Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky announced on Saturday that a Ukrainian-made Flamingo missile had struck a Russian military plant in the Volgograd region, which produces artillery systems and components for missile launch systems. The airstrike caused a fire at the premises of the Titan-Barrikady plant, with explosions and a fire reported in the city. Authorities issued a missile threat alert for Volgograd, and Russian independent outlet Astra reported that locals heard explosions and saw a fire in the city.
This attack comes after Zelensky told Vladimir Putin to ‘get out of Ukraine’ and ‘take that step toward peace’ after approving a 40-day offensive to influence Russia to end the war. Zelensky made the decision after consulting the head of the Ukrainian security service. In a post on X, Zelensky wrote that Russia must get out of Ukraine with its war, and Ukraine has put forward proposals to its key partners for a meeting to end the war.
Drones and artillery killed civilians on both sides of the Russia-Ukraine border yesterday, local officials said. In the Russian border region of Bryansk, a Ukrainian drone strike killed two people in their car in a village near the border. Moscow mayor Sergei Sobyanin issued a series of statements about Ukrainian drones heading for the capital being intercepted. In Ukraine, the governor of the southeastern Dnipropetrovsk Region, Oleksandr Ganzha, said a combined total of more than 40 drone strikes and artillery fire had killed one person and injured one near Nikopol.
Russia launched ballistic missile strikes on Kyiv in the early hours of Sunday, injuring two people and damaging several sites within the city. Explosions were reported just before 2am local time, and later another wave of missiles struck around 2.35am. Fires were also reported elsewhere in the area, including near a residential building, at a service station, and at an unspecified non-residential building.
Ukraine also struck a Russian oil refinery in the Krasnodar Krai region, with a Ukrainian drone attack reportedly setting the refinery on fire. Photos circulating on social media appear to show large flames rising from storage tanks at the refinery. The regional operational headquarters said the fire was caused by falling debris.
President Volodymyr Zelensky claimed that Russian forces deployed almost 1,400 attack drones, 1,500 guided aerial bombs, and 19 missiles against Ukraine over the past week. He said that 15 Ukrainian regions were subjected to Russian attacks in that time, including Kherson, Zaporizhzhia, Kharkiv, and Sumy, which faced the harshest bombardment.
Ukraine has secured the return of seven civilians who it says have been unlawfully detained by Russia for years. The returned civilians, aged between 35 and 66, were captured during the occupation of Mariupol and parts of Kyiv, Kharkiv, Zaporizhzhia, and Luhansk oblasts in 2022.
