Ukrainian drones struck an oil refinery in Siberia in a fresh wave of attacks on Saturday, as regional leaders called for an end to the nearly 4.5-year war. The strikes came amid intensified cross-border attacks by both sides, with the UN warning of rising civilian casualties.
The governor of Russia's Tyumen region said a local oil refinery had been set ablaze, and Russia's athletics federation halted an all-Russian competition in Yekaterinburg over drone threats. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky claimed the Siberia strike and said Kyiv had also hit a military factory in the Kirov region for a second consecutive day.
In a separate development, Kazakhstan's President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev told Russian President Vladimir Putin during a summit in Omsk that the war should end. "It is a shame, young people are dying... All this has to be stopped," Tokayev said in televised comments.
Russian-installed authorities in occupied Ukraine said a Ukrainian strike killed 12 people at a seaside "tourist camp," as well as one more in a Moscow-held town and two in Russian border villages. Kyiv said Russian attacks had 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 strikes are part of a broader pattern of escalation. Both Russia and Ukraine have in recent weeks intensified attacks on major cities, energy facilities and warehouses, while the front line remains largely static. Mediation efforts to end the conflict have so far produced no breakthrough.
Zelensky said on Thursday that a Ukrainian strike on the Bashneft-Novoil refinery in Russia's Bashkortostan republic was about 1,300 km (808 miles) from the Ukrainian border, while another refinery, Slavneft-Yanos, was almost 700 km away. He also said "two military patrol boats and shadow fleet vessels were hit" in the Black Sea, referring to tankers used by Russia to illegally export sanctioned oil. "Russia must choose peace," Zelensky said, adding that Ukrainian attacks were "strengthening chances for diplomacy."
In Russia's Yaroslavl region, Governor Mikhail Evraev said 93 drones were shot down overnight. "Falling debris hit the oil refinery's storage tanks. Emergency services are working to extinguish the fire," he said. BBC Verify confirmed videos and images on social media showing huge smoke plumes from the refinery, with at least four fires visible in one verified image.
Energy-generating infrastructure in Yaroslavl has been targeted several times by Ukraine. Authorities in Bashkortostan have not publicly commented on the reported attack on the Bashneft-Novoil refinery on 5 August.
In Ukraine, three people were killed in the town of Balakliya, Kharkiv region, in an overnight Russian drone attack, according to the state emergencies service DSNS. It said private residential houses were targeted, with fires in two buildings. Kharkiv regional head Oleh Synehubov later said two more people were killed when drones attacked the train station in Lozova, with eight others injured. Later on Thursday, five people were killed in Russian strikes on the central Dnipropetrovsk region.
Moscow said Ukraine launched more than 300 drones into Russia on Saturday, including into far-flung regions. Kyiv has said its retaliatory strikes aim to damage Russia's war effort and force the Kremlin to negotiate.