Published by Global Banking and Finance Review
Posted on August 15, 2025
KYIV (Reuters) -Ukraine struck the Syzran oil refinery in Russia's Samara region in an overnight attack and also hit a Caspian Sea port and cargo vessel used to transport military supplies from Iran to Russia the previous day, Kyiv said on Friday.
The strikes came hours before a summit between U.S. President Donald Trump and Russia's Vladimir Putin in Alaska to discuss the war in Ukraine, to which Ukraine has not been invited, and as Russia grinds out gains in Ukraine's east.
Facing regular Russian missile and drone attacks, Ukraine has directed the majority of its deep strikes against Russian oil refineries and unspecified "storage facilities" this year, according to new General Staff data published on Friday.
The Ukrainian military did not confirm if it used drones - as usual - for its latest two long-range attacks. It says its deep strike campaign aims to degrade Russia's capacity to wage the full-scale war it launched in February 2022.
In a statement on the Telegram messaging app, Kyiv's military said its strike caused a fire and explosions at the Syzran refinery, which it said produces a range of fuels and is one of the biggest in oil company Rosneft's network.
Samara's regional governor said a drone attack caused a fire at an unspecified "industrial enterprise" in his region, but that it had been put out quickly. The Russian defence ministry said it had shot down Ukrainian drones over nine regions.
The Ukrainian military also said it struck the Caspian port of Olya in Russia's Astrakhan region on Thursday, hitting a ship that had been transporting drone parts and ammunition from Iran.
The vessel "Port Olya-4" regularly transits the Caspian Sea, bringing cargo between Iran and Russia, according to the U.S. Treasury Department and Ukrainian military intelligence.
Russia uses the Olya port as an important logistics hub for the supply of military goods from Iran, the Ukrainian military said in a statement on Friday.
Last September, the U.S. Treasury and State Department imposed sanctions on ships and companies it said were involved in supplying Moscow with Iranian weapons.
Terminals and ports comprised 7% of Ukraine's successful strikes on Russian territory since the beginning of 2025, the Ukrainian military said.
Most of the Ukrainian deep strikes took place over a range between 200 and 1,000 kilometres (124 to 621 miles), it added. Ukraine estimated that its strikes dealt $74.1 billion in damages this year, but did not provide details on its calculations.
Reuters could not independently verify the Ukrainian military's claims.
(Reporting by Anastasiia Malenko. Editing by Tom Balmforth and Mark Potter)
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