Cross-border strikes between Russia and Ukraine overnight left at least one person dead and set fire to one of Russia's largest oil refineries, officials on both sides said on Monday.
The Kirishi refinery in the Leningrad region caught fire after a Ukrainian drone attack, according to Leningrad Regional Governor Aleksandr Drozdenko, who announced the strike in a post on Telegram. He said a woman was killed by falling drone debris.
Drozdenko also reported that Russian air defence forces shot down 113 Ukrainian drones over the region. An apartment in the town of Kirishi was damaged during the same overnight attack, he added.
The Kirishi facility is Russia's second-largest refinery. The Leningrad region serves as a major hub for the country's oil and grain exports through the Baltic Sea.
On the other side of the border, Russian forces struck three power substations across Ukraine overnight, Russian state news agencies reported. Moscow also said its forces hit a cargo ship in the Black Sea that it claimed was delivering arms to Ukrainian forces. Al Jazeera said it could not independently verify those claims.
Russia has maintained regular attacks on Ukraine's civilian infrastructure, including energy facilities across the country, as the war grinds on.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy described the toll on civilians in a post on X on Monday. "Right now, many of our cities and communities are facing a very difficult situation with power, water, and heating supplies due to Russian strikes," he said.
Zelenskyy identified the Kyiv, Dnipro, Sumy, Donetsk and Kherson regions as facing the most acute energy crisis.
Also on Monday, Zelenskyy announced that Ukraine had agreed with European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen to "activate a special emergency mechanism" allowing European Union funds to be deployed more quickly in response to Russian attacks on Ukrainian energy infrastructure. He said the funding would go "for what is needed most" and added: "Our teams are already working on this."
