Ukrainian forces attack oil depot in Russia's Rostov region
(Reuters) -Ukrainian forces on Monday attacked and set ablaze an oil depot in Russia's southern Rostov region used to supply Russian forces in occupied parts of Ukraine, the Ukrainian military said.
The General Staff of Ukraine's Armed Forces said the military's special operations units, in conjunction with rocket forces and artillery, had hit the Atlas plant in the Rostov region, not far from Ukraine's eastern border.
"A strike by our forces in the area of the target has been confirmed," the General Staff said in a statement on Telegram. "A fire has been observed. The results of the strike are being clarified."
The statement said the facility was used to provide fuel and lubricants to Russian units operating in Russian-occupied parts of the Luhansk and Donetsk regions on the war's eastern front.
Ukrainian forces have been engaged in cross-border attacks, including energy industry targets, which the General Staff said was aimed at curbing Russia's economic potential to proceed with the more than three-year-old war in Ukraine.
Ukrainian military bloggers had earlier reported on the raid on the oil depot, saying fuel tanks had been engulfed in a blaze in the incident.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Business Insider
26 minutes ago
- Business Insider
Russia and Mali deepen trade ties, eye strategic nuclear energy deal
Russia has signed new agreements to strengthen trade and economic relations with Mali, as President Vladimir Putin hosted the West African country's military leader, Colonel Assimi Goita, in Moscow. Russia and Mali signed agreements aimed at bolstering trade and economic relations during a meeting at the Kremlin. Key discussions included cooperation in geological exploration, natural resource development, energy, logistics, and humanitarian efforts. An important deal was signed focusing on nuclear energy collaboration, aiming to construct a Russian-designed low-power nuclear plant in Mali. Russia has signed new agreements to strengthen trade and economic relations with Mali, as President Vladimir Putin hosted the West African country's military leader, Colonel Assimi Goita, in Moscow on Monday. The two leaders met at the Kremlin for a two-hour discussion, according to Russian state media. Putin described the relationship between Russia and Mali as following a 'positive trajectory,' though he acknowledged that current trade volumes remain modest, Reuters reported. He emphasized potential areas for deeper cooperation, including geological exploration, natural resource development, energy, logistics, and humanitarian efforts. One of the key deals signed was focused on nuclear energy cooperation. The two countries have previously discussed a strategic plan to build a Russian-designed low-power nuclear plant in Mali. The junta-led country is following a similar path to Burkina Faso, having taken a major step toward embracing nuclear energy by officially signing the final administrative document of a historic intergovernmental agreement with Russia last week. This landmark deal represents a significant milestone in Mali's efforts to diversify its energy sources and tackle the country's growing electricity needs, as it seeks long-term solutions to power shortages and boost national development. Russia's expanding footprint in Africa Earlier this month, construction also began on a new Russian-backed gold refinery in Mali. Set to be constructed on a five-hectare site near Bamako's international airport, the refinery will have the capacity to process up to 200 metric tons of gold annually, a significant leap from Mali's current processing capacity of about 50 tons. Though Mali is one of Africa's largest gold producers, it currently lacks a fully functional and globally certified refinery. The country's two existing facilities have been unable to meet the standards required by global bodies like the London Bullion Market Association (LBMA), forcing miners to refine their gold abroad. The new refinery will produce gold with a purity of 99.5%, adhering to international certification standards.
