Russian President Vladimir Putin orders massive drone attacks all over Ukraine as death toll from a terror rampage in Kyiv rises to seven and Ukraine again strikes his oil installations hard
Russian forces launched a major countrywide drone attack on Ukraine overnight as the death toll from a weekend terror shooting rampage in Kyiv rose to seven. Shortly after the attack was launched Ukraine hit the Black Sea port of Tuapse, sparking a major fire at an oil facility in Krasnodar region.
It was Ukraine’s second attack on the Russian facility in less than a week – a previous onslaught sparking a fire that took days to extinguish. The attack by Kyiv’s drone teams was aimed at crippling Russian President Vladimir Putin’s war chest which is mostly paid for by energy sales. Seven people remain in hospital from wounds after a gunman went on a shooting spree in a Kyiv mall on Saturday, killing six people and injuring 14, including a child.
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The seventh person was announced dead today (Mon) and the attack is being treated as a terrorist act. President Volodymyr Zelensky said the attacker was a 58 year-old Russian-born man who had lived in the Donetsk region and was killed by rapid response special forces.
Kremlin troops struck multiple cities across the country, damaging homes and injuring civilians with air raid sirens blaring in many cities. The alerts went off as 142 attack drones were launched at Ukrainian regions including Kharkiv, Sumy, Chernihiv, Kyiv, Dnipropetrovsk, Mykolaiv and Poltava.
President Volodymyr Zelensky’s home town Kryvyi Rih was also singled out for an attack. Ukrainian air defenses – including aviation, anti-aircraft missile units, electronic warfare teams and mobile fire groups – were deployed to repel the attack.
As many as 113 Russian drones were shot down, although wreckage also caused damage. The Russian Tuapse refinery processes up to 12 million tons of crude oil per year and ranks among Russia ’s top ten refineries.
In recent months, Ukrainian drones have repeatedly hit major export hubs, including Baltic Sea ports Ust-Luga and Primorsk, which handle a significant share of Russia’s oil exports – as well as the Novorossiysk oil terminal. In March, Russia is estimated to have lost close to £1 billion in just one week of Ukrainian attacks on oil facilities in Baltic ports.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Sunday condemned a US decision to extend the period during which Russia is allowed to sell oil despite Western sanctions. The move means countries can purchase Russian oil and petroleum products already loaded on vessels at sea until 16 May.
The US argues that the waiver is meant to ease the energy supply crunch sparked by the US-Israel war with Iran. But Zelensky said that “every dollar paid for Russian oil is money for the war” in Ukraine. Widespread sanctions have been in place against Russia since President Vladimir Putin launched his full-scale invasion of its neighbour in February 2022.
Ukraine has repeatedly hit Russia’s energy depots in the past year with devastating attacks. Kyiv is hoping to reduce Putin’s ability to fund his bloody war. But Kremlin war chiefs are trying to demolish Ukrainian morale by hitting civilian targets.
And Putin has been losing well over 1,000 troops a-day to death or injury as Russia faces a major limitation in terms of trying to recruit troops for the war in Ukraine.
