Ukrainian attack on Crimea kills five, Russian officials say

Attacks continue on the ground as Moscow expels Romania’s consul general in a tit-for-tat move.

At least five people have been killed in a Ukrainian attack on Russia and the Crimean peninsula as Kyiv steps up strikes, according to the Russian-appointed governor in the annexed region.

Crimea Governor Sergey Aksyonov said two people, including a child, were killed and two others wounded following “overnight enemy attacks” into Thursday.

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Drone strikes killed two people in the bordering region of Bryansk and one person was killed in Belgorod region, authorities said.

Russia’s defence ministry said 269 Ukrainian drones were downed over Russia and Crimea overnight.

The head of the Krasnoarmeysk district in Krasnodar Krai said debris from a drone strike triggered an oil depot fire.

“Following the fall of UAV debris, a fire broke out at the Poltavskaya oil depot,” Aleksandr Kharitonov wrote on Russia’s state-run Max platform.

Authorities in Crimea will impose power cuts across the peninsula following the Ukrainian attacks, Aksyonov said.

“Energy infrastructure has been damaged by hostile attacks. Consequently, temporary power outages will be implemented across Crimea,” the Moscow-installed governor posted on Telegram.

At the same time, Russia attacked three rail locomotives, killing one driver and hit two petrol stations across Ukraine on Thursday, officials there said.

Locomotives were hit in the northeast Sumy region and in the Zaporizhzhia region in the south, Oleksandr Pertsovskyi, CEO of state rail group Ukrzaliznytsia, said on Facebook.

With no end in sight, Russia and Ukraine have both attacked fuel and transport facilities during the war, hoping to cut off supplies to each other’s troops and gain an edge along the front line.

Russia-Romania tensions

Amid attacks, regional diplomatic tensions also continue to simmer.

Russia on Thursday expelled Romania’s consul general in St Petersburg in a move that the Romanian foreign ministry called “predictable.”

Russia’s foreign ministry said in a statement that Romanian envoy Cristian Istrate was handed a note “declaring the Consul General of Romania in St. Petersburg persona non grata.”

The note also set out the “upcoming closure of the consular office of this country located there”.

The move came after Romania shut the Russian mission in the Romanian port city of Constanta last month.

Relations between the two countries have worsened after a Russian drone smashed into an apartment in the Romanian city of Galati, on the border of Ukraine, last month.

The drone crash, which wounded two people, also sparked fury from Romania and its NATO and EU allies, both of which Bucharest is a part of.

Also on Thursday, the French navy seized another tanker it said was linked to Russia’s so-called “shadow fleet” as part of Europe’s efforts to enforce sanctions on Moscow and restrict its main revenue streams.