Ukraine strikes two Russian oil refineries as part of Zelensky's 40-day influence operation

Ukrainian drones struck an oil refinery in Slavyansk-on-Kuban in Russia's Krasnodar region overnight on June 28, killing one person and triggering fires across multiple storage areas. Ukraine's Security Service confirmed the strike is part of a declared 40-day influence operation against Russia. Meanwhile, Trump reportedly signalled at the G7 summit that he may abandon the Anchorage framework, and Russian forces struck Zaporizhzhia and Kyiv, leaving two dead and 18 wounded.

Ukrainian drones carried out overnight strikes on June 28 targeting two oil refineries deep inside Russia, one in Slavyansk-on-Kuban in the Krasnodar region, and another approximately 700 kilometres from the front line in the Yaroslavl region.

Refinery hit, one killed

The Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) confirmed the Slavyansk-on-Kuban strike and said fires broke out near a crude oil tank farm, a refined products storage area, and a primary oil processing unit. The facility belongs to the Slavyansk ECO industrial group and processes around three million tonnes of crude per year, producing fuel oil, naphtha, and marine fuel.

Krasnodar regional governor Veniamin Kondratyev said one person was killed in the attack, and another was injured near the village of Trudobelikovsky in the Krasnoarmeysky district, where drone debris fell. Regional authorities provided no further details on the damage to the plant itself.

Part of a declared 40-day campaign

The SBU stated that the Slavyansk strike was carried out as part of a 40-day "influence operation" against Russia. Volodymyr Zelensky announced the approval of this operation on June 25, without disclosing its specific contents. Zelensky also said Ukraine separately struck the refinery in the Yaroslavl region overnight. The governor of Yaroslavl, Mikhail Evraev, acknowledged drone activity in the region and a temporary road closure on the outskirts towards Moscow, but said nothing publicly about any refinery damage.

Russian strikes on Zaporizhzhia and Kyiv

Russian forces responded in kind overnight, launching attacks on the Ukrainian cities of Zaporizhzhia and Kyiv. Kyiv mayor Vitaliy Klitschko reported two people injured in the capital. In Zaporizhzhia, regional military administration head Ivan Fedorov said two people were killed, including a 53-year-old woman, and 16 others were wounded. Fedorov said Russian forces used guided aerial bombs in the strike on the city.

Trump's Anchorage doubts

On the diplomatic front, Axios reported, citing two sources, that Donald Trump expressed frustration with Vladimir Putin at the G7 summit held June 15-17, and signalled he may walk away from the so-called "Anchorage framework", a set of demands Russia put forward, including the transfer of the Donbas region. One source told Axios: «Trump was sceptical about everything related to Putin and talked about putting pressure on Russia. But other leaders don't believe he will actually take any action.»

Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha welcomed the apparent shift, declaring that the "spirit of Anchorage", a phrase used in Russian media to describe the outcome of the Trump-Putin Alaska summit, was «definitely dead, if it ever existed at all.» He added: «For Russia, the lesson of Anchorage is that any peace plan developed without Ukraine is doomed to become a ghost and vanish. Moscow should stop believing in ghosts and instead respond to Ukraine's serious proposals to sit at the negotiating table and end the war.»

The overnight events mark the 1,586th day of Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine, which began on February 24, 2022.