Ukraine-Russia war latest: Russian oil depots hit after Putin launches ballistic missile attack on Kyiv

Russia pounds Kyiv with ballistic missiles leaving one dead and 13 injuredUkrainian forces have struck three oil depots and a fuel facility in Russia's southern Stavropol region this morning, President Volodymyr Zelensky has said.The Ukrainian president said three Russian “shadow fleet” tankers were also hit in the Black Sea.It comes after a major Russian aerial assault on Kyiv and other cities on Sunday, which Ukrainian authorities said killed at least six people and injured 16 others.The attack on Ukraine’s capital is believed to be the biggest ballistic missile attack of the war. The Kyiv government said firefighters were responding to blazes in five different districts after the attack, one of the biggest in recent weeks, hit residential buildings, office and industrial sites, a dormitory and vehicles.Ukrainian foreign minister Andrii Sybiha said the raid involved “around four dozen” ballistic missiles, the largest number in a single attack since the war began.The attack on Kyiv comes a day after Ukrainian drone strikes killed at least nine people at warehouses belonging to a major Russian shopping website.Volodymyr Zelensky said the strikes targeted “significant logistical facilities”, accusing Wildberries of providing equipment for drones and navigation equipment for the Russian military.Oil tankers hit at key terminal off Russia's coastA strike on two oil tankers at the Caspian Pipeline Consortium terminal off Russia’s Black Sea coast halted oil loadings at the site, the CPC said on Sunday.The attack on the Asia and Nissos tankers in the port of Novorossiysk sparked a fire aboard the ASIA, which was extinguished.The company did not say who was responsible for the attack.It added there were no casualties or oil spills, and the tankers — sailing under the flags of Liberia and the Marshall Islands respectively — remained afloat.Both Russia and Ukraine have sharply ramped up strikes on ships in the Black and Azov seas over the past week.Ukraine says it targets Russia's so-called shadow fleet, which ships oil in violation of international sanctions over the Kremlin's invasion of its neighbour.Kyiv has for months been targeting Russia's oil industry, which it says both directly fuels Moscow's war effort and funds it through export revenues, triggering acute fuel shortages in a country that is one of the world's top oil producers.The CPC is a 940-mile oil pipeline ​connecting Kazakhstan’s Caspian Sea oil ​deposits ⁠with Novorossiysk, where the oil is loaded and shipped by tanker to world markets.The pipeline accounts for about 80 per cent of oil-rich Kazakhstan's crude exports, with the Russian government and Russian state oil firms holding a combined 31 per cent stake in the enterprise.Arpan Rai20 July 2026 05:08Russia fired more ballistic missiles against Ukraine in July than it produces monthly, says ISWRussian forces have launched more ballistic missiles against Ukraine thus far in July than Russia reportedly produces each month, according to a US-based think tank monitoring the war.“Ukrainian defence source Militarnyi reported on 19 July that Russia used up to two-thirds of its planned annual production of Zirkon missiles in July 2026 alone and that Russia launched more ballistic missiles in July than Russia’s reported total monthly production volume,” the Institute for the Study of War said.Citing the Ukrainian Air Force reports for July, ISW said the attacks indicate that Russia has launched 107 ballistic missiles and 20 Zirkon missiles against Ukraine in July thus far.“Militarny cited unspecified Ukrainian military intelligence (GUR) reports indicating that Russia produces about 60 Iskander-M ballistic missiles and 40 missiles for the S-400 complex monthly. Russia appears to be dipping into its stockpiles to continue increasing the number of ballistic missiles it launches against Ukraine, as these missiles have a higher success rate than drones and cruise missiles,” it said.“Russian forces have simultaneously decreased the number of drones they launch in each overnight package, launching 2,955 thus far in July 2026 compared to 5,749 in June 2026,” the ISW said.Arpan Rai20 July 2026 05:03Russia claims control of another village in Ukraine's Dnipropetrovsk regionRussian forces have captured the settlement of Vilne in the Dnipropetrovsk region of Ukraine, the Russian defence ministry said on Sunday.Officials in Kyiv have not issued a response to Russia’s claims but analysts monitoring the war have said the statement from defence ministry is false as Russian forces have not made any confirmed advances.“Russian forces continued limited offensive operations in the Oleksandrivka direction on 18 and 19 July but did not make confirmed advances,” the Institute for the Study of War (ISW) said.