Ukraine launched a major overnight drone offensive against two Russian oil refineries, hundreds of kilometres from the border, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy confirmed on Thursday. The strikes targeted facilities in the Bashkortostan and Yaroslavl regions, roughly 700 kilometres from the front lines, in what Kyiv described as an effort to weaken Moscow's war machine and push it toward negotiations.
"These attacks are strengthening the prospects for diplomacy," Zelenskyy said in a statement, adding: "Russia must choose peace." He shared a video from Russian social media showing black smoke billowing above an oil facility, underscoring the reach of Ukraine's drone programme.
Russia's defence ministry claimed it had intercepted 605 Ukrainian drones overnight. The governor of the Yaroslavl region, north of Moscow, said 92 drones were downed there, calling it the "most massive" attack on the area since the war began. In the neighbouring Tver region, a drone struck a logistics centre belonging to Wildberries, the Russian e-commerce giant that has been repeatedly targeted over the past month.
Moscow's retaliation
Russia responded with its own long-range strikes, hitting a train station in the northeastern Kharkiv region and a commercial ship in the Black Sea. The attack on Lozova station killed two people, while the vessel carrying Ukrainian wheat was struck off the coast of Odesa, killing one crew member, according to regional governor Oleh Kiper.
The escalation comes after a deadly Russian missile barrage on Kyiv a day earlier, which killed at least 17 people and destroyed warehouses belonging to several retailers. That attack was widely seen as a direct response to Ukraine's campaign against Wildberries, often dubbed "Russia's Amazon." Kyiv said it was unable to intercept any of the 28 missiles fired, prompting urgent calls from Zelenskyy for more air defence systems.
"Every day we see the cost of delays in delivering air defence," Zelenskyy said in his nightly address. "We need Patriot systems and other modern equipment to protect our cities and our people." The plea comes as Washington continues to stall on a licence for Patriot exports, leaving European allies to fill the gap.
The European Union has already stepped up, channelling €1.4 billion from frozen Russian assets to Ukraine after the latest strikes. But officials in Brussels acknowledge that more needs to be done to counter Moscow's escalating missile production.
More than four years after the start of Russia's full-scale invasion, diplomacy remains at a standstill. Both sides have been intensifying their long-range attacks, leading to a sharp rise in civilian casualties. Ukraine has been firing record numbers of drones at Russian territory, while Moscow has launched an all-time high number of missiles against Ukrainian cities.
In the Kherson region, a Russian drone targeted a civilian at a market, according to police, in what has become a pattern of attacks on populated areas. The UN has documented a significant increase in civilian deaths in recent months, with many occurring far from the front lines.
Analysts say the mutual strikes are aimed at depleting each other's resources and morale, but the human cost is mounting. "This is a war of attrition, and civilians are paying the price," said a European diplomat in Kyiv, speaking on condition of anonymity. "Both sides are trying to gain leverage before any potential talks, but the violence is only making a political solution harder."
For Ukraine, the refinery attacks are a demonstration of its growing drone capabilities, which have reached targets more than 1,000 kilometres inside Russia. For Moscow, the missile barrages are a reminder of its ability to strike Ukrainian infrastructure and population centres at will.
As the conflict enters its fifth year, the international community remains divided on how to respond. While the EU and the UK have pledged continued support, the United States has been slower to commit new aid, leaving Ukraine in a precarious position. The coming weeks will be critical, as both sides seek to shape the battlefield before any potential diplomatic push.
