Russia strikes cargo vessels, steel plants across Ukraine

Russian forces have struck several industrial facilities across Ukraine, as Moscow continues its targeted campaign against Kyiv’s manufacturing infrastructure.

The ministry said on Saturday that Russian forces hit Ukrainian steelmaker Zaporizhstal in the southeastern Ukrainian city of Zaporizhzhia.

It also claimed to have hit an Interpipe Steel complex in the central city of Dnipro and several plants in Kryvyi Rih, also located in the country’s south and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s hometown.

At least two people were killed in strikes that hit the ArcelorMittal plant in Kryvyi Rih, the company announced, adding that production facilities had also been damaged.

Russia’s Defence Ministry added that two ⁠cargo vessels were also hit overnight in ⁠the Black Sea port of Chornomorsk, the Interfax news agency ‌reported.

These attacks came after Ukraine launched drones on industrial facilities in Russia’s Samara region, Interfax reported, citing regional Governor Vyacheslav Fedorishchev.

Ukraine’s General Staff said on Saturday that one of the drones hit the Togliattikauchuk plant, specialised in the production of synthetic rubbers and fuel additives that are used in fuel for Russian missiles.

Russia’s Defence Ministry said its forces had downed 230 Ukrainian drones overnight in more than a dozen Russian regions, as well as over Crimea and the Azov and Black seas.

Ilya Sukhikh, mayor of the city of Togliatti in the Samara region, said several residential buildings were damaged and one person was injured.

In a separate attack, four commercial properties were set ablaze in the city of Taganrog in the Rostov region, local Mayor Svetlana Kambulova said, according to Russian news agency TASS.

Since its invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, Russia has systematically attacked Ukraine’s power grid, defence plants and logistics hubs to disrupt local arms production, choke civilian electricity and heating, and undermine supply networks.

Ukraine has launched its own aggressive long-range campaign against Russia’s industrial infrastructure, including dozens of oil refineries, disrupting Russia’s war revenue and causing domestic fuel shortages.

The attacks come as Zelenskyy was quoted as saying by German broadcaster Deutsche Welle he would be willing to meet Russia’s President Vladimir Putin during the G20 summit in Florida in December – if both leaders were invited.

On Friday, at least two people were killed in Russian strikes on two petrol stations in Kyiv .

Russia also hit fuel stations in Kyiv on Thursday, suggesting a new campaign focused on civilian areas in the capital.

Three people were killed in Russian attacks in southeastern Ukraine’s Dnipropetrovsk and Zaporizhia regions and in Kharkiv in the northeast, according to the governors of those regions.

A further 12 people, including a 12-year-old boy, were injured in Kyiv, Mayor Vitali Klitschko said.

One person was also killed in the Kyiv region surrounding the capital, the regional governor said.

In an overnight Russian attack on the southwestern city of Odesa, at least 35 people were injured, said regional governor Oleg Kiper .

Meanwhile, Ukraine carried out drone attacks on Russia, killing one in the Kursk region, according to local officials.

In Russia’s Belgorod region, a frequent target of Ukrainian forces, one person died in a Ukrainian drone attack, local officials said. The head of Russian-controlled parts of the eastern Donetsk region said two local gas company employees were killed in a drone attack.

Two people were injured in a Ukrainian missile attack that hit two residential buildings and damaged an industrial facility in Volgograd, south of Saratov on the Volga River, local authorities said, without identifying the industrial facility.