Ukraine's drone warfare

Russian regions ration fuel after strikes on refineries

Russia's government said on Friday that fuel supply to filling stations remains strained in several regions. Two are now rationing sales.

Meduza · Le Monde · TASS

Moscow rejects Black Sea truce as port strikes go on

Russia has turned down Kyiv's offer of a mutual halt to attacks in the Black Sea. Strikes on ports on both sides continue.

Meduza · Meduza · Bloomberg

Orsk refinery out for months as drone strikes hit Russian fuel and grain exports

Ukrainian drones have fully shut Russia's Orsk refinery, with repairs put at up to six months. Bloomberg reports Russian diesel exports at their lowest in years.

Meduza · Meduza · Meduza · TASS

Ukrainian drones beat US forces in joint exercise

Ukrainian and American units faced each other in an exercise in which Ukraine's drones prevailed, the Wall Street Journal reported on Wednesday. Neither the location nor the timing of the exercise has been reported.

Ukrainian drones halt grain exports at Russia's biggest Black Sea port

Ukrainian drones hit Novorossiysk and Russia's Krasnodar region overnight into Wednesday, halting all three grain terminals at the country's main wheat port. Three people were killed, among them an eight-year-old.

South China Morning Post · Meduza · Meduza

Russian barrage kills at least ten as Kyiv warns of new mobilisation

Russian missiles, drones and glide bombs killed at least ten people across Ukraine overnight into Tuesday. Kyiv says North Korean missiles were used.

South China Morning Post · Meduza · Le Monde · New York Times · Financial Times

Russia's central bank tells lenders to ease terms for firms hit by drone strikes

The Bank of Russia recommended on Monday that lenders support small and medium-sized businesses affected by what it called terrorist attacks, a reference to Ukrainian drone strikes on warehouses and logistics sites, and urged them not to charge penalties for overdue payments or demand early repayment. Kommersant reports that Russian book publishers are suspending sales on the Wildberries marketplace as drone attacks continue to hit the platform's warehouses.

Ukrainian drones kill 13 in Tatarstan as Russia strikes Zaporizhzhia and Kyiv

Ukrainian drones killed at least 13 people in the Russian refinery city of Nizhnekamsk on Monday. Russian strikes then hit Zaporizhzhia and Kyiv.

The Guardian · Meduza · Le Monde

Deaths on both sides as Russia and Ukraine trade overnight strikes

Overnight strikes into Sunday killed at least seven people in Russia and Ukraine, authorities on both sides said.

South China Morning Post · TASS · Reuters

Ukrainian drones repeatedly strike warehouses of Russian retailer Wildberries

Ukrainian drones have increasingly targeted warehouses of Wildberries, Russia's largest e-commerce company, on which many Russians rely, The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal reported on Saturday. Billionaire co-founder Tatyana Kim faces her biggest test yet, according to The New York Times.

Child among four killed near Kyiv as Ukrainian drones hit Ilsky refinery

Russian drones destroyed a family home near Kyiv early on Saturday, killing a three-year-old boy and his grandparents. Ukrainian drones set Russia's Ilsky oil refinery ablaze the same day.

South China Morning Post · Koha · Reuters

Ukrainian drones hit Wildberries warehouse deep inside Russia

Ukrainian drones struck a warehouse of Wildberries, Russia's largest online marketplace, in Yekaterinburg more than 2,000 kilometres inside Russia, sparking a fire, the merged company RWB said. Daily Sabah reports the disruption is hitting tens of thousands of small businesses, while TASS says Ukrainian forces attacked Donetsk-region territory 30 times in a day, wounding 11 people including two children.

Ukrainian attack kills two civilians in Russia's Bryansk region

A Ukrainian attack on the Bryansk region killed two civilians and injured six in Novozybkov, damaging several cars and a filling station, TASS reported on Thursday, citing preliminary data. Meduza the same day published what is known about the victims of a Ukrainian drone that came down and exploded on Monday on a beach at Arkhipo-Osipovka, part of Gelendzhik, while people were on the sand and in the water.

Ukraine hits refineries deep inside Russia in mass drone attack

Ukraine struck oil facilities deep inside Russia overnight into Thursday, setting the Yaroslavneftorgsintez refinery in Yaroslavl on fire. Russia's Defence Ministry said air defences downed 605 drones over Russian regions, occupied Crimea and the Black and Azov seas.

