An oil tanker in Russia’s shadow fleet burns in the Black Sea after strikes by Ukrainian naval drones, October 7, 2026
EA-Silicon Curtain VideoCast: Is Putin’s Invasion of Ukraine An Attempted “Genocide”?
Tuesday’s Coverage: Kyiv’s Mass Attack Across Moscow Region
UPDATE 1529 GMT:
Large fires have broken out at a major oil pipeline and storage facility in Russia’s Samara region, southeast of Moscow.
Footage posted to social media showed large fires and clouds of black smoke above the facility, a major node in Russia’s network of oil pipelines. NASA’s Fire Information for Resource Management System, using satellites, detected multiple hotspots.
The complex has been a regular target of Ukraine’s counter-attacks.
Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky claims strikes on “two oil facilities and a training ground in the Perm, Samara, and Astrakhan regions”.
UPDATE 1452 GMT:
The toll has risen to 18 murdered, including four children, and dozens injured, including seven children from the Russian missile strike on Pryluky in the Chernhiv region in northern Ukraine.
Three of the slain children were 1 year old. The other was 8.
The missile collapsed a five-story apartment block. Fifteen people were rescued, including one child. There are still some missing.
Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky posted, “Today, on Putin’s birthday, the Russian army ‘presented’ him with the destruction of a residential block in Pryluky. It was an ordinary five-storey block of flats.”
The Russians murdered at least 15 civilians in overnight drone and missile strikes on 11 regions across the country. Two people were killed in Kyiv, and four in the cities of Kremenchuk and Oleksandriia in central Ukraine.
The assault included 70 ballistic missiles and 130 drones, 46 of them jet-powered.
Over the past 24 hours, at least 32 civilians were murdered and more than 130 injured.
Zelensky appealed to allies to provide US-made Patriot systems, as Ukraine tries to develop a domestic version.
Work to clear the rubble is ongoing at the site of a Russian missile strike on a residential building in Pryluky. As of now, 18 people have been reported killed, four of them children: Oleksandr, Kyrylo, and Serhii, who were only one year old, and eight-year-old Maksym. My condolences to all their families and loved ones. Dozens of people were injured, including seven children. All emergency services are involved and working at the site. Fifteen people were rescued, including one child. There are still people who have not yet been accounted for.
The Russians know very well that they are striking ordinary cities, ordinary life. And the continued use of missiles against Ukraine, against our people, our children, is an absolutely deliberate choice of terror. This is what Moscow chooses – despite all our efforts with partners to bring peace closer. And this is a clear reason why more pressure on Russia is needed and why Ukraine needs more defense packages. It is important that leaders understand this. It is important that the world not remain silent today.
— Volodymyr Zelenskyy / Володимир Зеленський (@ZelenskyyUa) October 7, 2026
Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha added:
On Putin’s birthday, Russian generals brought him his favorite present: war crimes….
What Russian generals fail to tell Putin is that he is not winning this war and never will….
His ultimate present will be a dock in The Hague. We are preparing the Special Tribunal for the Crime of Aggression Against Ukraine for practical launch already next year. Putin and his friends should know that accountability is inevitable.
UPDATE 0609 GMT:
At least two civilians have been murdered by Russia’s missile and drone attacks on Kyiv overnight.
Explosions were heard around 3:15 a.m. and 5:15 a.m. The casualties were in the Darnytskyi district of the capital.
Mayor Vitali Klitschko reported a strike on a non-residential area in the Obolon District, and warehouse facilities were hit in the Polid district.
At least two civilians were killed in Kremenchuk in the Poltava region in central Ukraine.
Apartment buildings and an industrial facility were attacked by missiles and drones just after 6 a.m.
Casualties are also reported from attacks on the city of Pryluky in the Chernihiv region in northern Ukraine. A high-rise residential building was struck.
ORIGINAL ENTRY: Ukraine has struck an oil tanker in the Black Sea near the resort city of Sochi in southern Russia.
Reportedly hit by naval drones, the ship is burning, sending thick, black smoke above the city. Russian Telegram channels said that the vessel might be the Liberia-flagged tanker Aframax Rea. The tanker was last located early Tuesday on the Black Sea near the border between Russia and Georgia.
The Aframax Rea, a large crude oil tanker, was included on Ukraine’s sanctions list as part of Russia’s shadow fleet in February. It has 23 Indian crew.
Sochi is around 650 to 700 kilometers (400 to 435 miles) from the Ukraine border.
Russia has been striking vessels in the Black Sea, trying to blockade Ukraine’s ports. On Tuesday, an attack on a Marshall Islands-flagged merchant vessel killed at least one crew member and injured several. The ship, carrying rapeseed oil, was damaged with a fire breaking out in the superstructure.
Two merchant ships, the Togo-flagged Alfa Watan and the Palau-flagged Able, were hit by drones of unknown origin about 112 km (70 miles) off Bulgaria’s coast. The attack is the first on commercial shipping inside Bulgaria’s exclusive economic zone.
Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky denied Kyiv’s forces were involved.
We have verified all the information with the Bulgarian side: our Navy contacted our colleagues in Bulgaria, and it was determined that this was a combined Russian attack using naval and aerial drones.
