Russia’s Krasnodar region. Video of the attack on social media showed a large fire at the port. Strikes on oil facilities in other regions were also reported.

The Institute for the Study of War said Ukraine has stepped up its attacks on Russia’s oil infrastructure over the past two weeks, “focusing on the Russian Baltic Sea port and oil infrastructure in Leningrad oblast critical to Russian oil exports”.

The latest attacks, including a strike on Primorsk overnight on 4-5 April was the third against the port within the last two weeks, said the ISW.

“The Ukrainian general staff reported on 5 April that Ukrainian forces also struck the Lukoil-Nizhegorodnefteorgsintez refinery in Kstovo, Nizhny Novgorod oblast (roughly 1,000km from Primorsk) overnight, starting a fire.”

A cargo ship carrying wheat sank in the Sea ​of Azov after coming under attack from Ukrainian drones, ‌a Russia-installed official said yesterday, leaving one person dead and two missing.

Vladimir Saldo, the Moscow-installed leader of the Russian-controlled parts of Ukraine’s Kherson ​region, said the attack occurred on Friday but crew ​members were unable to report what had ⁠happened to them until Sunday.

“It became known that the reason ​for the sinking of the Volgo-Balt in the Sea of ​Azov was a terrorist attack by the Kyiv regime,” Saldo wrote on Telegram.

He said the crew abandoned ship and was only able to ​reach shore on Sunday near the village of Strilkove ​in Kherson region.

He said an aide to the captain had died and two ‌people were unaccounted ⁠for, adding that an investigation into the incident was under way. The captain was recovering in a hospital.

“This is, unfortunately, not the first instance of Ukraine attacking a merchant ship ​in neutral waters. ​There will ⁠be a response to this crime,” Saldo said.

In an earlier post, he said nine crew ​members had been found alive on the ​shore – all ⁠Russian nationals.

Ukraine’s foreign ministry strongly rejected what it said were ⁠attempts ​to link Kyiv ⁠to powerful ⁠explosives found ​by Serbian ⁠authorities ‌near the Turkstream pipeline system.

“Ukraine has ‌nothing to ‌do with this,” ⁠foreign ministry spokesperson Heorhii Tykhyi said on X yesterday.

“Most probably, a Russian false-flag operation ‌as ​part of ‌Moscow’s ⁠heavy interference ⁠in Hungarian elections.”

Volodymyr Zelensky has said he is concerned that a prolonged US-Israeli war on Iran could further erode America’s support for Ukraine as Kyiv braces for reduced deliveries of critically needed Patriot air defence missiles.

Ukraine desperately needs more US-made Patriot air defence systems to help it counter Russia’s daily barrages, Zelensky said, speaking to The Associated Press in Istanbul.

“We have to recognise that we are not the priority for today,” Zelensky said. “That’s why I am afraid a long (Iran) war will give us less support.”

His most immediate concern, Zelensky said, are the Patriots — essential for intercepting Russian ballistic missiles — as Ukraine still lacks an effective alternative.

These US systems were never delivered in sufficient quantities to begin with, Zelensky said, and if the Iran war doesn’t end soon, “the package — which is not very big for us — I think will be smaller and smaller day by day.”

“That’s why, of course, we are afraid,” he said.

Ukraine and Syria pledged greater security cooperation in talks on yesterday, president Volodymyr Zelensky said, as Kyiv seeks to promote its military expertise across ⁠the Middle East amid the US-Israeli war on Iran.

Continuing his tour of Middle East countries, Zelensky met with his Syrian counterpart, Ahmed al-Sharaa, in Damascus.

“We agreed to work together to provide more security and opportunities for development for our societies,” Zelensky wrote on Telegram.

In a later post, ⁠Zelensky said there had been wide-ranging discussions with ​the ⁠Syrian leader and three-way talks that included Turkish foreign minister Hakan Fidan.

“We managed to discuss everything: from security and defence issues and the situation in ⁠the region due to all the events around Iran to energy and infrastructure ​cooperation between ⁠our countries,” Zelensky wrote.

In recent weeks ‌Zelensky has visited several Middle East countries, offering Ukrainian expertise in countering drone and missile attacks developed during its four-year war with Russia.

Since the war began on 28 February, ‌Iran and its proxies have launched strikes on US ‌allies and bases in the region.

Syria is not known to have any air defences capable of dealing with Iranian drones or missiles.

Russia’s military said its ​air defence units had downed 148 Ukrainian drones over a three-hour period and officials said emergency crews were restoring power to nearly half ⁠a million households in outages linked to air attacks.

On Sunday evening, a drone killed a civil defence volunteer in Russia’s border region of Belgorod, a frequent target of the Ukrainian ⁠military, and drones also ​hit ⁠an apartment building in Russia’s Black Sea port of Novorossiysk.

A Russian defence ministry statement said ⁠air defence units had intercepted 148 drones, mostly ​in ⁠central and southern areas of ‌the country, between 8pm and 11pm (1700-2000 GMT) on Sunday.

The mayor of the port of Novorossiysk, ‌Andrei Kravchenko, said drone debris had struck ‌a high-rise apartment building. There was no word on casualties.