Ukraine strikes Russian oil refinery in drone attack wave

Ukraine retaliated against recent Russian attacks by striking a Russian oil refinery with drones, a day after a deadly Russian strike hit a shopping center in Kryvyi Rih, Ukraine. The refinery, located in the Novokuibyshevsk area of Russia's Samara region, is approximately 1,000 kilometers from the front lines, according to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

This escalation follows a pattern of intensified Russian missile attacks on Kyiv. Russia has been exploiting Ukraine's critical shortage of US-made Patriot air defense interceptors, which are the only weapons capable of shooting down the incoming missiles. President Zelenskyy reported that one person was killed and another wounded in the latest missile attacks on railway infrastructure in the capital.

Russia's Defense Ministry confirmed its forces targeted a locomotive depot and claimed to have downed a total of 457 Ukrainian drones overnight. In a separate incident on Saturday afternoon, local authorities reported that two people were killed in a Russian ballistic missile strike on the Kyiv region. Additionally, Russian drone strikes in the Zaporizhzhia region killed four people and wounded 15, with three more injured in an attack on a minibus in the regional capital.

The United Nations noted that Kyiv was one of the hardest-hit cities in July, with at least 54 civilians killed and 202 wounded. In Russia's southern Krasnodar region, Governor Veniamin Kondratyev stated that two children and two adults were wounded in a strike on the port town of Yeysk, where a fire broke out at an unnamed facility. The governor of Russia's Belgorod region reported two deaths and 13 injuries from Ukrainian attacks, with four more wounded in the nearby Bryansk region. In Luhansk, a Moscow-installed official reported two civilians, including a 16-year-old boy, killed and nine wounded.

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Ukraine has also cast a wider campaign against Russia's economic infrastructure.