At least two people died in Russia’s southern Samara region on Friday while responding to fires at industrial sites hit by Ukrainian drones overnight, local authorities said. In the western Bryansk region, a 19-year-old was killed in a separate airstrike.
“During terrorist attacks on the civilian infrastructure of our region and country, the despicable enemy in Kyiv launched a record number of drones,” Samara Governor Vyacheslav Fedorishchev wrote on VKontakte. He said emergency personnel were dealing with the damage. He did not say which sites were struck.
Videos on social media showed thick black smoke rising from several buildings. The exiled news outlet Astra used that footage to identify the Samara target as the Rosneft-owned Novokuibyshevsk oil refinery, which Ukraine has attacked multiple times in recent years.
Moscow’s account
Russian Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak confirmed that Ukrainian drones went after three oil refineries and one gas chemical complex overnight. At least one of them suffered “minor damage,” he said, and he named none of the facilities.
Russia’s Defense Ministry said it intercepted 1,043 Ukrainian drones across Russia and annexed Crimea between Thursday night and Friday morning.
After the “energy ceasefire”
The strikes follow an “energy ceasefire” between Russia and Ukraine that U.S. President Donald Trump announced earlier this month. Neither side said beforehand that it had agreed to one. The pause fell apart at once, as the Russian army kept attacking Ukraine’s power grid.
The Wall Street Journal reported this week that Ukraine’s military had paused attacks on Russian oil refineries for a time under U.S. pressure. High fuel costs at home are a major issue for American voters, with midterm elections due next week.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky reportedly told journalists that “our guys tried to be a little more careful during these days.” He added that the military had not been explicitly told to avoid hitting Russian refineries.
