Ukraine strikes Europe's largest fuel depot in Samara and hits Volgograd refinery

Ukraine launched a drone attack on Friday targeting Europe's largest fuel depot, the LPDS Samara tank farm owned by Russian state consortium Transneft, along with a refinery and chemical plant in Volgograd. The Samara facility, spanning over 200 hectares with capacity for more than 1.6 million cubic meters of oil, receives crude from four pipelines originating in Siberia, Tatarstan, Orenburg, and Kazakhstan. Russian authorities confirmed the drone strikes and closed the regional airport. The attack coincided with Russia reporting it shot down 646 fixed-wing drones across 13 regions, Crimea, and the Black and Azov Seas. President Vladimir Putin acknowledged Thursday that such strikes have cost Russia approximately 1% of its GDP.