Recent Refinery Attack Demonstrates 'No Protected Locations in Russia's Deep Rear'

Ukraine's UAVs have struck the Russian Bashneft facility in the city of Ufa, located some 1,400 kilometers from the Ukrainian border, causing detonations and a fire, per a informed individual in the Ukrainian intelligence agency.

This constitutes the 3rd SBU deep strike in Bashkortostan in the last month. Those operations show that there are no safe places in the distant backlines of the Russian Federation.

Zelenskyy Urges Trump to Broker Peace in Ukraine

Volodymyr Zelenskyy urged Donald Trump to facilitate a truce in Ukraine in a phone call on the weekend.

"When a hostilities can be halted in a particular zone, then surely other wars can be ended as well, including the Russian war," he stated, hailing the US President's "remarkable" Middle East peace initiative and urging the US president to influence the Moscow into negotiations.

Moscow's Strikes Claim Victims in Ukraine

Russian attacks on Ukrainian territory killed at least several civilians on Saturday and cut power to sections of Ukraine's south Odesa area, as stated by authorities in Ukraine.

Two people died within a place of worship in Kostyantynivka when it was hit, per local authorities.

In the Russian border region of Belgorod, a truck driver was fatally wounded by a drone assault, according to local officials.

Power Recovery Work in Kyiv

Work carried on on Saturday to restore power in the Ukrainian capital, after strikes by Moscow.

Energy had been recovered to over 800,000 citizens by Saturday and the biggest utility provider stated the key operations to recover electricity was finished though some outages remained.

Anti-Aircraft Efforts and Drone Interceptions

The Ukrainian anti-aircraft systems downed or disrupted 54 of 78 Russian drones launched towards Ukraine in the dark hours, the air force announced on the weekend.

The Russian military authorities stated it eliminated 42 Ukrainian drones over Russian territory.

Cuba Rejects Allegations of Sending Soldiers to Ukraine

The Cuban government on Saturday rejected US claims it has sent soldiers to fight in the Ukraine war, while stating Cuban authorities "do not have accurate data about citizens of Cuba" participating "on their own" or "in the military forces of either party".

The government department in Havana announced 26 Cuban citizens had been convicted to incarceration varying between five up to fourteen years for participating as mercenaries since last September when information emerged of individuals being sent to the battlefield in the conflict.

I Want to Live Initiative Discloses Data on Cuban National Enlistment

The program, a state project that urges adversaries to give up, said in May: "We have confirmed the personal data of 1,028 Cubans who signed contracts with the Russian military in 2023-2024."

The Cuban foreign ministry stated of Cuban nationals who might be participating: "There is no doubt that no individual have the support, commitment, or authorization of the Cuban authorities for their activities."

Relatives of Cuban nationals who traveled to the Russian Federation in the year told Agence France-Presse at the time that their loved ones had been deceptively recruited through ads on online platforms.