Notifications can be managed in browser preferences.
Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged inPlease refresh your browser to be logged in
Next article
It comes as Russian launched a devastating missile attack on Mykolaiv, southern Ukraine
From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it’s investigating the financials of Elon Musk’s pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, ‘The A Word’, which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.
At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.
The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.
Over 100 firefighters rushed to tackle a blaze at an oil depot in Sochi, Russia, after Ukraine launched an overnight drone attack in a blow to Vladimir Putin’s war machine.
Footage showed towering flames and thick black smoke billowing from a fuel tank with a capacity of 70,000 cubic feet in Krasnodar on the Black Sea.
The attack, which was in the Adler district of the coastal resort city, would be Ukraine’s latest on infrastructure inside Russia that Kyiv deems key to Moscow’s war efforts.
A woman was killed in the Adler district in a Ukrainian drone attack late last month, but attacks on Sochi, which hosted the 2014 Olympic Winter Games, have been infrequent in the war that Russia launched in February 2022.
Meanwhile, at least seven people were injured after Russian troops launched a missile strike on the city of Mykolaiv in southern Ukraine on Sunday.
The attack destroyed or damaged dozens of homes, regional governor Vitaliy Kim said. There was no immediate comment from Russia about the attack.
The Russian and Chinese navies are carrying out artillery and anti-submarine drills in the Sea of Japan as part of scheduled joint exercises, the Russian Pacific Fleet was quoted as saying on Sunday.
The drills are taking place two days after US President Donald Trump said he had ordered two nuclear submarines to be positioned in “the appropriate regions” in response to remarks by former Russian president Dmitry Medvedev.
However, they were scheduled well before Mr Trump’s action.
Interfax news agency quoted the Pacific Fleet as saying Russian and Chinese vessels were moving in a joint detachment including a large Russian anti-submarine ship and two Chinese destroyers.
It said diesel-electric submarines from the two countries were also involved, as well as a Chinese submarine rescue ship. The manoeuvres are part of exercises titled “Maritime Interaction-2025” which are scheduled to end on Tuesday.
A Russian missile strike on the city of Mykolaiv in southern Ukraine injured at least seven people and destroyed or damaged dozens of homes and civilian infrastructure buildings, the regional governor said on Sunday.
Two of the injured were hospitalised as a result of the late Saturday attack, Mykolaiv Governor Vitaliy Kim said on the Telegram messaging app.
Kim posted photos showing single residential buildings almost destroyed, with building debris spread around. He said 23 private homes, 12 apartment buildings and a post office were damaged.
Reuters could not independently verify the report. There was no immediate comment from Russia about the attack. Both sides deny targeting civilians in the war that Moscow launched with a full-scale invasion on Ukraine in February 2022.
Ukraine’s air force said on Telegram that Russia had launched 76 attack drones and seven missiles targeting Ukraine overnight, striking eight locations throughout Ukraine. Ukraine’s air defence units destroyed 60 of the drones and one missile, it said.
More than 120 firefighters were trying to extinguish a fire at an oil depot in the Russian city of Sochi that was sparked by an Ukrainian drone attack, regional Governor Veniamin Kondratyev said early on Sunday on the Telegram messaging app.
Rosaviatsia, Russia’s civil aviation authority, said on Telegram that flights were halted at the city’s airport to ensure air safety.
Ukraine’s European allies praised Volodymyr Zelensky’s move to restore independence of Ukraine’s anti-graft investigators and prosecutors, after having voiced concerns about the original stripping of the agencies’ status.
Top European officials had told Mr Zelensky that Ukraine was jeopardising its bid for European Union membership by curbing the powers of its anti-graft authorities.
“It is important that anti-corruption institutions operate independently, and the law adopted on Thursday guarantees them every opportunity for a real fight against corruption,” Mr Zelensky wrote on Saturday after meeting the heads of the agencies, who briefed him on the latest investigation.
Ukraine’s anti-corruption bodies said on Saturday they had uncovered a major graft scheme that procured military drones and signal jamming systems at inflated prices, two days after the agencies’ independence was restored following major protests.
The independence of Ukraine’s anti-graft investigators and prosecutors, NABU and SAPO, was reinstated by parliament on Thursday after a move to take it away resulted in the country’s biggest demonstrations since Russia’s invasion in 2022.
In a statement published by both agencies on social media, NABU and SAPO said they had caught a sitting lawmaker, two local officials and an unspecified number of national guard personnel taking bribes. None of them were identified in the statement.
“The essence of the scheme was to conclude state contracts with supplier companies at deliberately inflated prices,” it said, adding that the offenders had received kickbacks of up to 30 per cent of a contract’s cost. Four people had been arrested.
“There can only be zero tolerance for corruption, clear teamwork to expose corruption and, as a result, a just sentence,” president Volodymyr Zelensky wrote on Telegram.
Mr Zelensky, who has far-reaching wartime presidential powers and still enjoys broad approval among Ukrainians, was forced into a rare political about-face when his attempt to bring NABU and SAPO under the control of his prosecutor-general sparked the first nationwide protests of the war.
He subsequently said that he had heard the people’s anger, and submitted a bill restoring the agencies’ former independence, which was voted through by parliament on Thursday.
Russian air defence units destroyed about 15 Ukrainian drones over Voronezh, the governor, Alexander Gusev, wrote on the Telegram messaging app.
The overnight attack resulted in several homes and utility buildings catching fire from falling drone debris and a woman was injured, the governor of the southern Russian region said on Sunday.
“The threat of further drone attacks remains,” Mr Gusev said in the post early on Sunday.
Both sides deny targeting civilians in their strike in the war that Russia launched with a full-scale invasion on Ukraine in February 2022.
Kyiv says that its attacks inside Russia are aimed at destroying infrastructure key to Moscow’s war efforts and are in response to Russia’s relentless strikes on Ukraine.
The Russian defence ministry said that its units destroyed 41 drones just before midnight on Saturday over Russian regions bordering Ukraine and over the waters of the Black Sea.
A Ukrainian drone strike reportedly injured a woman and sparked multiple fires in Russia’s southern Voronezh region, the local governor said today.
Meanwhile, Russia launched a missile attack on Kyiv, according to the Ukrainian capital’s military administration.
Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies
Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged inPlease refresh your browser to be logged in