Ukraine-Russia war live: Zelensky accuses west of ‘zero real reaction’ to massive Russian attack that killed five

Former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev has said that drone incursions into European airspace are a useful reminder to its citizens of the dangers of war.

“The main thing is that short-sighted Europeans feel the danger of war on their own skin,” he wrote on Telegram.

“That they fear and tremble like dumb animals in a herd being driven to slaughter.”

Russia has insisted it is not behind the incursions and does not want to attack Europe.

Ukraine’s overnight attacks in the Belgorod region of Russia has damaged power infrastructure across the region.

Thousands of customers were left without power after the attacks caused electricity links to snap, the governor of the region, Vyacheslav Gladkov, said on Monday.

Emergency services and engineers were able to restore power to 34,000 people by Monday but 5,400 were still left without electricity.

Both sides say they are aiming attacks at war infrastructure.

The Rosneft-controlled Tuapse oil refinery in Russia’s southern Krasnodar region was targeted by Ukrainian drones overnight, causing a fire at a building for security staff which was quickly out, regional authorities said this morning.

Ukraine has sharply stepped up its drone strikes on Russia’s oil refineries and pipelines in the past two months in what it says is a response to Russia’s attacks on its own energy infrastructure.

Just hours earlier, the Russian military said that its air defence units had destroyed 251 Ukrainian drones overnight, most of them over the southwest, with 61 over the waters of the Black Sea and one heading towards Moscow.

“On the night of 6 October, drone debris fell on the grounds of the Tuapse oil refinery. A fire broke out in the security building, which was quickly extinguished,” local officials in the Krasnodar region, where the refinery is located, said on the Telegram social media channel.

“Two people were injured and hospitalised,” they said.

The export-oriented Tuapse plant, which has a processing capacity of 240,000 barrels of oil per day (bpd) produces naphtha, fuel oil, vacuum gasoil and high-sulphur diesel.

It mainly supplies China, Malaysia, Singapore and Turkey.

Norway’s Oslo Airport was forced to pause between one and several landings on Monday.

A Norwegian pilot reported seeing three to five drones while approaching the airport and raised the alarm to police around midnight.

“One or more aircraft waited in the air until the situation was clarified. No aircraft departed for alternative airports,” an Avinor spokesperson said.

It’s still not possible to connect the Russian-controlled Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant in southern Ukraine to an external power source due to a tense situation but things are under control, the RIA state news agency said this morning.

RIA cited the plant’s Russian-controlled management who have said that the plant is running off reserve generators after an external power line was cut.

The Kremlin is trying to prevent the United States from providing Tomahawk missiles to Ukraine in order to retain the sanctuary that Russia enjoys in its rear, a Washington-based think tank has said.

“Ukrainian forces are able to conduct long-range drone strikes against a significant portion of Russia’s rear, but the payloads on these drones are limited and not suitable to destroy specialised objects,” the Institute for the Study of War said.

It added that Ukraine’s ability to launch missile strikes “deep into Russia’s rear with larger payloads would allow Ukraine to significantly damage – if not destroy – key military assets in Russia, such as the Shahed drone factory in Yelabuga, Republic of Tatarstan, or the Engels-2 Air Base in Saratov Oblast from which Russia sorties strategic bombers that fire air-launch cruise missiles at Ukraine”.

“ISW assesses that there are at least 1,945 Russian military objects within range of the 2,500-kilometre variant Tomahawk and at least 1,655 within range of the 1,600-kilometre variant,” the think tank monitoring the war in Ukraine said.

“Ukraine likely can significantly degrade Russia’s frontline battlefield performance by targeting a vulnerable subset of rear support areas that sustain and support Russia’s frontline operations,” it said.

Russia said on Monday its air defence units destroyed 251 Ukrainian drones overnight, most of them over the southwest, with 61 over the waters of the Black Sea and one heading towards Moscow.

The Russian defence ministry posted the figures on the Telegram messaging app, but there was no official information on possible damage. Russia’s defence ministry reports only the number of drones destroyed, not how many in total are launched by Ukraine.

Ukrainian news channels on Telegram said a large fire was sparked by a hit on an oil depot in Feodosia on the Crimean coast of the Black Sea. A fuel tank at the depot exploded as a result of the attack, the RBK-Ukraine media outlet said.

Below, you can see a breakdown of Russia’s latest, overnight aerial attack.