Ukraine strikes Novorossiysk port, CPC oil terminal
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- Ukraine's drone forces struck the Admiral Makarov missile carrier in Novorossiysk port and a drilling rig overnight Monday, according to drone commander Robert Brovdi, with verified video showing a fire at an oil port dock
- Ukrainian drones also hit the Caspian Pipeline Consortium (CPC) terminal at Novorossiysk, damaging mooring, loading, and storage infrastructure at a facility that handles 1.5% of global oil supplies
- Russia's military said air defenses downed 148 Ukrainian drones over a three-hour period, while Novorossiysk authorities reported at least eight people injured — including two children — and drone debris falling on a residential area
- The CPC terminal's shareholders include major US oil companies Chevron and ExxonMobil, a detail Russia's Defence Ministry seized on, calling the strike a deliberate attack on American energy interests
- The Novorossiysk strike follows a day of Ukrainian attacks on Russia's Baltic port of Primorsk — where a fuel reservoir leaked — and the NORSI oil refinery in Nizhny Novgorod
- Zelenskyy said Russia launched more than 2,800 attack drones, nearly 1,350 glide bombs, and over 40 missiles at Ukraine in the past week, while an overnight Russian drone strike on Odesa killed two women and a toddler and wounded 16
Why it matters: Ukraine just damaged infrastructure co-owned by Chevron and ExxonMobil — turning Kyiv's energy-disruption strategy into a direct hit on Western oil company assets. That complicates diplomatic cover for the campaign even as Russia intensifies civilian strikes, killing a toddler in Odesa and leaving 300,000+ Chernihiv households without power.
