Ukraine struck deep into Russian territory overnight into Wednesday, hitting a military plant in Cheboksary with its domestically produced Flamingo cruise missiles and setting the Kuibyshev oil refinery in Samara Oblast ablaze with long-range drones, in one of the broadest deep-strike operations of the year. President Volodymyr Zelensky confirmed the attack on the Cheboksary plant, which Ukrainian officials say supplies components for the drones and missiles Russia fires at Ukrainian cities.
The Samara refinery sits nearly 800 kilometres from the Ukrainian border, and Ukrainian military sources said two further oil and energy facilities in Vladimir Oblast were also targeted during the night. The strikes extend a months-long Ukrainian campaign against Russian fuel production and logistics that has repeatedly forced refineries offline and tightened Moscow's wartime fuel balance.
The pressure on Russian logistics was felt in the occupied south as well. The Azov Corps said the port of Mariupol is no longer operational after Ukrainian strikes left it without power, disrupting military supply routes through the occupied city. A day earlier, Ukraine destroyed the Chonhar bridge linking Crimea to occupied Kherson Oblast, according to Andrii Kovalenko, head of Ukraine's Centre for Countering Disinformation — severing one of the main road arteries Russian forces use to move equipment from the peninsula.
Russia answered with another mass drone assault. Ukraine's air force said Moscow launched 207 drones overnight, of which 181 were intercepted, with 21 striking 14 locations. At least six people were killed and dozens injured across the country over the past day, officials said.
Kharkiv endured its second consecutive day of attacks, with drones striking the city in daylight on Wednesday morning, igniting fires in residential buildings across several districts and injuring at least six people. In Odesa, two residential buildings were hit overnight.
On the front line, Ukraine's general staff recorded 180 combat engagements on Tuesday, with the heaviest fighting again concentrated around Pokrovsk in Donetsk Oblast. The general staff put Russia's cumulative losses since the February 2022 invasion at roughly 1.38 million personnel, including 1,190 over the past day — figures that cannot be independently verified.
Ukraine's allies moved to keep ammunition flowing. German Defence Minister Boris Pistorius said Berlin will contribute an additional 300 million euros to the Czech-led initiative that buys artillery shells for Kyiv — roughly 50,000 rounds of long-range ammunition.