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Ukrainian drone attacks sparked major fires at an oil depot near Russia’s Black Sea resort of Sochi, just as Russian missile strikes destroyed homes and civilian infrastructure in Ukraine’s southern city of Mykolaiv, officials from both sides said on Sunday.
Sochi’s mayor, Andrei Proshunin, said that the debris also hit a nearby garage, adding that there were no casualties, while videos widely shared on Telegram appeared to show huge pillars of smoke billowing above the oil depot.
“Fortunately, there were no casualties this time. The situation is completely under control,” Mayor of Sochi, Andrei Proshunin, said.
“The entire city infrastructure is working normally. In the morning, we dismantle the rubble, help people, and minimise the risks of collapses. Monitoring groups are interviewing the victims in order to promptly provide the necessary assistance,” the mayor stressed.
According to Russia’s Krasnodar regional Gov. Veniamin Kondratyev, more than 120 firefighters attempted to extinguish the blaze, sparked after debris from a downed drone struck a fuel tank.
The attacks prompted Russia’s civil aviation authority, Rosaviatsia, to temporarily stop flights at Sochi’s airport.
Earlier, Russian officials reported three people were killed by Ukrainian drone attacks overnight into Saturday.
Russian attacks spread across Ukraine
Meanwhile, Moscow’s assault on Ukraine continued overnight. In the southern city of Mykolaiv, the State Emergency Services said at least seven people were injured following a Russian missile strike that hit a residential area.
While authorities in the Kharkiv region said some eleven people were wounded in a strike in the city, Ukraine’s second largest. The attacks followed those of Saturday that left at least seven people dead and over 20 injured in Donetsk and Kherson oblasts.
The reciprocal attacks also come in what has been the deadliest week in Ukraine in recent months, after Russian drone attacks killed two people in Kherson on Saturday morning and a missile attack on Thursday killed 31 people, including five children, in the capital, Kyiv. Some 150 people were injured.
Attacks come amid Trump-Putin seeming fallout
The continued attacks also come after US President Donald Trump gave Russian President Vladimir Putin a shorter deadline, 8 August, for peace efforts to make progress.
On Thursday, Trump said that special envoy Steve Witkoff will be heading to Russia to push Moscow to agree to a ceasefire in its war with Ukraine and has threatened new economic sanctions if progress is not made. But the date and other details of the trip have not been announced yet.
Amid the slowdown in the peace efforts and a seeming fallout between Trump and Putin, fighting has escalated with Moscow amping up pressure.
According to the Ukrainian air force, 60 Russian drones and one missile were intercepted overnight into Sunday, but 16 others and six missiles hit targets across eight locations.
Russia’s Defence Ministry said its air defences shot down 93 Ukrainian drones over Russia and the Black Sea overnight into Sunday.
Earlier on Saturday, the ministry claimed its air defences intercepted or destroyed 112 drones across eight regions and Crimea. It reported that one of the drones caused the fire at the oil depot in the southern Russian city of Sochi.
Ukrainian authorities say they targeted key sites in Russia’s energy and defence sectors in retaliation for Moscow’s strikes on Ukrainian cities.
