Russia Pounds Kyiv and Odesa as Ukraine Hits Russian Tankers
Russia struck Kyiv, Odesa and Kharkiv overnight with ballistic and cruise missiles and more than 120 drones, killing at least two people and wounding around a dozen, as President Zelensky said his defenders had downed most of the barrage but “not the ballistic ones”. Ukraine, in turn, pressed its campaign against Russia’s shadow economy: its drone commander said units had struck 21 fuel tankers and seven other vessels overnight, taking the number of ships hit this week to 76.
Each side is now targeting the other’s economic arteries as much as its front lines — Russia the Ukrainian cities and Black Sea ports through which trade and morale flow, Ukraine the tankers, refineries and terminals that fund Moscow’s war. The ballistic missiles Zelensky cannot intercept are the reason he pressed allies at this week’s NATO summit for the air-defence packages agreed there, and the reason Ukraine was licensed to build its own Patriots. The maritime campaign is the mirror image: 76 vessels struck in a week is an attempt to make Russia’s oil exports and Azov grain corridor too costly to run. More than sixty people have been killed across the Kyiv region since the start of the month. Watch whether the promised interceptors arrive before the next mass strike, and whether the tanker war lifts insurance costs and oil.