Ukrainian drones carried out a new wave of strikes on a Siberian oil refinery on Saturday as Kazakhstan’s president told Russia’s Vladimir Putin that the war in Ukraine must end during a forum in the Siberian city of Omsk.
In occupied Ukraine, Russian-identified authorities said the Ukrainian strike killed 12 people at a seaside “tourist camp,” as well as another person in a Moscow-controlled town and two in Russian border villages.
Kyiv said Russian attacks killed five people in eastern and southern Ukraine and two crew members were missing after a Russian strike on a cargo ship carrying corn.
The deaths come as the UN warned that more civilians have been killed in recent years in the nearly 4.5-year war.
Moscow said Ukraine, which has stepped up retaliatory strikes, launched more than 300 drones into Russia on Saturday, including into remote regions.
Kyiv said its retaliatory strikes were aimed at damaging Moscow’s war effort and forcing the Kremlin to negotiate. © Stringer, AFP
The governor of the Tyumen region of Siberia said that a local oil refinery was set on fire. The Russian Athletics Federation said the national competition in the Ural city of Yekaterinburg had been stopped due to drone threats.
Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky claimed responsibility for the strike in Siberia and said Kyiv was carrying out strikes on a military plant in the Kirov region for the second day in a row, a day after local authorities said the attack there killed five people.
Kyiv said its retaliatory strikes were aimed at damaging Moscow’s war effort and forcing the Kremlin to negotiate.
“Youth Dies”
In the Siberian city of Omsk, hours after the strikes, Kazakh leader Kassym-Jomart Tokayev told Putin the war in Ukraine must end when the pair met at a Russia-Kazakhstan summit.
“It’s a shame young people are dying… All this needs to be stopped,” Tokayev said, sitting next to Putin, in televised comments.
Tokayev told Putin that the war in Ukraine should end when the pair met at the Russia-Kazakhstan summit. © Vyacheslav Prokofiev, Poole, AFP
Putin rarely encounters officials telling him publicly that the fighting should stop.
Tokayev said the conflict should be “frozen” and suggested returning to the Istanbul negotiations before moving on to “the long-awaited peace.”
The Central Asian leader, who is allied with Moscow but has never approved of Russia’s offensive, said the roots of the war were “incomprehensible.”
Putin replied that he would inform Tokayev about the “details” of the war.
The Russian leader has repeatedly said that Moscow intends to take over the rest of eastern Ukraine by force.
US-led talks to end Europe’s worst conflict since World War II have stalled.
12 killed in the occupied city
Russian occupation authorities in southern Ukraine said Saturday’s Ukrainian strike on the Azov Sea town of Kyrylivka killed 12 people, including four children, and accused Kyiv of attacking a “tourist camp”.
“The whereabouts of eight people are unknown, rescue operations are continuing,” said Yevgeny Balitsky, the Kremlin-appointed head of the Russian-occupied part of the Zaporozhye region.
Another person died in the occupied part of the Kherson region, Moscow reported.
Kyiv has not yet commented on the strike, but Ukraine has stepped up attacks in the Sea of Azov, where it is targeting Russian vessels.
Zelensky said a Russian strike on the northeastern city of Sumy killed three people at a facility owned by the private courier service Novaya Poshta.
Two more people were killed in southern and eastern Ukraine, Kyiv said.
Kyiv Transport Minister Nikolai Kalashnik said on Telegram that Russia twice struck a civilian ship carrying nearly 2,800 tons of corn as it left the Odessa port on Saturday.
The ship caught fire and seven crew members and a Ukrainian pilot had to be rescued, but two other crew members were missing, he added.
The Urals and Siberia hit
Far from the battlefield, Ukrainian drones disrupted a national athletics competition in the Ural city of Yekaterinburg.
Also in Yekaterinburg, Russian online retail giant Wildberry said it had evacuated its employees due to the drone threat, but said its facility was not damaged.
Wildberry, the Russian version of Amazon, has been under attack from Kyiv drones for a week. The attacks killed several workers and caused major fires.
Ukrainian drones have caused a nationwide fuel shortage and disrupted daily life in Russia more than at any time in more than four years of war.
On Saturday, Russia said it would extend its ban on fuel exports until the end of the year.
(FRANCE 24 with AFP)