Photo by Мирон Гиндин
Russia: A massive fire broke out at an oil depot near Russia’s Black Sea resort city of Sochi, with Moscow attributing the blaze to an overnight Ukrainian drone strike. The fire, which erupted after drone debris hit a fuel tank, drew a major emergency response. Krasnodar region Governor Veniamin Kondratyev confirmed that 127 firefighters were deployed on Sunday to contain the fire, which was later extinguished.
The nearby Sochi airport, which served as the primary gateway for the 2014 Winter Olympic Games, temporarily suspended flight operations due to the incident.
In retaliation, Russia launched renewed strikes on Ukrainian infrastructure, targeting key areas in southern Ukraine. In Kherson, a strategic bridge was bombed once again, resulting in the death of one man, according to local Ukrainian officials. The attack on the Ostrivsky Bridge—the primary link between the Korabel island district and the rest of Kherson—followed earlier damage from recent strikes. Authorities have urged a partial evacuation of the district, where approximately 1,800 people still reside.
Simultaneously, in the nearby city of Mykolaiv, seven people were injured and multiple homes destroyed amid additional Russian bombardments.
Ukraine reported at least seven fatalities from Russian airstrikes on Saturday in the Kherson and Donetsk regions. In turn, Russian officials claimed the Sochi refinery attack was one among several Ukrainian drone operations over the weekend. Other targeted areas included the central Russian cities of Ryazan and Penza, as well as the southern city of Voronezh, located near the Ukrainian border. Voronezh regional Governor Alexander Gusev confirmed that four people sustained injuries during one of the strikes.
Kyiv has not issued an official statement regarding the reported drone attacks. However, it has been systematically targeting Russia’s energy infrastructure throughout the war—seen as a countermeasure to Moscow’s ongoing assaults on Ukraine’s power grid.
The Russian defense ministry reported that its air defense systems intercepted 93 Ukrainian drones overnight, 60 of which were downed in the Black Sea region alone.
On Ukraine’s side, its air force stated that Russia launched a combined total of either 83 drones or 76 drones alongside seven missiles. Of these, 61 aerial threats were reportedly neutralized. Nevertheless, 16 drones and six missiles reached their targets, striking locations in eight different areas across Ukraine.
The renewed Russian bombardments come at the end of one of the most violent weeks for civilians in Ukraine in recent memory. A deadly missile strike on Kyiv last Thursday killed at least 31 people. Ukrainian officials noted that the attack involved over 300 drones and eight cruise missiles, making it one of the most destructive assaults on the capital since Russia’s full-scale invasion began in February 2022.
In response to the intensified strikes, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky called for stronger international sanctions on Moscow. Meanwhile, former U.S. President Donald Trump condemned Russia’s recent military actions in Ukraine and hinted that new sanctions against the Kremlin might be imminent.
In July, Trump warned that Russian President Vladimir Putin had 50 days to bring the war to an end or face steep tariffs on Russian oil and other exports. On Monday, Trump revised that ultimatum to a “10 or 12” day deadline, later setting a firm expiration date of August 8 for Putin to act.
