The Ukrainian Air Force Command reported that on the night of 18/8, Russia launched a total of 270 Geran-2 suicide drones and decoy aircraft, along with 5 Iskander-M ballistic missiles and 5 Kh-101 cruise missiles, targeting Ukrainian territory.
"Air defense units shot down or jammed 230 drones, along with 4 Kh-101s and two Iskander-Ms. Four missiles and 40 drones hit 16 locations, with debris falling on three other sites," the command stated.
The fire is believed to be in Kremenchuk, Poltava province, after the attack on 18/8. Video: Lost Armour
Vitalii Maletsky, the mayor of Kremenchuk in the Poltava province of central Ukraine, said Russian forces targeted energy and transportation infrastructure, leading to dozens of explosions that rocked the city.
Poltava Governor Volodymyr Kohut added that several administrative buildings at an energy facility in the province were destroyed, but there were no casualties. In the Lubny district, nearly 1,500 households and 119 businesses lost power after the attack.
News sites linked to the Russian military released a video taken by Kremenchuk residents, showing a large fire in the city. Lost Armour, a Russia-based open-source intelligence analysis site, identified the target as the Kremenchuk oil refinery.
The Kremenchuk oil refinery is the largest petroleum product producer in Ukraine. It has been targeted multiple times by Russia since the beginning of the conflict and has sustained significant damage.
The Russian Ministry of Defense has not commented on the information.
Andrey Bocharov, the governor of Russia's Volgograd province, reported a Ukrainian drone attack on the same day, causing fires at an oil refinery and the roof of a hospital.
"This was a very large-scale drone attack. Firefighters are trying to control and extinguish the fire. There are no casualties," Bocharov said. Russian media reported that the fire at the Volgograd oil refinery was extinguished after several hours.
The Ukrainian military's General Staff previously claimed that its drones attacked a pumping station in Russia's Tambov province, causing a fire and halting operations on the Druzhba oil pipeline. Budapest criticized Kyiv for the attack, which cut off oil supplies to Hungary, affecting its energy security.
 |
Location of Kremenchuk. Graphics: RYV |
Location of Kremenchuk. Graphics: RYV
The attack came after US President Donald Trump met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and several European leaders in Washington. Trump affirmed that the US would help ensure Ukraine's security in an agreement to end the conflict.
Russia and Ukraine frequently attack each other's critical infrastructure, including energy facilities. Both sides have repeatedly accused each other of targeting civilian infrastructure while claiming to only target military objectives.
