Ukraine war briefing: Drones strike Russia oil refinery in Siberia as Zelenskyy warns region now ‘within reach’

Ukrainian drones struck Russia’s Omsk oil refinery – the country’s largest, located deep in Siberia – in what would be one of Ukraine’s longest-range attacks of the war, Kyiv’s military said. Local Russian authorities confirmed the strike, which came on the eve of a crucial Nato summit. The strike caused a fire at the Omsk refinery, about 2,700km from Ukrainian-held territory and close to Russia’s border with ⁠Kazakhstan, the Ukrainian military’s general ⁠staff said. The Omsk region’s governor, Vitaly Khotsenko, said Ukraine had attacked the refinery and that Russian air defences had destroyed most of the drones involved in ⁠the strike. There were no casualties and emergency services were working at the scene, he said.

President Volodymyr Zelenskyy described the attack ‌as an “important achievement” for Ukraine’s armed forces, adding in his nightly video address: “Siberia, too, is now within reach of Ukrainian precision strikes.” The Ukrainian defence technology company Fire Point said its upgraded FP-1 drones carried out the attack and described it as a record for strike drones “not only in Ukraine, but worldwide. Prior to this, the Omsk oil refinery had remained out of reach for Ukrainian drones.” Ukraine’s military also ​hit Russia’s Ust-Luga and Vysotsk ports, which handle oil exports on the Baltic Sea, as ​well as targets in ‌the Kaluga and ​Yaroslavl regions, local governors ​said.

Russia fired missiles and drones into apartment buildings in Kyiv for the second time in a week on Monday, killing at least 21 people and exposing the city’s critical ⁠shortage of US-made interceptors, Ukrainian authorities said, just ​days after a huge attack on the Ukrainian capital killed at least 27. Rescuers were digging bodies from the rubble of a Kyiv high-rise ripped open in the latest bombardment. The attack came on the eve of a Nato summit in Turkey where Donald Trump is due ⁠to hold talks with Zelenskyy in a renewed push for peace. The US president said on Monday ​that a ⁠resolution to the ⁠war ​in ‌Ukraine ‌was “getting closer than ‌people realise”.

Zelenskyy pleaded for Nato to boost Ukraine’s air defence against Russia’s ballistic missiles, saying in the aftermath of the strikes: “It is simply absurd that in the modern world, production has still not been organised to the extent that is necessary to protect people from ballistic terror.” He also said Kyiv expected “decisions” on Ukrainian air defence at the Ankara summit. Earlier, Nato chief Mark Rutte said: “Allies and Nato partners must continue to ensure Ukraine gets what it needs.”

Ukraine hopes to sign major defence deals with at least seven Nato countries by the end of the year, according to a top official, highlighting a new aspect of Kyiv’s foreign policy intended to show it can be a provider as well as a recipient of military hardware and expertise, reports Shaun Walker. Kyiv has signed “drone deals” with six countries in recent months.

Azerbaijan’s foreign ministry said it had summoned ⁠Russia’s ambassador ⁠to ​protest against what it said was a Russian drone strike on ⁠a fuel station belonging to state oil and gas company Socar in ⁠Ukraine’s Mykolaiv region on Sunday. The ministry said other Socar-owned facilities in Ukraine, including an oil depot in Odesa, had previously been damaged ‌in military strikes. “The continuation of such incidents, despite repeated warnings, indicates the ​deliberate nature of these attacks,” it said in a statement on Monday. There was no immediate response from Russia.

Poland has provided €3.8bn ($4.3bn) in military aid to Ukraine since the beginning of Russia’s full-scale invasion in 2022, the Polish defence minister said, calling the amount “worth boasting about”. The announcement came as Poland’s defence ministry began declassifying its military donations to Ukraine amid an ongoing diplomatic dispute between Warsaw and Kyiv over second world war-era massacres.