Ukrainian drones struck a distribution centre belonging to Ozon, Russia's second-largest online retailer, as well as an oil refinery and an industrial facility in the Samara region of southeastern Russia overnight on Saturday, killing at least one person and wounding several others. The governor of Samara, Vyacheslav Fedorishchev, confirmed the strikes via Telegram, reporting that an elderly woman was killed in the attack on Novokuibyshevsk, a city where Ukraine's armed forces say they set the local oil refinery ablaze. Ozon confirmed that operations at its logistics centre in the nearby city of Chapayevsk had been halted following the attack, adding that several employees were injured, though more than 500 workers had been evacuated minutes before the strike.
The same night, strikes also hit the southern Russian port city of Yeysk on the Sea of Azov, where three people — including two children — were killed, according to the regional governor of Krasnodar. Further fatalities were reported in the border regions of Belgorod and Bryansk, where two people died and 13 were wounded, and four more were injured respectively. Russia's Defence Ministry said it had intercepted 457 Ukrainian drones overnight. The attacks came just a day after Russian drones and missiles killed at least 16 people and wounded more than 130 at a shopping centre in central Ukraine.
The Ozon strike marks a significant escalation in Ukraine's campaign against Russian economic infrastructure. Since July, Ukraine has been targeting warehouses belonging to Wildberries, Ozon's larger rival, on the grounds that the platform facilitates the purchase and delivery of sanctioned drone components and military equipment by volunteer organisations supplying the front. Independent Russian outlet Meduza has reported that Ozon is linked almost as frequently as Wildberries in such fundraising campaigns, and that unlike Wildberries, Ozon does not explicitly prohibit the sale of military goods — though weapons and explosives remain banned. President Volodymyr Zelensky described the night's operations as an attack on a "logistical hub in Samara."
The strikes reflect the broader logic of a war that has evolved into a high-technology war of attrition. Ukraine has disabled or heavily damaged multiple Russian oil refineries in recent months, contributing to fuel shortages and long queues at petrol stations in Russia. On the Russian side, attacks on Ukrainian energy infrastructure intensify in winter, while summer strikes focus on ports like Odesa on the Black Sea. A senior Ukrainian air defence officer stationed near Odesa described the conflict as one in which both sides are systematically targeting each other's supply chains and defence industries to erode military capacity and civilian morale.
The same officer highlighted a growing concern within Ukraine's air defences: the acute shortage of Patriot interceptor missiles, the only systems capable of reliably countering Russian ballistic rockets travelling at supersonic speeds from high altitude. He urged European partners holding unused Patriot systems to transfer them to Ukraine — not only out of solidarity, but arguing that the missiles risk becoming obsolete without active use and that operational experience is essential to driving future weapons development. Ukraine's air war, fought simultaneously on offence and defence, shows no sign of abating.