Ukraine-Russia war latest: Fire erupts at Russian oil refinery after Ukraine strike as Kyiv hit by missiles

Putin is rattled and Trump needs a win – this is the chance for Ukraine and her allies to force the collapse of Russia’s army and push back against its land grab, writes world affairs editor Sam Kiley

Serbian president Aleksandar Vucic announced he would resign ​within weeks and the country will hold early presidential and parliamentary elections, following 18 months of anti-government protests.

Serbia is a candidate to join the EU, but Belgrade still has strong ties with Russia and China — a line Vucic has had to walk throughout his time in power.

The announcement by Vucic, who has been in power as ‌president or prime minister for 12 years, came amid persistent anti-corruption demonstrations led by students and triggered by the collapse of an awning at a railway station in the northern city of Novi Sad in November 2024, in which 16 people died.

“I will be president for only a couple more weeks, and then I will resign,” ​Vucic told throngs of his supporters at a pro-government rally in the capital, Belgrade. Vucic’s second and final mandate was due to expire in mid-2027.

Vucic said he would help his ​Serbian Progressive Party win the presidential election and the early parliamentary vote, also originally set for 2027.

“My proposal is for our list, the winning ⁠list in the upcoming elections, to be named ‘United Serbia’.”

Slovak prime minister Robert Fico said he opposed Nato’s plans to provide large-scale financial and military aid to Ukraine at the Alliance’s upcoming summit in Ankara.

He told local media that the Nato proposal was “massive” and that he would hold talks with defence minister Robert Kalinak to ensure Bratislava’s delegation attends the summit without a mandate to “involve Slovakia in further military loans or financial contributions”.

Fico’s remarks came less than two weeks before Nato’s annual summit, scheduled to take place in Turkey from 7 July, where Ukraine’s Volodymyr Zelensky has been invited to attend the meeting.

Ukraine hit two ⁠Russian oil refineries in ⁠the ​regions ⁠of Krasnodar ⁠and ​Yaroslavl overnight, president ⁠Volodymyr ‌Zelensky said this morning.

“We continue ‌our operations ⁠that weaken Russia’s ability to wage this war,” Zelensky wrote on social media.

Ukraine has stepped up its long-range aerial attacks on Russian military industries and energy facilities, aiming to cut Moscow’s revenue for the war and make Russians feel the consequences of the invasion, now in its fifth year.

Ukrainian drones ​struck Russian targets, including an oil refinery in the southern Krasnodar region overnight, local ⁠authorities said, as Kyiv continues energy infrastructure attacks that have caused acute fuel shortages in parts of ⁠Russia.

Krasnodar region governor Veniamin Kondratiev this morning said ⁠that a fire had ​broken ⁠out at the refinery ‌in Slavyansk-na-Kubani, with one person killed and another injured in a ‌nearby village.

Unverified footage ‌on social media showed a large fire at the refinery.

Slavyansk refinery is ⁠a private plant with capacity of about 100,000 barrels per day. It supplies fuel for domestic use and export.

Ukraine struck a major industrial facility in the Russian city of Volgograd, president Volodymyr Zelensky said.

Ukraine has stepped up its long-range aerial attacks on Russian military industries and energy facilities, aiming to cut Moscow’s revenue for the war and make Russians feel the consequences of the invasion, now in its fifth year.

Writing on X, Zelensky said that FP-5 Flamingo missiles hit the Titan-Barrikady facility in Volgograd in southwestern Russia, describing it as a “major industrial complex” where Russia “produces artillery systems and specialized military equipment, including components for missile launch systems”.

According to Ukraine’s General Staff, the facility manufactures equipment for missile systems, including self-propelled launchers and transport-loading vehicles for the Iskander-M missile system, which it said is “the same system Russia regularly uses to strike Ukrainian cities”.

Volgograd governor Andrei Bocharov confirmed an attack on a business in the region’s Krasnooktyabrsky district, saying 10 people had been wounded and taken to a hospital. He said production facilities at the site were damaged but did not identify the company.

Drones and artillery killed civilians on both sides of ⁠the Russia-Ukraine border yesterday, local officials said.

In the Russian border region of Bryansk, a Ukrainian drone strike killed two people in their car in ⁠a village near the border, ​the ⁠region’s acting governor Yegor Kovalchuk said on Telegram.

Moscow mayor Sergei Sobyanin issued a long ‌series of statements about Ukrainian drones ‌heading for the capital being intercepted. An informal tally kept by Russian news agencies put the number at 24 ⁠during the day.

In Ukraine, the governor of the southeastern Dnipropetrovsk Region, Oleksandr Ganzha, said a combined total of more than 40 drone strikes and artillery fire had killed one person and injured one near Nikopol.

The town, lying on the ‌opposite bank of the Dnipro River from the ​Russian-held Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, is ‌a frequent Russian target.