Russian Strikes Kill Two as Ukraine Hits Azov Oil Fleet
KYIV- Russian missile and drone attacks killed two people and wounded 12 in Ukraine overnight, officials said on Saturday, while Ukrainian forces said they carried out strikes that damaged dozens of Russian vessels in the Sea of Azov in one of the latest exchanges in the more than four-year-old war.
Ukrainian authorities said two people were killed in the southern Odesa region after a Russian missile struck a building. Regional governor Oleh Kiper said another man sustained shrapnel injuries in the attack.
In the capital, Kyiv, 11 people, including a child, were injured during overnight strikes, according to Ukraine’s State Emergency Service. Emergency crews responded to damage at residential buildings, office premises and other civilian infrastructure in the Solomianskyi, Darnytskyi and Dniprovskyi districts after explosions and fires were reported.
President Volodymyr Zelensky said Russia launched 12 missiles, including six ballistic missiles, along with 121 drones during the overnight assault. He said Ukrainian air defenses intercepted most of the drones and some of the missiles, but several ballistic missiles reached their targets, underscoring what he described as Ukraine’s continuing shortage of advanced air defense systems.
Ukraine’s Air Force said it shot down or electronically suppressed two missiles and 111 drones. It added that direct strikes were recorded at 11 locations across the country.
Russia’s Defense Ministry said its forces targeted facilities involved in the production of drones in Kyiv as well as port infrastructure in the Odesa region, including the ports of Izmail and Chornomorsk.
At the same time, Ukraine’s General Staff reported a large-scale operation against Russian shipping in the Sea of Azov. It said overnight strikes damaged 21 tankers used to transport oil and petroleum products, along with four tugboats, two cargo ships and one dredging vessel.
Russian officials disputed that account. They said only four vessels had been struck in the Ukrainian attack and reported that one person was killed by Ukrainian drone strikes.
Russia’s Defense Ministry also said its air defense systems destroyed 178 Ukrainian drones overnight over eight Russian regions, as well as over the Russian-occupied Crimean Peninsula and the Black Sea and Sea of Azov.
Neither side’s battlefield claims could be independently verified.
The latest exchange highlights the increasingly long-range nature of the conflict, with both Russia and Ukraine regularly targeting military, energy and transport infrastructure far beyond the front lines using missiles and drones.
The Black Sea and the adjoining Sea of Azov have remained strategically important throughout the war because of their role in commercial shipping, military logistics and energy transportation, while both countries have intensified efforts to disrupt each other’s capabilities through long-range strikes.
