Russian drones hit two foreign-flagged civilian ships in the Black Sea, Ukraine says

Russian drones struck two foreign-flagged civilian ships in the Black Sea on Thursday night, Ukrainian authorities said.

According to Oleksii Kuleba, Ukraine’s Deputy Prime Minister for Restoration, the drones hit one vessel flying the flag of Saint Kitts and Nevis and one Panamanian-flagged ship, leaving one person dead and five injured. One of the injured sailors is in a critical condition, per Kuleba.

"This is yet another proof that Russia is waging a war against freedom of navigation, international trade, and global food security," he wrote.

The governor of Ukraine's Odesa region, Oleh Kiper, said the vessels were now on the move again.

The strikes came amid a wave of overnight Russian attacks across Ukraine.

Kiper said strikes in southern Odesa had resulted in a fire at a truck parking lot, killing one person and injuring four others.

At least four people were also reported to have been injured in another Russian drone strike on a minibus in the city of Kherson in southern Ukraine.

The Kherson Regional State Administration said a 46-year-old woman and three men aged 67, 46, and 59 had been taken to hospital after suffering blast injuries and shrapnel wounds in the attack.

A guided bomb assault on the Kholodnohirskyi District of Kharkiv injured nine people and damaged more than 40 homes, Kharkiv Mayor Ihor Terekhov added.

Local air defences shot down 79 of 90 Russian drones from Thursday evening into Friday morning, per Ukraine's air force.

It follows a huge Ukrainian strike on a Moscow oil refinery on Thursday morning.

Video footage circulating on social media appeared to show an enormous explosion and large fire at the facility.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy confirmed the strike in a post on X, calling it "a fully justified response to Russian attacks on our cities and communities".

It was the second time Kyiv had targeted the refinery this week, as it continued its efforts to hamper Moscow's energy industry.