Recent Processing Facility Strike Reveals 'No Secure Locations in the Russian Deep Rear'
Ukraine's drones have targeted the Russian Bashneft processing plant in the city of Ufa, located around 1,400 km from the Ukrainian border, triggering blasts and a fire, per a source in Ukraine's intelligence agency.
This constitutes the latest SBU deep strike in Bashkortostan in the recent weeks. Those strikes show that there are no safe places in the distant backlines of the Russia.
Zelenskyy Calls On Trump to Broker Truce in the Conflict
Volodymyr Zelenskyy urged President Trump to facilitate a truce in Ukraine during a telephone conversation on the weekend.
"If a war can be halted in a single area, then certainly other wars can be ended as well, including the conflict with Russia," the President said, praising Trump's "outstanding" Gaza peace initiative and calling for the US president to influence the Kremlin into talks.
Moscow's Strikes Claim Victims in Ukraine
Strikes by Russia on Ukrainian territory claimed the lives of 5 individuals on Saturday and caused blackouts to sections of Ukraine's southern Odesa oblast, per local sources.
Two people died inside a church in Kostyantynivka when it was struck, as reported by municipal sources.
In Russia's frontier area of Belgorod, a vehicle operator was fatally wounded by a Ukrainian strike, per local officials.
Energy Restoration Work in the Capital
Operations proceeded on the weekend to restore power in the Ukrainian capital, after Russian attacks.
Electricity had been returned to over 800,000 residents by the weekend and the major utility provider announced the primary operations to restore power was finished though certain disruptions continued.
Anti-Aircraft Efforts and UAV Jamming
The Ukrainian defense forces neutralized 54 of seventy-eight UAVs from Russia sent towards the country in the dark hours, the military announced on Saturday.
Russia's military authorities claimed it shot down forty-two UAVs from Ukraine over the country's airspace.
Cuba Rejects Allegations of Providing Soldiers to the War
Havana on Saturday refuted US claims it has sent troops to fight in the conflict in Ukraine, while stating officials in Havana "are without accurate information about citizens of Cuba" engaged "independently" or "in the military forces of both sides".
The foreign ministry in Havana said twenty-six Cuban citizens had been sentenced to incarceration from five up to fourteen years for participating as mercenaries since last September when reports circulated of individuals being dispatched to the front in the conflict.
I Want to Live Initiative Discloses Information on Cuban Recruitment
The surrender initiative, a state project that urges adversaries to lay down arms, stated in spring: "We reliably know the identities and information of one thousand and twenty-eight individuals who signed contracts with the Russian armed forces in the past two years."
The Cuban foreign ministry commented of Cubans who might be participating: "Undeniably that no individual has the backing, dedication, or approval of the Cuban authorities for their actions."
Kin of Cubans who traveled to Russia in 2023 told international media at the time that their loved ones had been misled into enlisting through promotions on digital networks.