Kyiv launches mass drone attack against Russia as Zelensky thanks Biden – latest news

The Ukrainian capital has hosted its largest music festival since the full-scale invasion as images showed festival-goers flocking to the stages.

Atlas United, Ukraine’s biggest music festival, opened its doors on Sunday. While it had none of the usual big names headline – Kasabian, The Chemical Brothers and Liam Gallagher are among past attendees – the event proved hugely popular.

It was staged near the Kyiv shopping centre to offer attendees the chance to shelter should an air raid happen.

Footage has appeared to show the moment a Ukrainian drone hit a major Russian oil refinery in the southern Krasnodar region.

The attack took place overnight. Local officials said no-one was injured and that an explosion, as well as the resultant fire that at the Black Sea Tuapse oil refinery, owned by oil major Rosneft, was caused by the debris of an intercepted drone. The footage, however, appears to show an intact drone reaching its target.

The Independent has been unable to verify the images.

Guns were fired near the lawyer and former prosecutor’s family home in the Moldovan capital Chisinau; a hidden camera was later discovered planted inside the house. Cars with number plates from Transnistria, a Russian enclave, followed him daily. His wife and children were harassed, as was his brother Vasile, a journalist and former MP.

Doctors suspected Nastase was the victim of poisoning when five times the normal level of mercury was found in his blood after he became suddenly ill. He decided, after recovery, to send his wife and children out of the country for their safety.

Kim Sengupta reports:

A fire caused by a Ukrainian drone strike on Russia’s Black Sea Tuapse oil refinery has been put out, officials said this morning.

The refinery, owned by oil major Rosneft, was damaged in the drone attack overnight, officials from the Krasnodar region said earlier.

Russia’s Black Sea Tuapse oil refinery, owned by oil major Rosneft, was damaged in a Ukrainian drone attack overnight, officials from the Krasnodar region said today.

Officials said the damage was caused from debris of a drone that was shot down by Russia sparked a fire at the refinery, which has since been contained. There were no casualties, the regional administration added.

It was not immediately clear if the refinery was operational or the extent of the damage it had sustained. Moscow rarely discloses the full scale of damage from Russian attacks.

Russia’s defence ministry earlier said its air defence systems destroyed 75 drones launched by Ukraine, including eight near the Tuapse.

The Tuapse refinery has been a target of several Ukrainian air attacks since the start of the war that Russia launched against its smaller neighbour in 2022.

Russia’s air defence systems destroyed 75 drones launched by Ukraine overnight, including eight near the town of Tuapse on the Black Sea where Russia’s oil major Rosneft has a refinery, the Russian defence ministry said this morning.

Of these, 47 drones were downed over the Rostov region in Russia’s southwest, 17 over the waters of the Black and Azov seas, eight over the Krasnodar region, where Tuapse is located, and single drones over the Belgorod, Voronezh and Smolensk region, the ministry said.

The ministry did not say whether its defence systems destroyed the drones, or whether the attack had caused any damage.

Sergei Boiko, head of the Tuapse district in the Krasnodar region, said on Telegram infrastructure and residential buildings had not been damaged.

Russian officials rarely disclose the full extent of damage inflicted by Ukrainian attacks. The Tuapse refinery has been a target of several Ukrainian air attacks since the start of the war that Russia launched against its smaller neighbour in 2022.

Russia’s SHOT and Mash Telegram news channels reported that a series of blasts were heard near the refinery early this morning.

There was no immediate comment from Ukraine. Kyiv has often said that the attacks on Russia’s military, energy and transport infrastructure are in response to Russia’s continuous attacks on Ukraine‘s territory.

Francisco Seco, based in Istanbul, enjoys making photos of daily life in cities around the world. This assignment, though, took The Associated Press photographer to Ukraine to document the toll Russia’s invasion of the country has had on the lives of athletes trying to train for the Paris Olympics, which starts next week. Here is what Seco had to say about making this extraordinary photo.

Why this photo

This photograph is part of a story about Ukrainian athletes who are going to participate in the Olympic Games this summer in Paris. Because of Russia’s full-scale invasion, many athletes are training outside Ukraine, but high jumper Oleh Doroshchuk is doing his training in the city of Kropyvnytskyi in central Ukraine. The city has been bombed a few times since the beginning of the war.

Our AP team joined Oleh for two days during his training sessions. On the second day, he trained in an open-air stadium, surrounded by other young athletes. A couple of times he had to stop his training because of the sound of anti-aircraft alarms.

The Ukrainian forces have received another Patriot system from Germany, president Volodymyr Zelensky said, thanking his allies for “more power for Ukraine”.

“The German Patriot system has arrived in Ukraine, and I extend my gratitude to Germany and the United States for this step. We will be able to do more in the skies. While much work remains ahead and this is far from guaranteed protection, nonetheless, it means more power for Ukraine,” he said in his nightly address yesterday, adding that it is likely ready for deployment.

He hinted at the countering of Russian missiles in the frontline update. “Today, the Commander of the Air Forces reported on the operations of our fire teams, the downing of ‘Shahed’ drones, and countering Russian missiles. We can now say that our air defence has been strengthened,” Mr Zelensky said.