Jet-powered Russian drones hit Kyiv petrol stations, killing 2; Ukrainian strikes kill 3 in Russia
Russian jet-powered drone attacks on Kyiv petrol stations killed two people and injured 12 on Friday, as Moscow and Kyiv exchanged fresh strikes on civilian and economic infrastructure.The attacks came amid an intensifying aerial campaign, with both sides reporting strikes on energy, logistics and other critical infrastructure as the war continues with little movement on the frontline.The attacks came a day after what appeared to be the first Russian strike on a petrol station in Kyiv. Russia has carried out almost daily attacks with faster jet-powered drones across the capital for the past two weeks, according to the report.“Russia’s escalation with jet-powered ‘shaheds’ is gradually becoming increasingly terrorist in nature,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on X.Zelenskiy said Russia had also struck a building used by Ukraine’s largest mobile operator, Kyivstar, in Kyiv, while attacks were reported in eight other Ukrainian regions. The company said its network continued to operate.A further eight people were injured in a separate overnight attack on a residential block in Kyiv, while a woman was killed in the wider Kyiv region, according to local officials.Bohdan Kukura, CEO of Ukrainian oil company Ukrnafta, said there was no military justification for the petrol station attacks.“There is no military objective behind such strikes. This is terror of the civilian population,” he said.Ukraine also launched drone attacks on Russian territory. Dmitry Milyayev, governor of the Tula region, said two people were killed and three injured in overnight strikes. Russia’s Kursk governor said a 37-year-old man was killed in a Ukrainian drone attack on Friday.Russian online retailer Ozon said a drone attack caused a fire at its logistics hub in Saratov. Ukraine’s military said it had struck a Russian oil refinery in the region.The latest exchanges come as fighting along the front line has largely stalled more than four and a half years into the war. Both sides have increasingly targeted logistics, energy and other economic infrastructure in an effort to disrupt the other’s war effort.Separately, Zelensky said on Thursday that there would be no trilateral meeting on ending the war before Russia’s parliamentary elections on September 20. He said Ukrainian and US negotiators remained in contact and hoped for progress on energy and grain talks later this month.
