The Ukrainian army claimed Monday to have struck during the night “the largest” oil terminal in Crimea, a Ukrainian peninsula annexed by Moscow in 2014, and a civilian ship was hit by a Russian ballistic missile in the port of Odessa, causing one dead, according to kyiv.
Ukraine has been struggling on the Eastern Front for more than a year and has notably seen Russian forces approaching Pokrovsk, a key city for the Ukrainian army’s logistics.
As a sign of this progress, the Russian army announced on Monday that it had captured the village of Grodivka, a town located about ten kilometers east of Pokrovsk. Last week, it was the Ukrainian fortress of Vougledar which fell, at the junction of the Eastern and Southern fronts.
The Ukrainian army, for its part, claimed to have struck an oil terminal in Feodosia, in eastern Crimea, the “largest” on this peninsula and which supplies the Russian army in particular, according to kyiv.
Russian authorities confirmed a fire at the oil site, without naming the cause. Online videos show at least two large columns of black smoke rising into the sky.
In the evening, it was Russia which struck the port of Odessa, in southern Ukraine, notably hitting a civilian ship flying the flag of Palau, according to the regional governor, Oleg Kiper.
“A 60-year-old Ukrainian, employee of a private handling company, was killed. Five other foreign nationals were injured,” he said on Telegram.
Fuel and energy
The port of Odessa, an important exit point particularly for Ukrainian grain, has been targeted on multiple occasions by the Russian army.
Ukraine has increased attacks on Russian energy sites in recent months to disrupt the logistics of Moscow’s armed forces which occupy nearly 20% of its territory.
“Defense forces carried out a successful strike on an enemy maritime oil terminal last night,” resulting in a fire, the Ukrainian army general staff said on social media.
The attack was carried out using “missiles”, the army added.
Ukraine had already used long-range missiles, notably to strike the headquarters of the Russian Black Sea Fleet in Sevastopol (eastern Crimea) in September 2023.
However, in recent months, Ukrainian attacks have been carried out mainly using combat drones, with kyiv deploring the lack of missiles and blaming the delay in Western deliveries.
The Russian occupation authorities indicated that “part” of the targeted city of Feodosia was without electricity and that commuter train traffic was suspended there.
Since the start of its invasion, Russia has increased campaigns of strikes against the Ukrainian energy network, periodically leaving millions of Ukrainians without electricity.
Some Ukrainian experts predict a further intensification of Russian strikes on civilian infrastructure, particularly energy, in the coming weeks, as winter approaches and the American presidential election in November.
kyiv targeted by hypersonic missiles
New Russian nighttime attacks killed two brothers in the border region of Sumy (northeast) and a 61-year-old woman in Kherson (south), Ukrainian authorities announced. Another strike on Kherson also left around twenty wounded.
kyiv, the capital, was also targeted during the night, authorities said, while ensuring that there were no casualties or major damage.
The Russian army first launched dozens of explosive drones towards several Ukrainian regions including the capital. kyiv was then targeted in the morning by two Kinjal hypersonic missiles, which were shot down by air defense, according to the air force.
A third Kinjal missile hit, according to the army, an area “near” the Starokostiantyniv air base, in the Khmelnytsky region (west).
This is located hundreds of kilometers from the front line and is very often targeted by Russian attacks, with Moscow hoping to destroy F-16 fighters that Ukraine finally began to receive from its allies in the summer and of which parking sites are kept secret.
On another front, that of digital warfare, the Russian group VGTRK, broadcaster of Russian public television channels and Kremlin events, said it had been targeted by an “unprecedented” computer attack claimed by kyiv.
According to VGTRK, this attack had limited results. “Everything is functioning normally, there is no significant threat,” the group assured.