Meduza · Daily Sabah · TASS

Aerial war expands as the ground front stays frozen

Russia and Ukraine are producing ever larger numbers of innovative aerial weapons while ground combat is largely static, the New York Times reported on Wednesday. Ukraine accused Russia of a war crime after a video showed a drone attacking a vegetable seller in Kherson.

Putin reshuffles Defence Ministry command to push drone warfare

President Vladimir Putin announced changes to the Russian military command on Wednesday, appointing Denis Lyamin, former chief of staff of the battlegroup Center, to oversee unmanned systems forces and Colonel General Solodchuk as deputy defence minister for combat service support. TASS says the changes target material and technical supply for the troops; military analyst Boris Rozhin expects a faster pace of drone production and new unmanned units.

Car bomb critically injures Russian drone maker's chief

A car bomb in Yekaterinburg critically injured Vladimir Tkachuk, head of the drone producer Uraldronzavod, and killed his bodyguard, who was inside the vehicle, TASS reported on Wednesday. It was the second attack on a Russian drone developer within a week; reporting also tied a Moscow restaurant explosion last week that killed the son-in-law of Aerospace Forces commander Alexander Chayko to an apparent attempt on Chayko himself.

Ukrainian strike on Kursk industrial site kills four

A Ukrainian drone and missile attack on an industrial facility in Russia's Kursk region killed four people and injured several others, regional governor Alexander Khinshtein said on Wednesday. Meduza, reviewing 40 days of the campaign, counts at least 20 Wildberries warehouses and at least 25 oil refineries and other oil and gas sites hit, knocking out a third of Russia's refining capacity.

Russian strikes kill four in Sumy and Mykolaiv

Russian strikes on the Ukrainian cities of Sumy and Mykolaiv killed four civilians overnight on Tuesday. Ukraine the same day accused Russia of a war crime over a drone that hunted a street vendor in Kherson.

Meduza · South China Morning Post · New York Times

Ukrainian drones kill five near Moscow as Wildberries warehouses burn

Ukrainian drones killed five people in an industrial zone in the Moscow region overnight into Tuesday and set a Wildberries logistics warehouse ablaze in the Leningrad region. A day earlier, a drone came down on a packed beach near Gelendzhik, killing seven, among them children.

Meduza · Meduza · Daily Sabah

Ukrainian strikes deepen damage to Russian retail and oil trade

Sellers on the Russian marketplace Wildberries may have lost 215 to 280 billion roubles because of Ukrainian drone strikes on the company's warehouses, according to an estimate by analyst Sergei Semko cited by Forbes Russia. Bloomberg reported that Kyiv's shifting pattern of strikes is adding uncertainty around Russian oil.

Death toll rises to 11 after Ukrainian drone strikes on Russian Black Sea coast and Crimea

A Ukrainian drone came down on a crowded beach at Arkhipo-Osipovka near Gelendzhik on Monday, killing seven people, among them three children. Russian officials put the combined toll from the coastal and Crimean strikes at 11.

Meduza · The Guardian · TASS

Rosatom reports drone strike meters from Zaporizhzhia reactor building

Rosatom says a Ukrainian combat drone struck inside the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant overnight into Sunday. The Russian operator reports no explosion and unchanged radiation levels.

Drone strikes kill nine in Russia as Ukraine says it hit Saratov refinery

Ukrainian drone attacks on more than a dozen Russian regions killed at least nine people on Sunday, among them a 13-year-old girl in Belgorod region. Russian strikes on Ukraine killed at least five the same day.

South China Morning Post · Folha de S.Paulo · Le Monde

Rosatom vessel sinks in Black Sea after Ukrainian drone attack

Rosatom said its civilian vessel Yanina sank in the Black Sea after a Ukrainian drone attack and that the entire crew survived, Reuters reported. Rosatom chief Alexey Likhachev called the strike an act of maritime piracy, saying the container ship was carrying civilian goods in international waters, while Kyiv had said earlier that the attack was not intentional, according to Politika.

Ukraine presses on with drone and robot warfare amid turmoil

Ukraine's former defence minister Mykhailo Fedorov, an advocate of drone and robot warfare, said on Friday that political upheaval in Kyiv will not derail the country's tech-heavy military strategy. Bloomberg reports that Ukrainian forces aim to extend the frontline "kill zone" and increase pressure on Putin.