Ukraine updates: Drone attack hits Russian oil refinery

German Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul has said Russia must face increased pressure after recent airspace violations in Poland and incidents in Romania.

"Russia must know: we will always respond," Wadephul told German public broadcaster ZDF on Sunday. 

"We will not allow ourselves to be put under further military pressure. We will unleash our powers, and the economic and political powers of the free world are strong."

Wadephul said Russian President Vladimir Putin was "testing" the West. 

"He does not accept any offer of talk. He clearly does not want to end this war in Ukraine for now. He is going beyond it, and we must respond clearly and stand united," the German foreign minister said.

Wadephul said he is in favor of tougher sanctions against Russia but stressed that NATO's defenses at its eastern border had to be strengthened.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has highlighted the importance of hitting Russian oil refineries.

"The most effective sanctions — the sanctions that work the fastest — are fires in Russian oil refineries, at their terminals and oil depots," he said in his evening address to the nation on Sunday, referring to a series of Ukrainian drone attacks targeting the Russian oil sector.

The hits on the refineries have "significantly restricted the Russian oil industry, and that significantly restricts the war," Zelenskyy said.

Kyiv recently targeted one of Russia's largest refineries in the city of Kirishi, 110 kilometers south-east of St Petersburg.

Meanwhile, Zelenskyy said Ukraine is ready to share its experiences in countering Russian drone attacks with NATO, after incursions into alliance airspace this week.

"We are ready to train all partners in this defense," said Zelenskyy. "Everyone sees that the Russians are looking for ways to expand the war into the territory of Poland and the Baltic States, and the Russian army is also testing Romania."

US President Donald Trump said on Sunday he is prepared to impose sanctions on Russia.

But he called on Ukraine's allies in Europe to take similarly tough action against Moscow, which has not bowed to increased diplomatic pressure in recent weeks.

"Europe is buying oil from Russia. I don't want them to buy oil," Trump told reporters. "And the sanctions... that they're putting on are not tough enough, and I'm willing to do sanctions, but they're going to have to toughen up their sanctions commensurate with what I'm doing."

Trump has repeatedly threatened to punish Russia with new sanctions if Moscow refuses to reach a ceasefire agreement with Ukraine.

But the US leader has failed to follow up on those threats.

Ukraine's military intelligence agency, HUR, said it was behind attacks that targeted Russia's railway infrastructure, Ukrainian media reported Sunday.

HUR reportedly carried out an explosion on a railway line in Russia's southern Oryol region and the derailment of a freight train in the Leningrad region, near St. Petersburg.

A locomotive also derailed in another district of the same region, killing the driver. But the agency did not claim responsibility for that incident.

"By destroying railway infrastructure in these sections, the Russians are experiencing significant logistical problems, which in turn affects their ability to carry out active operations against the Ukrainian armed forces," Ukrainian media outlets quoted an HUR spokesman as saying.

Romania on Sunday denounced Moscow's drone entry, saying it poses a "new challenge to regional security and stability" in the Black Sea region.

On Saturday, the country's Defense Ministry reported that two F-16 fighter jets detected a drone in the national airspace and tracked it until it disappeared from radar.

In a statement following the incident, the Defense Ministry said it "strongly condemns the irresponsible actions of the Russian Federation" and added that "such incidents demonstrate the Russian Federation's lack of respect for international law."

EU foreign affairs chief Kaja Kallas called the action "unacceptable." 

Romania is the second NATO country to report such an incursion. Earlier this week, Poland, with the support of NATO allies, shot down Russian drones that violated its airspace.

Two trains derailed in Russia's western Leningrad region early on Sunday, with a train driver killed in one of the incidents, the regional governor has said. 

"Recovery efforts are under way following the derailment of a single diesel locomotive near Semrino station in Leningrad's Gatchina district," Governor Alexander Drozdenko said on Telegram.

"The train driver was killed. He was trapped in the cabin, and died in an ambulance after being unblocked," he added.

In an earlier post, Drozdenko reported that a freight train derailed further to the south with no one injured in the incident.

However, he said investigators were "looking into possible sabotage."

The incidents came hours after an explosion on a section of rail track in Russia's western Oryol region killed three people.

There has been a series of derailments, explosions and fires on Russia's railway network in recent months, with authorities regularly blaming the incidents on Ukrainian sabotage.

Typically, Kyiv does not claim responsibility for such events but often voices its approval, saying that Russia uses the network to transport troops and supply its forces fighting in Ukraine.   

Many in Germany are concerned that Russia might carry out an attack on a NATO member state, particularly after Russian drones recently flew into Polish — and thus NATO — airspace, a survey has shown.

