Moscow carried out several attacks on Ukrainian cities and residential areas overnight as Kyiv hit energy plants inside Russia.
Ukrainian drones attacked a gas plant on October 19 in Russia's Orenburg, the largest facility of its kind in the world, and forced it to suspend its intake of gas from nearby Kazakhstan, according to the Central Asian country's energy ministry.
This marks the first reported strike on the plant, which forms part of the Orenburg gas chemical complex that is operated by the state energy giant Gazprom and handles intake from both the Orenburg oil and gas field and Kazakhstan’s Karachaganak field.
Kazakhstan's energy ministry said that Gazprom had informed it of the damage, but has not yet provided a time for resuming operations.
An oil refinery in the Samara-region city of Novokuibyshevsk, nearly 1,000 kilometers from the front line, was also hit by Ukrainian drone strikes.
Ukraine's General Staff confirmed that it carried out strikes on both facilities and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said that Kyiv is "responding to every Russian strike."
"There has been an increase both in the range and in the accuracy of our long-range sanctions against Russia," he said, in reference to the recent strikes. "Practically every day or two, Russian oil refineries are being hit. And this contributes to bringing Russia back to reality."
In recent months, Kyiv has intensified its attacks on Russia's energy infrastructure, which appear to be causing fuel shortages and price increases inside Russia.
The oil depot in Novokuibyshevsk was also hit last month, with Ukraine's General Staff reporting substantial damage to its infrastructure at the time.
The strikes come after US President Donald Trump welcomed Zelenskyy to Washington on October 17 for talks aimed at ending the war.
Zelenskyy arrived for his the third meeting at the White House this year prepared to discuss a potential arms deal in which Ukraine would provide US military production with drone technologies in return for long-range Tomahawk missiles, but Trump appeared to have cooled to the idea of providing Ukraine with the weapons.
Instead, the US president urged Russia and Ukraine to immediately cease fighting, saying enough blood had been shed, and announced that he plans to meet Russian President Vladimir Putin in Budapest in the coming weeks.
No date has been set for the summit.
Russia's defence ministry said that its air defenses shot down 45 Ukrainian drones overnight, including 12 over the Samara region, 11 over the Saratov region, and one over the Orenburg region.
Meawnhile, Kharkiv, Sumy, and Zaporizhzhya were among the cities hit by guided bombs dropped by Russian fighter jets late on October 18, according to Ukraine's air defense forces.
Russian drones were also reported over the Chernihiv and Dnipropetrovsk regions. Ten people were injured in Dnipropetrovsk region, local authorities on the morning of October 19, while an energy facility was hit in Chernihiv region, causing a power outage for around 17,000 residents in the north of the country.
Russia’s relentless nighttime strikes often focus on Ukraine’s energy infrastructure, aiming to cut off heating and electricity for civilians as winter approaches in a bid to undermine morale.
