Russia Says It Struck Kremenchuk Oil Refinery in Ukraine

(Bloomberg) -- Russia said its overnight missile and drone barrage struck the large Kremenchuk oil refinery in central Ukraine, which was previously targeted by Kremlin forces in 2022. 

“A group strike with precision-guided air and sea-based weapons, as well as unmanned aerial vehicles” hit the facility in the Poltava region, Russia’s defense ministry said in a Telegram statement. 

Acting regional governor Volodymyr Kohut said Russia’s main targets were energy and agriculture facilities in the city, located about 300 kilometers (186 miles) southeast of Kyiv. 

Images on social media showed the skies above Kremenchuk ablaze from the aerial bombardment. 

“The night was difficult,” Kohut said on Ukrainian TV. “From 11:30 p.m until 4:00 a.m., a massive attack was happening.”

Nobody was injured and Ukraine’s air defense shot down majority of the missiles and drones, Kohut said, without providing details about the status of the refinery. 

Explosions and debris ignited fires, damaging residential buildings and vehicles after “a massive combined attack using missiles and drones,” Ukraine’s foreign ministry said on X. 

Russia previously targeted the Kremenchuk refinery and surrounding areas with a series of missile attacks in April, May and June of 2022. The first strike shut down the facility, which supplied Ukrainian troops in the central and eastern parts of the country, and damaged much of its infrastructure.  

Also on Sunday, the Ukrainian prisoner exchange coordination office said another 1,200 bodies of soldiers killed in action were returned by Russia. 

As part of agreements reached after bilateral meetings in Istanbul this month, Russia said it will return 6,000 bodies to Ukraine. So far Moscow has returned 4,812 bodies, according to Russian media reports in the past days. 

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said Friday that the current round of prisoner exchanges should be completed around June 20 or June 21. On Saturday, 1,200 prisoners were exchanged on each side. 

(Updates with return of Ukrainian bodies from ninth paragraph.)

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