KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Ukrainian drones struck a major gas processing plant in southern Russia, sparking a fire and forcing it to suspend its intake of gas from Kazakhstan, Russian and Kazakh authorities said Sunday.
U.S. President Donald Trump meanwhile suggested that Kyiv may have to give up territory in exchange for an end to Moscow's more than 3 1/2-year invasion, in the latest of apparent reversals on how to pursue peace.
The Orenburg plant, run by state-owned gas giant Gazprom and located in a region of the same name near the Kazakh border, is part of a production and processing complex that is one of the world's largest facilities of its kind, with an annual capacity of 45 billion cubic meters. It handles gas condensate from Kazakhstan’s Karachaganak field, alongside Orenburg's own oil and gas fields.
According to regional Gov. Yevgeny Solntsev, the drone strikes set fire to a workshop at the plant and damaged part of it. The Kazakh Energy Ministry on Sunday said, citing a notification from Gazprom, that the plant was temporarily unable to process gas originating in Kazakhstan, “due to an emergency situation following a drone attack.”
Ukraine's General Staff said in a statement Sunday that a “large-scale fire” erupted at the Orenburg plant, and that one of its gas processing and purification units was damaged.
Kyiv has ramped up attacks in recent months on Russian energy facilities it says both fund and directly fuel Moscow’s war effort.
Russians modified bombs for deeper strikes
Meanwhile, Ukrainian prosecutors claim that Moscow is modifying its deadly aerial-guided bombs to strike civilians deeper in Ukraine. Local authorities in Kharkiv said Russia struck a residential neighborhood using a new rocket-powered aerial bomb for the first time.
Kharkiv’s regional prosecutor’s office said in a statement that Russia used the weapon called the UMPB-5R, which can travel up to 130 kilometers (80 miles), in an attack on the city of Lozava on Saturday afternoon. The city lies 150 kilometers (93 miles) south of Kharkiv, a considerable distance for the weapon to fly.
Russia continued to strike other parts of Ukraine closer to the front line. In the Dnipropetrovsk region, at least 11 people were injured after Russian drones hit the Shakhtarske area. At least 14 five-story buildings and a store were damaged, said acting regional Gov. Vladyslav Haivanenko.
Ukraine's General Staff also claimed a separate drone strike hit Russia's Novokuibyshevsk oil refinery, in the Samara region near Orenburg, sparking a blaze and damaging its main refining units.
The Novokuibyshevsk facility, operated by Russian gas major Rosneft, has an annual capacity of 4.9 million tons, and turns out over 20 kinds of oil-based products. Russian authorities did not immediately acknowledge the Ukrainian claim or discuss any damage.
Russia’s Defense Ministry said in a statement early Sunday that its air defense forces had shot down 45 Ukrainian drones during the night, including 12 over the Samara region, one over the Orenburg region and 11 over the Saratov region neighboring Samara.
In turn, Ukraine's air force reported Sunday that Russia during the night launched 62 drones into Ukrainian territory. It said 40 of these were shot down, or veered off course due to electronic jamming.
Trump says Ukraine may have to give up land for peace
Trump appeared to edge back in the direction of pressing Ukraine to give up on retaking land it has lost to Russia, in exchange for an end to Moscow's aggression.
Asked in a Fox News interview conducted Thursday whether Russian President Vladimir Putin would be open to ending the war “without taking significant property from Ukraine,” Trump responded: “Well, he’s going to take something.”
“They fought and he has a lot of property. He’s won certain property,” Trump said. “We’re the only nation that goes in, wins a war and then leaves.”
The interview was aired on Sunday on Fox News' “Sunday Morning Futures,” but was conducted before Trump spoke to Putin and Zelenskyy last week.
The comments amounted to another shift in position on the war by the U.S. leader. In recent weeks, Trump had shown growing impatience with Putin and expressed greater openness to helping Ukraine win the war.
In Thursday's interview, he was noncommittal about sending Tomahawk missiles requested by Ukraine, saying “I’m looking at it” but expressing concern about depleting U.S. weapons stocks.
“We need them for ourselves too,” Trump said. “We can’t give all our weapons to Ukraine. We just can’t do that.”
Russians and Ukrainians interviewed by The Associated Press last week voiced hopes for progress at an upcoming summit between Trump and Putin in Budapest, Hungary, but said they anticipated no major breakthrough.
The two leaders agreed in a phone call Thursday to meet in the coming weeks, according to Trump, who also sat down with Zelenskyy at the White House on Friday.
Contrary to Kyiv’s hopes, Trump did not commit to providing it with Tomahawks following that meeting. The missiles would be the longest-range weapons in Ukraine’s arsenal and would allow it to strike targets deep inside Russia, including Moscow, with precision.
Deliveries of Tomahawks could provide leverage to help push the Kremlin into negotiations, analysts say, after Trump expressed frustration over Putin’s refusal to budge on key aspects of a possible peace deal.
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Follow AP’s coverage of the war in Ukraine at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine
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