Russian guided bomb attack kills 13 in Zaporizhzhia; Kyiv hits oil depot deep in Russia

Ukraine launched an overnight strike deep inside Russia that set fire to an oil depot that serves an air base for Russian nuclear bomber planes, said the Ukrainian military on Wednesday.

Prime Minister Robert Fico said on Wednesday he had helped secure Slovakia’s gas supply during a visit to meet Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow last month, just before Ukraine halted the transit of gas from Russia at the start of 2025.

Russian strike kills 13 in Ukrainian city of Zaporizhzhia

A Russian guided bomb attack on Wednesday killed at least 13 people and injured 29 others in Ukraine’s southeastern city of Zaporizhzhia, said authorities, adding that the number of victims could rise further.

The bodies of the dead and injured were strewn across a road and adjacent pavements next to damaged public transport.

High-rise apartment blocks, an industrial facility and other infrastructure were damaged in the attack, said Ukraine’s prosecutor-general office on Telegram. The debris hit a tram and a bus with passengers inside, it added.

Russian troops had used two guided bombs to hit a residential area, the regional governor Ivan Fedorov told reporters.

At least four of the injured were rushed to hospital in a serious condition, said Fedorov, adding that Thursday would be an official day of mourning.

“There is nothing more cruel than launching aerial bombs on a city, knowing that ordinary civilians will suffer,” said President Volodymyr Zelensky on X, urging Ukraine’s Western allies to step up pressure on Russia.

Regional authorities reported further explosions after the first strike hit.

Russia regularly carries out air strikes on the Zaporizhzhia region, which its forces partially occupy, and its capital. Moscow claims to have annexed the Ukrainian region along with four others including Crimea.

Ukraine attacks oil depot serving air base for Russian nuclear bombers

Ukraine launched an overnight strike deep inside Russia that set fire to an oil depot that serves an air base for Russian nuclear bomber planes, said the Ukrainian military on Wednesday.

Russian regional governor Roman Busargin said the cities of Engels and Saratov, on opposite sides of the Volga river, had been subject to a “mass drone attack” and fire had broken out in Engels at an industrial site, which he did not name.

He later posted on Telegram that the blaze had spread and two firefighters had died trying to put it out. He declared a state of emergency in Engels, which has a population of some 200,000.

The Ukrainian military reported multiple explosions and a big fire at the Kristal oil depot, which it said provided fuel to the Engels-2 military airfield.

The strike “creates serious logistical problems for the strategic aviation of the Russian occupiers and significantly reduces their ability to strike at peaceful Ukrainian cities and civilian objects”, it said in a statement on Telegram.

Ukraine deployed “long-range capabilities” in the attack, presidential adviser Oleksandr Kamyshin posted on X.

He used the hashtag #MadeInUkraine to signal that the weapons used were not supplied by the West.

Ukraine’s general staff also said it had carried out a successful strike on a Russian military command post in Ukraine’s Russian-occupied Donetsk region on Wednesday.

The facility has been used by Russia to coordinate attacks against Ukrainian troops and civilians, it said.

Russian news reports also said the fire in Engels was at an oil facility. Videos and photos published on social media showed a large fire burning, sending thick clouds of smoke into the night sky. Reuters was able to verify the location in an industrial zone of Engels, based on satellite imagery.

Russia’s defence ministry said in a statement that 11 Ukrainian drones had been destroyed overnight over the Saratov region, and 21 over other parts of Russia and the Azov Sea. It did not mention any damage.

Some Engels residents posted in a Telegram chat room that they had heard dozens of explosions. Authorities told people not to panic and instructed them not to take pictures or video of drones.

The Engels air base is located about 730km southeast of Moscow and hundreds of kilometres from the Ukrainian border. In December 2022, three Russian air force personnel were killed when a drone was shot down there.

PM Fico says he secured gas supply for Slovakia in talks with Putin

Prime Minister Robert Fico said on Wednesday he had helped secure Slovakia’s gas supply during a visit to meet Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow last month, just before Ukraine halted the transit of gas from Russia at the start of 2025.

“I needed to secure at a minimum gas for Slovakia’s domestic consumption — which we have secure, without even raising gas prices,” said Fico in a video on Facebook.

Over 12,300 civilians killed since start of Ukraine war, says UN

More than 12,300 civilians have been killed in the Ukraine war since Russia invaded nearly three years ago, a UN official told a UN meeting on Wednesday, noting a spike in casualties due to the use of drones, long-range missiles and glide bombs.

Russia, which is making territorial gains in Ukraine’s east, has conducted regular attacks on faraway cities in recent months using such weapons. This contributed to a 30% rise in civilian deaths to 574 in Ukraine between September and November 2024 compared to the previous year, according to UN data.

In total, said the UN deputy human rights chief, Nada Al-Nashif, more than 12,300 civilians had been killed in Ukraine including 650 children — although the UN has repeatedly said its tally is an undercount since it only includes deaths its teams have managed to verify.

“Russian armed forces intensified their operations to capture further territory in eastern Ukraine, with a severe impact on civilians in frontline areas,” she told a meeting of the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva.

“We are deeply concerned by the impacts on civilians of the increased use of drones and the use of new weapons,” she added, saying Russia had used 2,000 long-range drones in November.

These examples of increasing gross violations of international human rights law may represent war crimes, Al-Nashif told the council.

Russia’s delegate senior counsellor Evgeniy Ustinov said the report was biased and that it whitewashed Kyiv’s crimes. Moscow has denied committing atrocities or targeting civilians in Ukraine since the war began in February 2022.

Ukraine’s ambassador Yevheniia Filipenko described Russia’s recent actions against it as “calculated, cruel and designed to inflict maximum pain and destruction”.

Among the civilian deaths the UN documented were 35 deaths that occurred in Ukrainian-controlled parts of Kherson by video-piloted drones between September and November 2024. Such drones, also known as first-person view drones, carry cameras to allow operators to distinguish between civilians and combatants on their screens.

Some civilians had also been killed in the Kursk region of Russia where Ukrainian troops have intensified an offensive that began in August, said Al-Nashif, citing Russian reports.

Romania to rerun presidential election on 4 May

Romania’s ruling coalition agreed on Wednesday to rerun a two-round presidential election on 4 and 18 May and stuck to an original plan to endorse a single candidate, said the Liberal Party, one of the three coalition parties.

Three consecutive ballots to elect a new president and parliament in the European Union and Nato state descended into chaos when Calin Georgescu, a little-known far-right, pro-Russian politician, won the first presidential round on 24 November.

Amid suspicions of Russian interference, the top court annulled the presidential election and ordered the new coalition government to rerun it in its entirety.

Romania’s outgoing president, Klaus Iohannis, will stay on as head of state until the May election.

The new government will approve the calendar for the new ballot on Monday, said the Liberals.

The coalition parties say they agreed to back a single presidential candidate to prevent the far right from winning. Their candidate is Crin Antonescu, a former Liberal leader, though analysts say they may yet switch to backing somebody else.

In Romania’s 1 December parliamentary election, three ultranationalist and hard-right parties won roughly 35% of seats in the new legislature amid public anger with infighting and corruption allegations in the mainstream parties.

Since Russia launched its full-blown invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, Romania has helped export millions of tonnes of Ukrainian grain through its Black Sea port of Constanta, trained Ukrainian fighter pilots and donated a Patriot air defence battery to Kyiv. DM