Ukraine drone attack causes fire at Sochi oil depot, Russia says

A massive oil depot fire near Russia’s Black Sea resort of Sochi has been blamed by Moscow on an overnight Ukrainian drone attack.

Krasnodar region Governor Veniamin Kondratyev said drone debris hit a fuel tank and 127 firefighters were on Sunday tackling the blaze, which was later put out.

The airport near Sochi – the venue of the 2014 Winter Olympic Games – briefly suspended flights.

Meanwhile, Russia again bombed a key bridge in Ukraine’s southern city of Kherson, killing one man, local officials said. In nearby Mykolaiv, seven people were injured and several homes destroyed.

Ukraine earlier reported seven deaths in Saturday’s Russian attacks in the Kherson and eastern Donetsk regions.

Russian authorities said the drone attack on the Sochi refinery was one of several launched by Ukraine over the weekend.

They said installations were targeted in the central Russian cities of Ryazan, Penza, as well as Voronezh – not far from the border with Ukraine. The Voronezh regional governor said four people were injured in one drone strike.

Ukraine has not commented on the strikes. It has been targeting Russia’s energy infrastructure in retaliation to Russia’s sustained bombardment of Ukraine’s energy grid throughout the war.

Russia’s defence ministry said its air defences intercepted 93 Ukrainian drones overnight, 60 of which were over the Black Sea region.

Ukraine’s air force said Russia fired 83 drones or 76 drones and seven missiles overnight, 61 of which were shot down. It added that 16 drones and six missiles struck targets in eight locations.

In the city of Kherson, regional head Oleksandr Prokudin called for a partial evacuation after the key Ostrivsky bridge was again hit on Sunday morning.

The bridge linking the Korabel island district with the rest of the city had already been badly damaged in Russian strikes earlier this week. Some 1,800 people still live in the district.

The new Russian strikes come after a particularly deadly week for civilians in Ukraine, including an attack on Kyiv on Thursday that killed at least 31 people.

More than 300 drones and eight cruise missiles were launched in the assault, Ukrainian officials said, making the attack one of the deadliest on the capital since Russia launched its full-scale invasion in February 2022.

Following the strikes, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky called for stronger international sanctions on Russia this week, while US President Donald Trump condemned Russia’s actions in Ukraine and suggested new sanctions against Moscow were coming.

In July, Trump said Putin had 50 days to end the war, or Russia would face severe tariffs targeting its oil and other exports.

On Monday, Trump set a new “10 or 12” day deadline. He later set a new deadline, which would expire on 8 August.