Day 438: May 07
Ukrainians continued destroying Russian fuel store facilities along all main supply lines leading to southern Ukraine. This campaign aims to create massive shortages of critical resources, undermining the Russian ability to use the accumulated tanks and other heavy equipment to stop the Ukrainian counteroffensive. Over the last four days, Ukrainians conducted many drone strikes, some of which were very successful.
First of all, Ukrainians successfully hit the Ilskiy Oil Refinery for the second time. Russian sources reported that Ukrainians used at least four drones, and one of them reached the target and caused a fire by exploding on top of the reservoir. The fire rapidly grew, and the square area reached up to 400 square meters, but this time the firefighters also managed to prevent the fire from spreading. So far, Ukrainians destroyed only two reservoirs, and as we can see, there are still a lot of targets in this region, which suggests that this is not the last attack on this refinery.
Another fire also broke out in Krasnodar Krai. The cause of the fire remains unspecified, but the object is an oil storage facility. The square fire area grew even bigger than at the oil refinery and reached up to 500 square meters. This is the fourth oil-related facility that has been damaged or destroyed over the last week, and all of them are located on the southern supply line, which means that it could be used for the Black Sea Fleet or Russian equipment in Zaporizhzhia.
Today, Ukrainians conducted another strike on the oil depot in Sevastopol. As you remember, this was the first target, and even though half of the refinery was destroyed, the freshest satellite footage indicates that there are still 12 reservoirs left that look like they could potentially be used. But the strike on Sevastopol was just a part of a much bigger strike on Crimea.
The first group of drones reportedly targeted Krasnoperekopsk. This is one of northern Crimea’s two most important logistical hubs because all supplies being delivered to the Kherson region always pass through this small town.
Today explosions were also recorded in Dzhankoi, located on the same supply line. And Russian Head of Crimea also claimed that Ukrainians accompanied the drone strike with the launch of 2 ballistic missiles, Hrim-2, which were reportedly shot down above the settlements north of Feodosia, which are also located on the same supply line.
The second group of drones traditionally targeted the area around Evpatoria. The goal of these strikes is twofold. First of all, Ukrainians are trying to prevent Russians from returning their aviation to the airfield in Novodefedorivka. And secondly, most of the Russian air defense is concentrated along the western shore, so continuous strikes are necessary for collecting intelligence about the Russian air defense.
The third group of drones targeted Sevastopol and Hvardiyske. It was reported that at the moment of the explosion, the airfield had ten fighter jets, eight bombers, six air defense systems, and a lot of ammunition and fuel, so it was a perfect target.
Speaking about the airfields, several days ago, Ukrainians also conducted a successful drone attack on the airfield in Bryansk. As a result, Ukrainians completely destroyed one plane, the AN-124, and damaged the fuselage of another AN-124 plane.
In the meantime, the panic around the Ukrainian counteroffensive in the Zaporizhzhia region reaches new heights. The Russian Head of the region claimed that they are expecting Ukrainians to launch a large-scale attack any day now because weather conditions have improved and the ground has dried out. That is why Russians have launched the second stage of massive evacuation. If previously, they evacuated people from settlements between Vasylivka and Tokmak, then now the evacuation was launched from all settlements between Enerhodar and Polohy, clearly indicating a much greater scale of the expected battle. The massive evacuation brought disarray to the region, and some civilians reported finding thrown away military uniforms, claiming that soldiers were changing clothes and trying to take advantage of the disarray and desert by escaping together with the civilians because they did not want to be on the zero line when the counteroffensive is launched.
In our daily frontline report, we pair up with the military blogger Reporting from Ukraine to keep you informed about what’s happening on the battlefield in the Russo-Ukrainian war.
Read also:
- Frontline report: Russians attack all over Donetsk Oblast anticipating Ukrainian offensive
- Ukrainian official: some Western politicians call on Ukraine to abandon attempts to reclaim Crimea
- Explosions reported in occupied Crimea, Russian sources claim air defense system activated
- Ukrainian forces destroy Wagner PMC ammunition sites in Bakhmut
- Frontline overview: A localized Ukrainian attack 40 km north of Bakhmut
