Ukraine Hits Key Russian Port, Tankers 05/04 06:05

   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.

   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.

   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.