“ISW assesses that the Russian MoD’s claim is part of Russia’s ongoing cognitive warfare effort to signal battlefield success contrary to all available evidence,” the think tank said.Arpan Rai20 July 2026 04:40Russia pounds Kyiv with major ballistic missile attackRussia battered Ukraine's capital Kyiv in the early hours of Sunday with one of its biggest ballistic missile barrages of the war, killing at least one person and ⁠wounding 16 others, president Volodymyr Zelensky said.A series of powerful explosions thundered across the darkened city in an attack that involved 41 missiles of various types, the air force said, ravaging buildings across several districts and sparking fires.Residential buildings, warehouses, a supermarket and a dormitory were among the structures damaged, said Kyiv mayor Vitali Klitschko, adding that three people were in ⁠a serious condition.Separately on Sunday, four people were killed and 19 wounded in a strike on a postal depot outside the northeastern city of Kharkiv near the Russian border, the regional governor said.At one location in western Kyiv, emergency workers picked through smouldering debris ⁠and doused bombed-out apartments.People clean up their small shop after a large-scale attack overnight that left at least one person dead and 14 injured (Getty)Arpan Rai20 July 2026 04:11Ukraine blames Russia for strike on Turkish cargo ship that killed fiveUkrainian officials said a strike by Russian forces targeted an international cargo vessel in the Black Sea off the coast of Ukraine's southern city of Odesa, killing at least five crew members.The Guinea-Bissau-flagged ship had left port loaded with corn and was carrying a crew of 17 sailors from India and Syria, in addition to one Ukrainian, said prime minister Sergii Koretskyi.Eight crew members were rescued from the vessel — which was still burning late ⁠on Sunday — and five remain missing, he added.“A civilian ship. An international crew. A route serving global food security. Putin saw another target,” Ukraine’s foreign minister Andrii Sybiha wrote on X.“This attack leaves no room for illusions. ‌Putin's Russia does not care whom it ​kills,” he said.A Reuters witness in Odesa saw smoke billowing from a large vessel off the coast.Moscow has not publicly commented on Sunday's strike.Russia has stepped up attacks in recent weeks on deepwater ports in southern Ukraine that handle much of the country's grain and other critical cargo in the fifth year of war.Arpan Rai20 July 2026 04:01Watch: Smoke billows from Moscow warehouse after deadly Ukrainian attacksSmoke billows from Moscow warehouse after deadly Ukrainian attacksNicole Wootton-Cane20 July 2026 04:00Comment: The West is preparing for the wrong post-war RussiaThe West has long assumed pressure would force Russia to moderate or collapse. Both assumptions misunderstand how the Kremlin responds to weakness, says senior policy adviser Dan Sleat.Nicole Wootton-Cane20 July 2026 03:00Ukraine buries its unknown soldiers as families wait for identificationIn a military cemetery in Kyiv, a brother and sister walk between the crosses, carrying a bunch of carnations. Each cross in that section bears the same words: “unknown defender of Ukraine,” with an ID number below and a note that identification is ongoing.One grave stands out: beneath the inscription, a photo was later attached, showing Ihor Yalynych, a soldier last seen alive in Kharkiv region in 2022. After four years of searching, Stanislav and Oleksandra Yalynych found their father.Identification of the dead is a reckoning that will stretch on for years, among the longest-lasting wounds of Russia’s war in Ukraine. Some graves may remain nameless forever, with the families left to wait.For most of the war, there was nowhere to bury the unidentified dead. The bodies lay in refrigerated storage while the national military cemetery was still being built. Even before the cemetery was completed in January, the first group of the unknown soldiers were laid to rest in August. More than 300 now lie beneath numbered crosses, with more graves being dug.You can read more below:Nicole Wootton-Cane20 July 2026 02:00A US license could let Ukraine produce Patriot missiles, but it won’t be simple or quickUS President Donald Trump’s pledge to give Ukraine a license to produce Patriot air-defence systems could mark a major breakthrough for Kyiv, but experts and Ukrainian officials warn that turning the idea into real weapons would likely take years.Speaking last week alongside Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy at a Nato summit in Ankara, Turkey, Trump said the United States would allow Ukraine to make the US-designed systems that Kyiv has long sought to shield its cities and infrastructure from Russian missiles and drones.“We’ll give them the right to make Patriots. We’ll show them how to do it,” Trump said. “I think they can produce them pretty quickly.”But the statement left open a crucial question: What exactly would Ukraine be allowed to produce?You can read more below:Nicole Wootton-Cane20 July 2026 01:00I have visited Russia every year since the Ukraine war began. The mood has changedThe mood regarding the war in Ukraine has changed in recent months. Ukrainian drones have struck Russian oil infrastructure, causing fuel shortages across Russia. And the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelensky, is exuberant about finishing the war from a “position of strength”.The hope is that an economic crisis in Russia leads to social unrest and political instability, possibly resulting in the collapse of the ruling regime. This would not be an unprecedented event in Russian history. The Soviet Union rapidly unravelled amid economic and political crisis in 1991. But how likely is this scenario for Russia today? Alexander Titov writes:Nicole Wootton-Cane20 July 2026 00:00