Ukraine strikes Russian military, energy targets; Moscow retaliates

Strikes on Russian oil and military infrastructure

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on Saturday that his forces had conducted long-range strikes on military and energy infrastructure deep inside Russian territory, as Moscow reported retaliatory attacks and the interception of hundreds of drones. Writing on Telegram, Zelenskyy noted that the range of Kyiv's strikes is growing longer, citing a successful attack on an oil industry facility in Armavir — located some 500 kilometers (311 miles) from the Ukrainian border in Russia's Krasnodar region.

Describing the operations as part of a "long-range sanctions" campaign, Zelenskyy said Ukraine seeks to "return the war to where it came from" and praised the Security Service of Ukraine for organizing the attacks. In a separate statement on the same platform, Ukraine's General Staff reported that overnight strikes had hit the Kurgannefteprodukt oil terminal in the coastal city of Taganrog, damaging a fuel storage tank, and said it had struck two Tu-142 aircraft and a launcher for the Iskander-M tactical missile system in the area.

Moscow reports retaliatory attacks

Russia's Defense Ministry said its forces had carried out a group strike using long-range precision weapons and unmanned aerial vehicles against Ukrainian military airfields and energy, fuel, and transport infrastructure supporting the armed forces. "All designated targets were successfully hit," the ministry stated on Telegram.

The ministry also reported that Russian air defenses had intercepted 127 Ukrainian drones overnight and shot down 352 unmanned aerial vehicles over the course of the previous day, alongside 10 guided aerial bombs and one HIMARS rocket. The Taganrog city administration confirmed that a drone attack had occurred without specifying which facilities were damaged, announcing a decision to expand the boundaries of a state of emergency that was introduced in the municipality on May 27 following an earlier missile strike.