Ukrainian officials said on Wednesday that the country’s forces hit one of Russia’s biggest oil refineries overnight in its latest deep strike as Kyiv extended economic, military and diplomatic pressure on Moscow.
Ukraine’s almost daily long-range drone and missile strikes using domestically developed weapons have battered Russian oil facilities and brought a fuel crisis that is embarrassing the Kremlin more than four years after Russia’s all-out invasion of its neighbour.
The overnight attack started a fire at the Ryazan refinery, which has a capacity of about 17 million tonnes of oil per year, producing gasoline, diesel fuel, aviation fuel and other petroleum products, according to Ukraine’s General Staff. The refinery is about 400km (180 miles) from Ukraine.
The attack came hours after president Volodymyr Zelensky visited Washington on Tuesday for talks with president Donald Trump in another step in recruiting more vital US help for Ukraine’s fight against its much bigger enemy.
Ryazan governor Pavel Malkov said six people were taken to hospital after a drone attack. He said drone debris caused fires at unidentified “industrial sites”.
“Russia must feel that every day of this war will only come at a higher cost for it. We need to weaken the aggressor and keep up the pressure to bring an end to this war closer,” Zelensky said in a post on social media.
Ukraine’s recent high-profile successes against Russia have impressed Washington and helped restore US goodwill after Trump’s reluctance at the start of his second term to continue to support Kyiv. That stance had raised the spectre of Ukraine and Europe having to stand up to Russian aggression alone.
Zelensky says he had a good meeting with Trump
Zelensky said he had a “good meeting” with the American president, and Trump described the meeting as a “Great Honor.” The talks took place behind closed doors.
“Many things were discussed. The meeting went very well!” Trump wrote on Truth Social.
Zelensky said he also had a meeting in Washington with representatives of both parties in the US Senate, with more than 60 senators in attendance, as Ukraine pushes for more sanctions on Russia. He also met with representatives of Lockheed Martin, days after he welcomed a delegation from Raytheon to Kyiv.
The US weapons manufacturers are a crucial source of sophisticated weaponry, such as Patriot air defence systems, that Ukraine hopes to make itself. Trump said earlier this month he would grant Ukraine licences to manufacture the Patriots it needs to counter Russia’s ballistic missiles.
Zelensky says Ukraine is discussing joint production and technology exchange with both Lockheed Martin and Raytheon.
Ukraine is ready to share its cutting-edge – and battle-tested – drone technology. Its swift technical innovation has paid dividends as it helps pin down Russia’s bigger army on the front line and denies it supplies by hitting rear areas.
That has impressed countries around the world. Matthew Whitaker, the US ambassador to Nato, said during a visit to Ukraine earlier this week: “From reconnaissance and logistics to precision strikes, Ukraine has shown the world how unmanned systems can give smaller forces a decisive edge.”
Prospects for a settlement to stop the fighting appear dim, despite a yearlong diplomatic push by the Trump administration.
But US officials also agreed that Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, the president’s main envoys, would make a trip to Kyiv sometime in the future, according to a person familiar with the talks who was granted anonymity to discuss the closed-door meeting.
Mykhailo Drapatyi, the new commander-in-chief of Ukraine's military, said in a social media post on Wednesday that he had held his first phone conversation with General Alexus G Grynkewich, the Supreme Allied Commander Europe and Commander of US European Command.
“I outlined my vision of Ukraine’s victory and the capabilities required to achieve it,” said Drapatyi, who was appointed last week as part of a government reshuffle.
“At this stage of the war, we must strengthen operations across multiple domains, prevent enemy infiltration into our defensive lines, and expand both long-range and medium-range precision strikes against the enemy,” he added.
Ukraine says it hit a Russian naval base
Ukrainian forces also struck a naval base used Russia’s Black Sea, according to the General Staff.
It reported other strikes on a radar station in Russia’s Bryansk region on the border and on a drone launch site and a road bridge in the occupied part of Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk region.
The Russian Defence Ministry reported Wednesday that its air defences shot down 295 Ukrainian drones overnight above a number of Russian regions and occupied Crimea.
A 67-year-old person was killed in a Russian aerial attack on Ukraine's southern Kherson region, and Russian drones wounded three men in a residential neighbourhood in Kherson city, the regional capital, according to Oleksandr Prokudin, the head of the Kherson regional military administration.
Russian glide bombs struck the northeastern city of Kharkiv and 17 other places in the region of the same name over the previous 24 hours, wounding 11 people, the head of the regional military administration, Oleh Syniehubov, said.
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