In the poll, conducted by the Insa institute for the mass-circulation Bild daily, 62% of respondents said they were worried about Russian attacks on countries such as Poland and Lithuania.

However, 28% of the 1,002 respondents said they were not troubled by such fears, while 10% were unsure.

The survey also showed that a majority of people in Germany favor stricter economic penalties on Russia overits invasion of Ukraine.

Some 49% said the EU should immediately stop all gas and oil deliveries from Russia to the bloc as against 33% who were in favor of continuing supplies.

In addition, 51% of respondents said that frozen Russian assets in the EU should be used to support Ukraine as it fights against invading Russian forces.

Ukraine could lower the quality of mobile communications during Russian drone attacks so that networks are not used by Moscow's forces to coordinate operations, Ukrainian Chief of the General Staff Andriy Hnatov was quoted as saying on Sunday.

"This is not a disruption of mobile communications, but rather a restriction on the quality of communications in certain areas, like a restriction on 4G and 5G communication," Hnatov told Ukrainian online video channel Novyny Live.

"So that the modems they use on their unmanned aerial vehicles cannot access the internet of our communications operators," he said.

Many drones are equipped with cameras that send images and require a 4G connection to operate, according to reports by media.

Russia has often ordered mobile internet shutdowns during Ukraine drone attacks to disrupt coordination.

The Kirishi oil refinery in southwest Russia has been attacked by Ukrainian drones, causing a fire after one of the aircraft was shot down over the facility, Russian officials said on Sunday.

Alexander Drozdenko, the governor of the Leningrad region, where the Surgutneftegaz's Kirishinefteorgsintez refinery is situated, said no one was injured in the attack and the fire had been extinguished.

Ukraine's drone command confirmed it  had "carried out a successful strike" on the refinery, one of Russia's biggest.

The refinery in Kirishi is located 110 kilometers (68 miles) southeast of St. Petersburg and 800 kilometers north of Ukraine.

Ukraine has recently stepped up drone attacks on Russia's oil refineries and pipelines in a bid to disrupt Russian military fuel supplies and cut off a critical source of Moscow's funding for its full-scale invasion.

On Saturday, Ukrainian drones hit a production site of an oil company in Russia's Bashkortostan region, also causing a fire

Regional governor Radiy Khabirov said production would continue at the facility at normal levels despite the attack.

The president of the UN General Assembly ,Annalena Baerbock, has said she could imagine UN peacekeeping forces being deployed to Ukraine to secure a ceasefire and postwar peace if supported by the majority of UN states.

Baerbock, the former German Green and foreign minister, who took over the UN job on September 9, was speaking to German weekly newspaper Bild am Sonntag.

"If a peace treaty is reached, it must be secured in the best possible way. And if the majority of member states say that Blue Helmets are needed for this, then that is something that will hopefully secure lasting peace," Baerbock said.

She said such peace missions are "more necessary than ever before, and not only with regard to the European continent."

UN peacekeeping forces are referred to as Blue Helmets after the color of the protective gear they wear on the ground. They consist of military personnel from UN member states seconded to work under the command and control of the United Nations. 

Such a UN peacekeeping mission would also largely depend on Moscow. The UN Security Council authorizes peacekeeping missions, and Russia's veto power over any of the Council's decisions could stymie a UN Blue Helmet deployment to Ukraine. 

Efforts to agree to a ceasefire have been ongoing for months, but have so far proven unsuccessful.

Russia has been unwilling to enter talks until what President Vladimir Putin calls the conflict's "root causes" — namely Ukraine's ambitions to join NATO and the European Union — are addressed.

Russia launched the full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, after backing separatists in eastern Ukraine since 2014, when its forces illegally annexed the Crimean peninsula.

Baerbock formally took office as the president of the UN's General Assembly on Tuesday. The largely ceremonial role is different from that of the UN Secretary-General.
 

Welcome to DW's coverage of the latest developments in the Russia's war on Ukraine.

Annalena Baerbock, the former Green Party co-leader and German foreign minister who started a new job at the UN this week, has said she could imagine the UN deploying peacekeeping forces to Ukraine to protect a potential future peace deal.

Such a step, however, still feels like a distant prospect, with ceasefire talks between Ukraine and Russia stalled.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Friday that talks with Kyiv are "paused," although he noted that "communication channels are available," according to Russian state media.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy warned this week that Russia's Vladimir Putin wants to occupy all of Ukraine, and will not end the war unless he is forced to do so.

Those remarks came after Russian drones crossed into Polish airpsace, sparking alarm among NATO members and leading to pledges to reinforce the alliance's eastern flank.

Stay tuned as DW brings you the latest on Russia's war in Ukraine.