Two killed and 17 hurt as Russia and Ukraine exchange power infrastructure strikes
Russia and Ukraine traded strikes on each other's power infrastructure, leaving two people dead and at least 17 injured, after the collapse of an 'energy ceasefire' neither side had agreed to beforehand.
Two killed and 17 hurt as Russia and Ukraine exchange power infrastructure strikes
Ukraine launches one of its largest drone barrages
Ukraine resumed its strikes on Russian refineries on Sunday, attacking one of Russia's main oil terminals in an overnight operation that killed one person and wounded 15. It was one of the largest aerial bombardments of the war: more than 1,000 drones were fired at Russian oil depots, logistics facilities and datacentres.
In St Petersburg itself, governor Alexander Beglov said fires had broken out overnight at the city's oil terminal, along with an oil depot and industrial warehouses. An Ozon logistics centre and a VK datacentre in the city were also targeted, and both companies confirmed it.
Across the Leningrad region, governor Alexander Drozdenko said 145 drones had been shot down and about 20,000 people were left without electricity.
A large-scale [unmanned aerial vehicle] attack continues to be repelled.
Drozdenko wrote that on Telegram. Russia's defence ministry, for its part, said its air defence units had downed 1,015 Ukrainian drones around the country overnight.
Russia strikes Ukrainian industry and grid
On Saturday, Russia said it had struck Ukraine's largest steelworks in the city of Kryvyi Rih and vessels using the port of Odesa, alongside a substation in Zhytomyr and a steel plant in Zaporizhzhia.
The human cost was recorded in Zaporizhzhia, where officials said Russian strikes killed a woman and wounded at least two other people, including a six-year-old girl. Two apartment buildings, 18 cars and an educational institution were damaged, according to Mykhailo Semikin.
Zelenskyy said on X that Russia had attacked Ukraine's energy, oil and gas sectors 76 times in the week since the ceasefire announcement, hitting facilities in four regions the previous night and leaving tens of thousands of families without power. Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov, quoted by Tass, said Russia was responding with systematic, large-scale strikes.
Zelenskyy and Bessent clash over Starlink
The strikes coincided with a public dispute between Kyiv and Washington. In an NBC interview, Zelenskyy said the US had unblocked intelligence sharing on impending Russian ballistic missile strikes after a three-day gap that coincided with ballistic attacks. 'We are very thankful for this. Now it works,' he said.
He also alleged that SpaceX had limited Starlink speeds in Ukraine on instruction from Washington, hampering drone and some air defence operations. 'It was a message from American government to limit the speed. And technically, SpaceX did it,' Zelenskyy said.
US treasury secretary Scott Bessent rejected the accusation on the same network. 'I think it is very reckless for President Zelenskyy to make such a charge,' he said, noting that Trump and Rubio had categorically denied it.
President Zelenskyy should be very careful about making statements like this that aren't true.
Bessent added that warning in the same interview. Zelenskyy, for his part, said of Trump: 'We want to trust him and I hope that he will change his decisions'.
Drone scare closes in on Nato airspace
The spillover reached Nato territory on Sunday, when Lithuania told residents in central and northern parts of the country to seek shelter for about an hour after an unidentified flying object entered its airspace.
Nato fighter jets were scrambled and Kaunas airport was temporarily closed. The national crisis management centre said the object could not be visually identified due to cloudy weather and was not shot down.
Ukraine's foreign ministry said it regretted the possible diversion of its drones into Lithuanian airspace, which it suggested may have been caused by Russian electronic warfare. Spokesperson Heorhii Tykhyi wrote on X: 'We apologise for any disruption, risks and concern this may have caused'.
The episode was not isolated. Ukrainian drones have repeatedly entered Nato airspace in the Baltic region in recent months, and Kyiv has said they were steered off course by Russian signal jamming.
What happens next
Trump had announced the 'energy ceasefire' last week without either side saying they agreed to it beforehand, and it collapsed as Moscow kept striking Ukraine's grid and Kyiv resumed hits on Russian refineries.
The wider diplomatic picture remains in motion: Trump had sought detente with Moscow, inking a diesel import deal with Russia and waiving sanctions passed overwhelmingly by both houses of Congress, before announcing on Friday a hold on a sweeping new sanctions package.
Zelenskyy described communication with Washington, including talks with Trump envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, as 'virtually nonstop'. He also wrote that 'America should see that Russia is not taking any reciprocal steps in response to sanctions relief or agreements' and said it is Russia that must face pressure for peace to have a chance.
