Moscow bombards Ukraine while Kyiv targets Russian oil facilities

Published on 18/04/2026 - 11:12 GMT+2

Ukraine struck 2 lipid refineries heavy wrong Russia and repelled a monolithic overnight drone bombardment connected Saturday.

Drones deed the Novokuybyshevsk refinery successful Russia's Samara Oblast successful the aboriginal hours of Saturday morning, sparking a ample occurrence disposable successful footage shared connected societal media.

Local residents reported blasts heard crossed the eastbound and bluish parts of the city.

The installation is simply a important node successful Russia's vigor infrastructure, processing 8.8 cardinal tonnes of crude per twelvemonth and producing much than 20 types of commercialized products utilized to enactment Russian forces.

Hours later, a 2nd drone onslaught deed the Syzran refinery, besides successful Samara Oblast, with footage showing occurrence breaking retired adjacent a retention vessel workplace that holds some crude lipid and finished petroleum products up of distribution.

The Syzran installation feeds substance into Russia's home market, stream logistics network, and export pipeline system, with the larboard of Novorossiysk serving arsenic a cardinal outer shipment hub.

A abstracted drone onslaught besides targeted an concern installation successful Tikhoretsk successful Russia's Krasnodar Krai overnight, sparking different occurrence that required implicit 200 firefighters and dozens of occurrence appliances to bring nether control.

Meanwhile, Russia launched 219 drones astatine Ukraine from the evening of 17 April, with Ukrainian aerial defences destroying oregon jamming 190 of them — including Shahed loitering munitions and different types — crossed the country's north, south, and east. The remaining 28 drones recorded hits astatine 17 locations, with debris from downed UAVs falling astatine a further 9 sites.

Aircraft, rocket units, physics warfare systems, and mobile occurrence groups were each deployed successful the defence effort, with immoderate drones inactive airborne arsenic of the greeting report.

Russian lipid for sale

US President Donald Trump's medication connected Friday issued a month-long sanctions waiver allowing the merchantability of Russian lipid and petroleum products that are astatine sea, extending an earlier determination to soften surging vigor prices.

The license, issued by the Treasury Department, comes 2 days aft Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said that Washington would not renew the waiver.

The latest determination allows for the acquisition of lipid and petroleum products that person been loaded onto immoderate vas arsenic of this Friday.

It prolongs an earlier easing of sanctions that expired connected 11 April.

Both measures aimed to easiness planetary proviso shocks from the US-Israeli warfare against Iran.