May 4, 2023 Russia-Ukraine news

Russia's federal investigative authority is launching a probe into fires at oil facilities in the southwestern Rostov region, after Moscow accused Ukraine of hitting the depots in a series of targeted attacks.

According to a statement published by the Russian Investigative Committee on Telegram, the investigation will focus on the fires at the Novoshakhtinsk oil products plant in Rostov among other “criminal actions by the Armed formations of Ukraine.”

Kyiv has not commented on the fires.

The Russian Investigative Committee said an unmanned aerial vehicle “crashed into the structures of the plant's inter-workshop flyover under construction," on Wednesday night.

“The fire that resulted from the explosion was immediately extinguished. There were no casualties or injuries, and minor damage was caused to structures,” the statement commented.

The committee said it will also be investigating an unmanned aerial vehicle attack on a water tower in the Belgorod Region, as well as a fire that broke out at an oil refinery in the village of Ilsky in the Krasnodar region. It said it believed the blaze was caused by an attack of an “unknown unmanned aerial vehicle.”

Some context: Border attacks between Moscow and Kyiv have been ramping up in recent weeks. They included civilian and infrastructure targets and suggest an attempt to exhaust each other ahead of an anticipated Ukrainian spring offensive.

Russia launched its most forceful air bombardment on Kyiv since the start of the year, the Kyiv City Military Administration said, adding that Ukrainian air defenses destroyed all of the missiles aiming at the capital.

The barrage of attacks followed Moscow's allegations that Ukraine attempted to assassinate Russian President Vladimir Putin in a drone strike at the Kremlin overnight on Wednesday, accusations Kyiv has vehemently denied.

Here are the latest developments:

The death toll has risen to 23 following Russian shelling of the city of Kherson in southern Ukraine and its surrounding villages on Wednesday, the regional military chief said Thursday.

Oleksandr Prokudin, head of the Kherson regional military administration said on Telegram that another 46 people were injured, including two children.

Russian forces shelled Kherson 16 times, including its residential area, he said. More than 80 shells hit Pryvokzalna Square, a railway station and crossing, a gas station, two stores, a factory and a car repair shop, he added.

The regional military administration has declared Thursday through Saturday as days of mourning, he added.

Following the shelling Wednesday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said: “The world needs to see and know this.”

Messages written on Russian drones launched at Odesa overnight read “for Moscow” and “for the Kremlin,” according to the Ukrainian military, an apparent reference to an alleged assassination attempt against Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Photos released by Ukraine’s Southern Command show the messages written on two tails of the drones, which the command said showed the apparent “reason for the attack.”

According to the Southern Command, 15 Shahed-131/136 drones were fired at Odesa, of which 12 were destroyed by air defense forces and mobile fire groups. The other three struck dormitories of an educational institution.

Kremlin incident: Ukraine has denied any involvement in what Russia says was a drone attack on the Kremlin and an assassination attempt against Putin early Wednesday morning.

Video on social media shows a bright flash and a puff of smoke over a part of the Kremlin, the official residence of the Russian president and the most potent symbol of power in Moscow. Putin was not in the building at the time, said Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky denied the accusations, saying during a news conference: "We don't attack Putin or Moscow."

US officials said they were still assessing the incident, and had no information about who might have been responsible.

Meanwhile, A former Russian lawmaker linked with militant groups in the country told CNN the alleged attack was the work of Russian partisans, not the Ukrainian military. 

Fire broke out a petroleum plant in southwestern Russia on Wednesday night after a drone attack, according to a regional governor — the third apparent Ukrainian strike on a Russian fuel depot in two days.

The drone crashed into the construction site of an overpass at the Novoshakhtinsk plant near the village of Kiselevka, Rostov Gov. Vasily Golubev said on Telegram on Thursday.

Staff at the plant immediately extinguished the fire, he added.

No casualties or injuries were reported and the strike caused little damage to the facilities, Golubev said. 

It is unclear who is responsible for the alleged attack. 

Oil targeted: According to Russian state media and officials, the alleged attack is the third such strike launched by Ukraine against fuel depots inside Russian territory in the past two days.

A fire broke out at the Ilsky oil refinery in the southwestern Krasnodar region, caused by "an attack by an unknown drone," state-run news agency Tass reported earlier Thursday. There were no casualties, according to Krasnodar Gov. Veniamin Kondratiev.

And on Wednesday, Russian state media reported a drone strike ignited a fire that engulfed an oil storage facility in the port of Volna, also in Krasnodar.

That facility is close to the Kerch bridge that was set ablaze by Ukrainian forces in October 2022. It is unclear how the fuel storage tank caught fire.

Ukraine has not commented on the incidents.

Some context: CNN's Chief International Security Correspondent Nick Paton Walsh writes that Ukraine is apparently striking at fuel depots in Russian-occupied areas and inside Russia itself — seemingly precise attacks but ones to which Kyiv is making no overt claim.

Increased cross-border attacks from both Russia and Ukraine in recent weeks appear to be an attempt to weaken each other ahead of a long anticipated spring offensive.

Ukraine’s Air Force destroyed 18 of 24 drones fired by Russia on Wednesday night, it said in a statement released early Thursday.

Intense attacks: Explosions were heard in the capital Kyiv and Odesa early Thursday morning, with air defenses activated and people told to stay in safe places until air alerts stopped ringing, according to Ukrainian officials.

The capital region's military chief said Ukrainian air defenses withstood Russia's most intense air attack on Kyiv since the start of the year overnight and into Thursday morning, and destroyed all Russian missiles and drones.

There were no civilian casualties or damage to residential buildings and infrastructure, he added.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky arrived in the Netherlands on Wednesday to deliver a speech at The Hague on Thursday, according to Dutch public broadcaster NOS. 

Zelensky's speech is titled “No Peace Without Justice."

Later Thursday, he will visit the International Criminal Court in The Hague, where war crimes committed during the invasion of Ukraine are being investigated, NOS reported.

Zelensky traveled to the Netherlands from Finland, where he met with his Finnish and other Nordic counterparts on Wednesday.

In a statement ahead of that meeting, the Finnish president said the prime ministers of Sweden, Norway, Denmark and Iceland planned to discuss the war in Ukraine and Kyiv's "initiative for a just peace."

Ukraine has vehemently denied Russia's allegation that it attempted to assassinate Russian President Vladimir Putin in a drone strike at the Kremlin overnight on Wednesday,

Moscow said Putin was not in the building at the time of the attack.

Meanwhile, a former Russian lawmaker linked with militant groups in the country told CNN the attack was the work of what he calls Russian partisans, not the Ukrainian military. 

Here are the latest developments:

Explosions were heard in Kyiv and Odesa early Thursday morning, said Oleksii Honcharenko, a member of the Ukrainian delegation to the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE), on Telegram.

Air defenses have been activated in Kyiv, the city's regional military administration said. Air alerts have been activated in most of the eastern half of the country, according to a map posted by Ukraine’s Ministry of Digital Transformation.

Yuri Malashko, head of the Zaporizhzhia regional military administration, called for people to “stay in safe places” until the air alert is over.