Ukraine says it struck Russian pipeline and oil depot

The war’s reach stretched deep into Russian territory again as Ukrainian drones struck an oil depot in the south and a pumping station hundreds of kilometres from the front, according to Kyiv, with Russian officials also acknowledging attacks in the targeted areas.

Now in its fifth year, the war has seen Ukraine intensify its campaign against Russian infrastructure, targeting sites far from the battlefield, including locations near the Urals in recent weeks.

Ukraine’s military said the operation hit a “dispatch station of a major oil pipeline” in Russia’s Kirov region as well as an oil depot in the Rostov region, close to occupied parts of Ukraine.

According to the military, the pipeline carries oil from Siberia to western Russia and Belarus.

In Matveyev-Kurgan, a town in the southern Rostov region that has frequently come under Ukrainian attack, local authorities declared a state of emergency after a drone strike sparked a major fire at an oil depot.

Dina Alborova, the town’s head, said the blaze spread across 3,600 square meters and shared images showing thick black smoke billowing into the sky.

She said residential buildings and several shops were affected.

In Ukraine, meanwhile, officials were dealing with the aftermath of a Russian strike on a warehouse in Dnipro owned by the well-known postal company Nova Poshta.

Firefighters work at the site of a Russian drone strike at a Nova Poshta branch on 27 May

Nova Poshta, the private courier company used widely across Ukraine and abroad, said a drone hit its Dnipro branch and that “the building burned down completely”.

The company said no employees were hurt.

“All these attacks must be stopped,” President Volodymyr Zelensky said online as he posted images of the fire.

“All that’s needed is sufficient support for our defence and continued pressure on Russia,” he said.

The International Atomic Energy Agency said it observed damage to the exterior of a turbine building at the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant in Ukraine following a drone strike yesterday.

The agency said its team at the Russian-held plant confirmed that radiation levels at the Zaporizhzhia site remained normal.

A Russia-appointed official said a Ukrainian drone also struck an apartment building in a Russian-controlled area of the southern Kherson region, killing a child and wounding 11 people.

Vladimir Saldo, the Russian-installed governor of the occupied parts of Kherson region, said on Telegram that the strike took place in Henichesk, a city on the shore of the Sea of Azov.

Earlier this week, Mr Zelensky called on the United States to send more ammunition for Patriot air defence systems to help counter Russian attacks.

Efforts to negotiate an end to more than four years of war between Russia and Ukraine remain stalled, with the Iran conflict pushing those talks further to the margins.