New York Post
42 minutes ago
- New York Post
Trump's Iran strike revealed a second surprise: a competent White House
Operation Midnight Hammer, this weekend's US bombing raid on Iran's nuclear facilities, was a revealing moment on multiple fronts. First, it confirmed that Iran's story about peaceful energy development, never very believable, was false. Nobody does peaceful research under hundreds of feet of rock and concrete. And former Russian president Dmitry Medvedev came right out and admitted that Iran was building nuclear weapons. We knew that, but still . . . Advertisement It also established that most of the 'anti-war' crowd are just anti-American, anti-Israel, anti-West activists. Mobs carrying Hamas flags turned overnight into mobs carrying Mexican flags, then into mobs carrying Iranian flags — and they're the same mobs. And it highlighted the hypocrisy of Democratic politicians and pundits who cheered President Barack Obama's bombing attacks on Libya, Syria, Yemen and others — and are now calling President Donald Trump's bombing 'unconstitutional' and 'a war crime.' Advertisement But the most jaw-dropping reveal isn't any of these things. It's that the Trump administration 2.0 is, in fact, highly competent — amazingly so. Think about it: The Iranian government was caught completely by surprise. The United States sent B-2 bombers to the other side of the globe, penetrated Iranian airspace without being noticed, dropped 30,000-pound bunker-buster bombs down the ventilator shafts of deeply buried facilities and exited the country without a shot fired at them. Advertisement The world didn't know a thing until Trump announced it on Truth Social, as the bombers were heading home. Impressively, there were no leaks about the operation. (How? Basically, they didn't give any Democrats details about what was coming. Take note.) In addition, Trump and the diplomatic apparatus kept the Iranians in the dark, feigning White House waffling even as military assets were in motion. He received unintentional help from Sen. Chuck Schumer, who for some time has been pushing the 'TACO' acronym — Trump Always Chickens Out — in service of a storyline that Trump was all bluster and no follow-through. Advertisement The Iranians, apparently dumb enough to believe Democrats and the mainstream news media (but I repeat myself), were snookered. This followed a previous deception operation that made the Iranians think Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Bibi Netanyahu were bickering ahead of the IDF's initial air raids. Actually, it was all a show. This is quite a contrast with Trump 1.0. The early months of the first Trump term were, let's just say, not marked by hypercompetence. That wasn't entirely Trump's fault: His campaign was a late effort, and he was too busy campaigning to put together much of a governing team before he was sworn in. Thus his administration was initially made up of a mixture of people Trump knew personally — remember Omarosa's brief White House stint? — and establishment GOP figures. He thought he could trust them (hey, they were Republicans, right?), but many of them were actually stabbing him in the back. Hence all the leaks. Not this time. The Democrats' over-the-top efforts to deny Trump the 2020 election worked, at the cost of four years of President Autopen. Advertisement But Trump, unlike most career politicians, is very good at learning from his mistakes — and they gave him four years to put together a team, and a strategy, for governing after 2024. Pete Hegseth has shown himself to be an extremely competent secretary of defense. Critics dismissively called him a 'Fox News anchor' when he was nominated, ignoring his distinguished military record, but it shows now. Marco Rubio, who I confess struck me as a lightweight when I interviewed him over a decade ago, has shown himself to be a smart cookie, and a tough one. JD Vance is pretty clearly the brainiest VP in my lifetime. Advertisement Trump's Cabinet in general has been vigorous, shrewd and aggressive since Day 1. And all kinds of problems that previous administrations called insoluble are now . . . being solved. Our political establishment at some level wants things to be complicated and intractable: It boosts their influence. We were told before that addressing illegal immigration required legislation from Congress that would be complicated and require many interests to be greased. Trump just enforced the law, and illegal border crossing basically stopped. Advertisement We were told that government spending was impossible to control. DOGE showed us otherwise, as the first of several recissions bills works its way through Congress. Obama told us we couldn't drill our way out of oil shortages. But Sarah Palin was right, and Trump's first-term 'drill, baby, drill' policies did just that — while, not so coincidentally, strengthening our hand in bringing about the Abraham Accords, and in dealing with Iran today. Iran's nuclear program, we were told, was just something we'd have to live with. Not so: Turns out it's something the Iranians could die with. Advertisement Competence in American government? What a welcome change. It's about time. Glenn Harlan Reynolds is a professor of law at the University of Tennessee and founder of the blog.
Yahoo
an hour ago
- Yahoo
Tesla sued over New Jersey crash of Model S that killed three
(Reuters) -Tesla was sued on Monday by the estates of three people killed last September when their 2024 Model S equipped with Autopilot and "full self-driving capability" features crashed on New Jersey's Garden State Parkway. David Dryerman, his wife, Michele, and their daughter Brooke allegedly died because the Model S's "defective and unreasonably dangerous design" caused the vehicle to stray from its lane of travel and fail to apply emergency braking, resulting in a collision with a concrete bridge support. The lawsuit seeks compensatory and punitive damages. It was filed in federal court in Camden, New Jersey.
