Moscow/A massive Ukrainian attack against Moscow with nearly 400 drones has caused several injuries and caused the fire of industrial facilities 30 kilometers south of the capital. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky confirmed the attack and stated that several “logistical facilities and an oil depot” were hit. The president also said that his Army hit two other oil tankers and four cargo ships during the night that were heading or coming from Russian ports in the Black Sea.
At least five people died and more than 20 were injured after the offensive on Russian territory. Regional authorities reported on social media about two dead and four wounded in the border region of Belgorod, one of the hardest hit due to daily attacks.
In the Bryansk region, also bordering Ukraine, the death of a firefighter who was sent to extinguish a fire caused by a drone attack against the territory was reported. The governor of Bryansk, Yegor Kovalchuk, put a total of 13 injured. The governor of the Kursk region, Alexandr Jinshtéin, reported the death of a 20-year-old young man and seven others injured. In addition, authorities in the same region reported the death of a 39-year-old man and another injured woman.
About 10 injuries were also reported in the Moscow region, where several industrial facilities and residential buildings were attacked, about 30 kilometers south of the capital city. “According to preliminary information, due to drone attacks against the Moscow region, 10 people were injured, including a minor,” said the governor of the region, Andrei Vorobyov, on Telegram.
At least five people were killed and more than 20 injured after last night’s drone attacks by Ukraine against Russian border regions
Russian authorities have described this attack as one of the largest launched against the Moscow region, along with the one that took place on July 7, when 430 Ukrainian drones attacked said territory.
This Monday, the Russian Ministry of Defense confirmed that it had once again attacked the Ukrainian ports of Odessa, where at least 10 people died on Sunday when a missile hit a Turkish-owned merchant ship transporting grain. “Tonight, the Russian Armed Forces continued their attacks against Ukrainian ports used by the Ukrainian Armed Forces,” reads the note published by the military command on Telegram.
Defense explains that precision missiles were launched together with kamikaze drones that hit a port in Odessa, where they hit fuel storage tanks. The Ukrainian authorities reported that late on Sunday afternoon, Russia attacked ports in Odessa and killed ten sailors of a Turkish merchant ship, which was made up of 17 Syrian and Indian citizens and one Ukrainian. According to the Ukrainian Navy, Russia used three Kh-59 and Kh-69 cruise missiles in the attack against the ship.
Russia attacked ports in Odessa and killed ten sailors of a Turkish merchant ship, which was made up of 17 Syrian and Indian citizens and one Ukrainian.
The escalation also had a response from the Ukrainian side. The Caspian Pipeline Consortium (KTK) reported this Monday the second drone attack in less than 24 hours against its port terminal in the Black Sea.
The NELS tanker was attacked during the crude oil pumping maneuver, which had to be interrupted, as happened the day before in the Russian port of Novorossiysk, according to a company statement. This new attack caused a fire on the deck of the tanker, which was extinguished several hours later by KTK emergency teams. For this reason, the ship’s crew (22, according to the note) had to be evacuated for safety reasons, with the exception of the captain and his assistant.
The KTK called on the countries that include the consortium, several of them Western, to condemn the aggression and adopt measures to stop what it called “terrorist attacks” against an infrastructure for the export of hydrocarbons extracted by the consortium in the territory of Kazakhstan. Also the spokesperson for the Russian Foreign Ministry, María Zajárova, called on the international community to condemn the attack, which she called a “war crime.”
“Therefore, deliberate attacks against civilian facilities and vessels in the waters of the consortium’s maritime terminal also constitute an attack against the interests of its Member States.”
“We will consider the lack of an adequate response as complicity and approval of kyiv’s policy of escalating terrorist (attacks),” Zakharova said in a statement. According to the spokesperson, Ukraine persists in its attempts to inflict “irreparable damage” to the KTK, which brings together large energy companies from Russia, Kazakhstan, the United States and a number of European countries.
“Therefore, deliberate attacks against civilian facilities and ships in the waters of the consortium’s maritime terminal also constitute an attack against the interests of its member states,” Zajárova said.
A similar attack on Sunday caused a fire on the oil tanker ASIA, which belongs to the American company Chevron. Just like today, there were no injuries and there were no leaks or spills into the sea.
The consortium called Sunday’s attack the “fifth act of direct aggression” against a KTK civilian facility, while highlighting the pipeline’s important role in ensuring global energy security.
In this phase of the war, Russia and Ukraine launch almost daily attacks against foreign-flagged oil tankers and cargo ships loading goods in their respective ports.
The KTK, a 1,500 kilometer long pipeline, allows the pumping of crude oil from three Kazakh oil fields to the West, which is carried out by companies such as Chevron, ExxonMobil, Eni or Shell, but it also transports Russian oil. In fact, Russia has, through the State and the private oil company Lukoil, about half of the shares of the consortium, while Kazakhstan holds 20.75% of control and the rest corresponds to other companies, mostly European and Western.
In this phase of the war, Russia and Ukraine launch almost daily attacks against foreign-flagged tankers and cargo ships loading goods in their respective ports or those of Moscow-occupied Ukraine.
Two people died last Friday in the Ukrainian port of Mikolayiv while they were aboard a ship that was docked there. Five other people lost their lives on July 13 when Russia attacked a ship unloading fertilizers at a port in the Ukrainian region of Odessa.
On June 5, Russian authorities informed Azerbaijan of the deaths of five of its citizens in Ukrainian attacks on two ships in the Sea of Azov.
