Ukrainian Drones Torch Russia's No. 2 Oil Refinery; One Killed

The Kirishi refinery in Russia's Leningrad region caught fire overnight after a Ukrainian drone attack, Leningrad Regional Governor Aleksandr Drozdenko said Monday on Telegram. A woman was killed by falling drone debris, he said, and an apartment in Kirishi was damaged. Drozdenko added that air defences downed 113 Ukrainian drones over the region.

Kirishi is Russia's second-largest refinery, and the Leningrad region is a key hub for the country's oil and grain exports through the Baltic Sea. The strike lands squarely on one of Moscow's most important energy and export nodes.

Russia struck back the same night, hitting three power substations across Ukraine and a cargo ship in the Black Sea that Moscow claimed was carrying arms to Ukrainian forces, according to Russian state news agencies. Al Jazeera said it could not independently verify those claims. Russia has kept up a steady campaign against Ukrainian civilian infrastructure, energy sites in particular.

President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on X that many Ukrainian cities and communities are facing a very difficult situation with power, water and heating because of the strikes. He named Kyiv, Dnipro, Sumy, Donetsk and Kherson as the regions with the most acute energy crisis.

Zelenskyy also said he agreed with European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen to activate a special emergency mechanism so EU funding can be deployed faster for what Ukraine needs most. Teams from both sides are already working on it, he said.