Ukrainian forces continued to blast military-linked infrastructure deep inside Russia early on August 3, keeping the pressure on the Kremlin days ahead of a deadline US President Donald Trump has given Moscow to accept a peace deal with Kyiv.
Russian authorities in the popular Black Sea resort of Sochi said Ukrainian drones had set a regional oil depot ablaze, with more than 120 firefighters battling to control the fire in the Adler district of the city.
At the same time, Russian aviation authorities said flights at the Sochi Airport have been halted as a security measure in light of the drone strike, the latest in a series of recent measures as Ukrainian attacks disrupt civil aviation in Russia.
Russian airports are often forced to suspend operations throughout the west of the country. Sochi, a city of some 455,000 people, is 1,360 kilometers south of Moscow and about 1,000 kilometers from the Ukrainian border.
Also late on August 2 and early August 3, the governor of Russia’s Voronezh region, Aleksandr Gusev, said that “as a result of the fall of [drone] wreckage…there were fires in a number of private houses and outbuildings, and several vehicles were damaged.”
“The danger from a drone attack throughout the region remains,” he wrote on Telegram.
Kyiv did not immediately comment on reports of the attacks, which could not immediately be verified.
But the reports come as Ukraine appears to be stepping up drone strikes deep inside Russia at a time when Trump is pressing Russian President Vladimir Putin to agree to a cease-fire and an end to the long war.
Trump on August 1 said he was deploying nuclear submarines “closer to Russia,” although he did not specify whether these were nuclear-powered or nuclear armed submarines.
“I just want to make sure that his words are only words and nothing more than that,” Trump told Newsmax television.
He was referring to a social media post by former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev in which he accused Washington of playing a “game of ultimatums” in response to Trump’s announcement that he had shortened a 50-day deadline for the Kremlin to accept a cease-fire to 10 days — suggesting an August 8 date.
On his X page from July 28, Medvedev wrote that “each new ultimatum is a threat and a step toward war.”
In an effort to perhaps strike a last-minute deal, Trump said he is sending his special envoy, Steve Witkoff, to Moscow following his current trip to Israel, although a specific itinerary has not been disclosed.
In the early hours of August 2, explosions and fires were reported across several Russian regions following a wave of Ukrainian drone attacks.
Ukraine’s Security Service (SBU) said its drones had hit an air base storing Shahed drones in Primorsko-Akhtarsk and the Elektroprylad military plant in Penza.
The Ukrainian Army’s General Staff also reported strikes a number of oil refineries.
Authorities in Russia’s Samara region announced flight restrictions at an airport and the regional governor confirmed a strike on an industrial facility in Novokuybyshevsk, prompting a temporary shutdown of mobile Internet service. He said a civilian was killed by falling debris from an intercepted drone.
Fires were also seen in Ryazan region, while residents in Lipetsk and Voronezh reported drone activity and air-defense operations.
In occupied Crimea the Kerch Bridge — which connects the peninsula with Russia — was blocked for more than five hours, and explosions were heard in Feodosia and Kerch.
Russia’s Defense Ministry reported attacks in eight regions and claimed to have intercepted or destroyed 112 drones.
Inside Ukraine early on August 3, authorities in Kyiv reported a Russian missile attack — which is becoming a regular occurrence in the Ukrainian capital. No details were immediately available.
Meanwhile, inside Ukraine, Rafael Grossi, chief of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), urged “maximum military restraint near nuclear facilities” following a strike near the massive Zaporizhzhya nuclear power plant, which has been under Russian occupation since March 2022.
Grossi said the IAEA team deployed to the site had heard explosions and saw smoke some 1,200 meters from the main plant’s main gate and that an auxiliary facility near the main facility been hit by shelling and drones.
It wasn’t immediately known where the shelling had come from. Both sides have accused the other of targeting the nuclear plant.
The facility, located in the Russian-held city of Enerhodar, is controlled by Russia but staffed by Ukrainian workers who maintain the facility, mainly to keep its nuclear fuel cool to prevent a disaster.
It is not immediately clear what will happen should Trump’s August 8 not be met. He has spoken of imposing further sanctions on Russia and crippling secondary tariffs on countries importing Russian oil.
Given that these would include China and India, some analysts have expressed skepticism that Washington will take this measure.
Reuters quoted two unnamed Indian government sources on August 2 as saying New Delhi would continue to purchase oil from Russia despite Trump’s threats of financial penalties if it did so.
“These are long-term oil contracts. It is not so simple to just stop buying overnight,” Reuters quoted one of the sources as saying.
India’s Foreign Ministry did not confirm the continuing purchases directly, but it said its relationship with Russia was “steady and time-tested.”
