Ukraine hits key Russian oil-loading port and 3 'shadow fleet' tankers
[May 04, 2026]
KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Ukraine on Sunday launched a wave of strikes
against Russian oil targets, hitting a key loading port on the Baltic
Sea and two tankers that Ukraine alleges were illegally used to
transport Russian crude.
A nighttime drone strike sparked a blaze at Russia’s largest oil
exporting port on the Baltic Sea, the port of Primorsk, according to
Russian regional Gov. Alexander Drozdenko.
The port, operated by Russia’s state oil firm Transneft, is capable of
handling hundreds of thousands of barrels per day. Primorsk, which was
targeted multiple times in March, lies over 1,000 kilometers (620 miles)
from Ukraine, between the Russian-Finnish border and Russia’s
second-largest city of St. Petersburg.
Local Gov. Drozdenko said that the drone strike did not cause an oil
spill, but gave no immediate further comment regarding casualties or
damage.
But Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said that Ukrainian forces
destroyed several military and other targets, while also inflicting
significant damage on oil port infrastructure.
“One more Russian carrier of Kalibr missiles is out of action. Major
General Yevhen Khmara reported on the successful destruction of targets
in the Primorsk port," Zelenskyy wrote in a Telegram post on Sunday.
According to Zelenskyy, Ukrainian drones also hit a Karakurt missile
ship, a patrol boat, and a tanker belonging to Russia's so-called shadow
oil fleet, used to evade Western sanctions and price caps on Russian
energy.
In a separate post earlier on Sunday, Zelenskyy said that Ukrainian
forces had struck two more “shadow fleet” tankers near the entrance of
the Russian Black Sea port of Novorossiysk.
“These tankers were actively used to transport oil. Now they won’t,” he
said. He added the operation was led by the chief of Ukraine’s general
staff, Andrii Hnatov.
Moscow did not immediately acknowledge Zelenskyy's claims regarding
either strike.
Kyiv has recently stepped up its attacks on Russia’s oil export
infrastructure. Ukrainian officials argue that oil revenue directly
funds Moscow’s full-scale invasion of the country, now in its fifth
year.
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Drone strikes kill civilians near Odesa and Moscow
Elsewhere, two people were killed and three others wounded as
Russian drones struck Ukraine's southern Odesa region overnight into
Sunday, Ukraine's Emergency Service reported. It said the attack
damaged three residential buildings.
The drones also hit port infrastructure, causing a fire that was
later extinguished by emergency teams, the emergency service
reported.
Nighttime Russian strikes also wounded six people in the
Dnipropetrovsk region in central Ukraine, the agency said. A
passenger bus transporting 40 children was damaged, but no one
inside was injured, it added.
In Russia, a Ukrainian drone strike west of Moscow killed a
77-year-old man, local Gov. Andrei Vorobyov reported on the Telegram
messenger app. He said the fatal attack occurred near the town of
Volokolamsk, some 120 kilometers (75 miles) from central Moscow.
Vorobyov added that six drones were shot down in the Moscow region,
which surrounds but does not include the Russian capital. At least
five more drones were downed on the approach to Moscow itself,
according to mayor Sergei Sobyanin.
Separately, in Russia's western Smolensk region, a man, woman and
child were injured after Ukrainian drone debris flew into an
apartment block, according to local Gov. Vasiliy Anokhin.
Russia’s Defense Ministry reported on Sunday that a total of 334
Ukrainian UAVs were downed overnight over Russia and occupied
Crimea.
Also overnight into Sunday, Russia attacked Ukraine with 269 drones
and ballistic missiles, according to the Ukrainian Air Force.
Ukrainian forces shot down and repelled 249 drones, while hits from
ballistic missiles and 19 drones were recorded in 15 locations, the
air force said in a Facebook update.
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