Ukraine strikes Crimean oil terminal, Russia captures village

The Ukrainian army said Monday it had struck overnight “the most big” oil terminal in Crimea, a Ukrainian peninsula annexed by Moscow in 2014, while Russia claimed the capture of a new village in the east of Ukraine.

Ukraine has been struggling on the Eastern front for over a year and is seeing Russian forces approaching Pokrovsk, a key city for Ukrainian army logistics.

Moscow's forces continue to gain ground almost daily against less well-armed and fewer Ukrainians.

“Thanks to the resolute action of the units of the Center group, the village of Grodivka has been liberated,” the Russian Defense Ministry claimed on Monday.

This locality is located about ten kilometers east of Pokrovsk, an important hub that connects several Ukrainian strongholds in Donbass, the industrial east of the country.

The Ukrainian army, for its part, claimed to have struck the terminal in Feodosia (eastern Crimea), the “largest” on the annexed peninsula and which supplies the Russian army in particular, according to kyiv.

The Russian authorities have confirmed a fire on the oil site, without naming the cause.

Online videos show at least two large columns of black smoke rising into the sky.

Ukraine has stepped up attacks on Russian energy sites in recent months to disrupt the logistics of Moscow's armed forces, which occupy nearly 20% of Ukraine's territory.

– Fuel and energy –

“Defense forces carried out a successful strike on an enemy sea oil terminal last night,” causing a fire, the Ukrainian army's general staff said on social media.

The attack was carried out using “missiles,” the army added.

Ukraine had already used long-range missiles, notably to strike the headquarters of the Russian Black Sea Fleet in Sevastopol (east of Crimea) in September 2023.

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A Russian ship in the port of Feodosia in eastern Crimea, under Russian control, on December 5, 2023 © Satellite image ©2023 Maxar Technologies – Handout

However, in recent months, Ukrainian attacks had been carried out mainly using combat drones, with kyiv lamenting the lack of missiles and blaming the delay in western deliveries.

The Russian occupation authorities have indicated that “part” of the targeted city of Feodosia is without electricity and that commuter train traffic is suspended.

Since the beginning of its invasion, Russia has increased its strike campaigns against the Ukrainian energy network, periodically leaving millions of Ukrainians without electricity.

Some Ukrainian experts predict a further intensification of Russian strikes on civilian infrastructure, particularly energy, in the coming weeks, as winter approaches and the US presidential election in November.

– kyiv targeted by hypersonic missiles –

New Russian nighttime attacks killed two brothers in the border region of Sumy (northeast) and a 61-year-old woman in Kherson (south), Ukrainian authorities announced.

The head of the Kherson municipality, during the day, said that a new strike on the city had injured around twenty people.

kyiv, the capital, was also targeted during the night, the authorities indicated, while assuring that these had not caused any casualties or major damage.

The Russian army first launched dozens of explosive drones towards several Ukrainian regions including the capital. kyiv was then targeted in the morning by two Kinjal hypersonic missiles, which were shot down by air defense, according to the air force.

A third Kinjal missile hit, according to the army, an area “close” to the Starokostiantyniv air base, in the Khmelnytsky region (west).

The latter is located hundreds of kilometers from the front line and is very often targeted by Russian attacks, Moscow hoping to destroy F-16 fighters that Ukraine finally began to receive from its allies in the summer and whose parking sites are kept secret.

On another front, that of digital warfare, the Russian group VGTRK, broadcaster of Russian public television channels and Kremlin events, said it had been targeted by an “unprecedented” computer attack claimed by kyiv.

According to VGTRK, this attack had a limited result. “Everything is functioning normally, there is no significant threat,” the group assured.

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