Ukraine defies Trump and strikes Europe's largest oil storage hub in Russia's Samara region for the fifth time

Ukraine launched 212 drones overnight, hitting the Samara Linear Production and Dispatch Station — Europe's largest tank farm, spanning 216 hectares with 71 storage tanks holding 1.6 million cubic metres of crude. The strike is the fifth on the same Transneft facility since early October, and fires were visible from Samara's New Bridge as flights at Kurumoch International Airport were suspended for two hours.

The Samara hub sits at a critical junction where oil from Western Siberia, Tatarstan and Kazakhstan is blended to produce Urals, Russia's main export grade, before flowing out to processing plants and along the Druzhba export pipeline.

Trump had personally asked President Zelenskyy to stop targeting Russian oil facilities, warning the strikes are pushing up global fuel prices — Ukraine has now openly ignored that request for a third successive wave of attacks.

Russia's Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak, who holds responsibility for the energy sector, spoke about the campaign on state television on Sunday, as Russia's emergency alert app was simultaneously hit by a major cyberattack.