The Daily Populous Sunday August 3rd, 2025 evening edition
Authored by inews.co.uk and submitted by theipaper

An oil depot near a Russian city on the Black Sea coast has been the latest target of a suspected drone strike as Donald Trump orders US submarines to be repositioned

cancel email WhatsApp link share Share bookmark Save

share cancel email WhatsApp link bookmark

A Russian oil depot is ablaze following reports of Ukrainian drone strikes overnight.

Images circulating on social media show a huge fire and thick black smoke at the site in the Adler area of Sochi, a Russian city on the Black Sea coast.

Other areas have also been hit in recent days, including Russia’s Ryazan oil refinery and the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant in occupied Ukraine, which killed one civilian.

It comes amid escalating tensions between the US and Russia, with US President Donald Trump ordering submarines to be moved closer to Russia and Russian-Chinese navy exercises under way.

Here are four things you need to know about the latest escalation in the Russia-Ukraine war.

Nearby airport closed after suspected drone attack

More than 120 firefighters are attempting to put out an inferno in the Adler area of Sochi, according to the governor of the Krasnodar region, Veniamin Kondratyev, in a post on Telegram on Sunday morning.

Russian news agency Ria Novosti reported that the fuel tank on fire has a capacity of 2,000 cubic metres of fuel.

The Russian defence ministry said in its daily morning report on Telegram that its air defences destroyed 93 Ukrainian drones overnight, including one over the Krasnodar region and 60 over the Black Sea.

The strikes have not been independently verified, and there was no immediate comment from Ukraine.

Russian Telegram channels report a drone attack and fire at Rosneft oil depot in Adler area, Krasnodar region of Russia, not far from Sochi airport. pic.twitter.com/YpysehjDeP — Anton Gerashchenko (@Gerashchenko_en) August 3, 2025

Flights at Sochi’s airport were temporarily stopped to ensure air safety, but they had resumed by 3am UK time, according to Rosaviatsia, Russia’s civil aviation authority.

Kranodar’s governor said the Ukrainian attack would be the latest on Russian infrastructure that Kyiv considers to be central to Moscow’s war efforts.

Other areas have been hit in Ukrainian strikes

The latest drone strikes did not only target the Black Sea city of Sochi, according to the governor of Russia’s Voronezh region, in the south-west of the country, saying that four people have been injured in several fires elsewhere.

Ukraine’s military confirmed it hit Russia’s Ryazan oil refinery overnight on Friday, which is one of the largest in the country.

Also hit, the USF said, was the Annanefteprodukt oil storage facility in the Voronezh region that borders on north-eastern Ukraine.

Multiple fire signatures can be seen on the NASA FIRMS map after a Ukrainian drone attack on the Ryazan oil refinery last night. The Novokuybyshevsky oil refinery in Samara Oblast was also targeted, as well as electronic equipment plant in Penza. https://t.co/7lhOu0TVF9 pic.twitter.com/teKwKNwkZc — Mark Krutov (@kromark) August 2, 2025

Separately, Ukraine’s SBU intelligence agency said its drones had hit Russia’s Primorsko-Akhtarsk military airfield, which has been used to launch waves of long-range drones at targets in Ukraine.

The SBU said it also hit a factory in Penza that it said supplies Russia’s military-industrial complex with electronics.

Ukraine also hit in exchange of attacks

Russia also attacked Ukraine overnight, with a missile launched against Kyiv, according to Ukraine’s military administration.

Reuters reported that a loud boom shook the city just after midnight.

At least seven people have been injured after Russian missiles hit the southern Ukrainian city of Mykolaiv, the regional governor has said.

Vitalii Kim said around 23 homes, 12 apartment buildings and a post office were damaged. There has been no comment from Russia.

The UN’s nuclear watchdog – the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) – has confirmed reports of Ukrainian shelling at the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant in occupied Ukraine.

The nuclear plant’s management said on Saturday that one of its auxiliary facilities was attacked, killing a civilian.

“The auxiliary facility is located 1,200 metres from the ZNPP’s site perimeter and the IAEA team could still see smoke from that direction in the afternoon,” the nuclear watchdog said.

The exchange of missile and drone strikes between Ukraine and Russia comes amid wider escalating tensions globally.

Trump said he has ordered two nuclear submarines to “be positioned in the appropriate regions” in response to “highly provocative” comments by Dmitry Medvedev, Russia’s former president.

Medvedev, who is now deputy chair of Russia’s Security Council, told the US President to remember Moscow had Soviet-era nuclear strike capabilities.

Yesterday, Trump said in response on his Truth Social platform: “I have ordered two Nuclear Submarines to be positioned in the appropriate regions, just in case these foolish and inflammatory statements are more than just that.”

However, experts have criticised the move, saying it could enable Medvedev to respond.

“The subs are always there all the time and don’t need to be moved into position,” said Hans Kristensen of the Federation of American Scientists. “He [Trump] grants Medvedev a response to these crazy statements.”

Meanwhile, Russian-Chinese naval exercises are under way in the Sea of Japan, the Russian TASS news agency reported.

The Russian Pacific Fleet press service described the drills, which began on Friday and are due to end on Tuesday, as “defensive in nature and not directed against other countries”.

Russia and China regularly conduct military exercises to practice coordinating their armed forces and send a deterrent to their adversaries.