Kyiv, Ukraine
Reuters
A man was killed and at least eight people were wounded in a Russian missile attack on the Black Sea port city of Mykolaiv on Sunday, Ukrainian officials said, after an overnight strike on Odesa on the last day of Russia’s presidential election.
Mykolaiv’s regional governor, Vitaliy Kim, said on Telegram that said there had been two strikes on Mykolaiv from the same direction as the strike on Odesa, adding that a man born in 1974 died in hospital and the injured included a girl born in 2013.
A firefighter extinguishes fire in a car destroyed during a Russian missile strike, amid Russia’s attack on Ukraine, in Mykolaiv, Ukraine, on 17th March, 2024. PICTURE: Press service of the State Emergency Service of Ukraine in Mykolaiv region/Handout via Reuters
Ukraine’s ministry of internal affairs shared images of damaged houses, wrecked or burnt-out cars, including one with a pair of abandoned shoes and other damaged items strewn on the ground alongside its open driver’s door, and rescue workers helping people leave the scene and dousing a blackened car.
“Police found an injured girl with shrapnel wounds who was given first aid on the spot and taken to hospital,” the ministry said on its Telegram channel of the aftermath in Mykolaiv.
Separately, the Ukrainian military said Russian air attacks had damaged agricultural enterprises and destroyed several industrial buildings in the port city of Odesa.
Reuters could not independently verify the reports.
Ukraine’s air force said Russia launched 16 drones and seven missiles and 14 drones were destroyed over the Odesa region.
Moscow has accused Kyiv of election sabotage with days of strikes on Russian infrastructure, one of the most sweeping air operations on Russian territory since President Vladimir Putin ordered the invasion of Ukraine two years ago.
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Meanwhile, long-range Ukrainian attack drones launched by the SBU domestic security service have hit 12 Russian oil refineries during the war so far, a Ukrainian intelligence source told Reuters on Sunday.
Officials in the southern Russian region of Krasnodar said Ukrainian drones had attacked the Slavyansk oil refinery, 70kilometres north of the regional capital, overnight.
Military personnel are seen in the aftermath of what local authorities called a Ukrainian missile attack, in the course of the Russia-Ukraine conflict in Belgorod, Russia, on 17th March, 2024. PICTURE: Governor of Belgorod Region/Vyacheslav Gladkov via Telegram/Handout via Reuters
The Ukrainian source said the refinery, which processes about 4.5 million metric tons of crude a year and produces fuel mainly for exports, had been attacked in an operation staged by the SBU security service and other Ukrainian forces.
“The agency is continuing to implement a strategy to undermine the economic potential of Russia and reduce the flow of petro dollars that the enemy directs to the war,” the source said.
“In total, SBU drones have recently successfully attacked 12 oil refineries in Russia.”
The figure did not include operations conducted by Ukraine’s GUR military intelligence agency, which has also been attacking refineries with drones, a second intelligence source said.
Russia accuses Ukraine of using “terrorist activities” to try to disrupt its three-day presidential election. Official Russian media has reported that drones have attacked refineries in many regions in recent weeks, including refineries owned by Rosneft and Lukoil.
Oil and petroleum products are an important sources of revenue for Russia, which exports them to dozens of countries around the world.
Ukraine has developed and used long-range drones to try to strike back at Russia, which began its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 and has been conducting long-range aerial attacks with missile and drones throughout the war.
