Ukrainian Strikes Kill Five Across Russia and Crimea Overnight

At least five people were killed in Ukrainian attacks on Russia and the Crimean peninsula overnight into Thursday, Al Jazeera reported. Crimea Governor Sergey Aksyonov said two people, including a child, died and two others were wounded in the annexed region. Drone strikes also killed two people in the Bryansk region and one in the Belgorod region.

Russia’s defence ministry stated that 269 Ukrainian drones were downed over Russia and Crimea during the night. Debris from one strike started a fire at the Poltavskaya oil depot in Krasnodar Krai, according to district head Aleksandr Kharitonov. Aksyonov announced that energy infrastructure damage would lead to temporary power outages across Crimea.

Russian forces struck three rail locomotives in Ukraine on Thursday, killing one driver and damaging two petrol stations, Al Jazeera reported. The locomotives were hit in the Sumy region in the northeast and the Zaporizhzhia region in the south, said Oleksandr Pertsovskyi, CEO of state rail operator Ukrzaliznytsia. Russia expelled Romania’s consul general in St Petersburg on Thursday.

The foreign ministry said Romanian envoy Cristian Istrate was declared persona non grata and the consular office would close. The action followed Romania’s closure of the Russian mission in Constanta last month and a Russian drone strike on an apartment in Galati that wounded two people. The French navy seized another tanker it said was linked to Russia’s shadow fleet, Al Jazeera reported.