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Ukraine has agreed not to target some non-Russian oil tankers and Black Sea infrastructure critical to exports of Kazakhstan's crude oil, following strikes on vessels last month that halted loadings, a U.S. official told Bloomberg.
"Kyiv has set up contact points so commercial shippers can share information and seek safe passage," the official said.
The disclosure came as Russia and Ukraine exchanged overnight attacks, including a large-scale missile barrage on Kyiv that Ukrainian officials said killed at least four people, and Ukrainian strikes that sparked fires at two Russian oil refineries.
According to the U.S. official cited by Bloomberg, the arrangement followed strikes on vessels in July that disrupted loadings of Kazakh crude, a trade that runs largely through Black Sea infrastructure separate from Russia's own oil exports.
A fire broke out at Russia's Ilsky oil refinery in the southern Krasnodar region after being struck by Ukrainian drone debris, injuring five people, according to a statement from the regional task force.
The blaze had been extinguished by late morning, Interfax reported, citing a local official. The Ilsky facility, which has a design capacity of about 6.6 million tons a year, has been struck repeatedly since the early phase of Ukraine's campaign against Russian energy infrastructure, most recently in July.
In the Samara region, roughly 850 kilometers (530 miles) southeast of Moscow, Gov. Vyacheslav Fedorishchev wrote on Telegram that an unspecified industrial enterprise was attacked by Ukrainian drones overnight.
Videos posted on social media claimed to show a fire near the Syzran refinery, though Russian officials did not identify the site. Ukraine's military intelligence and General Staff confirmed strikes on both the Ilsky and Syzran refineries.
The Rosneft-owned Syzran facility, with a capacity of 8.5 million tons a year, has been hit repeatedly this year, most recently on July 12, when a strike damaged a primary processing unit and halted operations.
Russia's crude-processing rate averaged 3.6 million barrels a day in July, about a third below the seasonal norm, due to Ukrainian attacks on refineries, according to estimates from EA Analytics.
Russia's Defense Ministry said air defenses intercepted and destroyed 397 Ukrainian drones overnight and 83 more on Saturday morning.
A separate overnight ballistic and drone attack killed three people in the Kyiv region, including a child. A passenger train was attacked in the Sumy region, while Chernihiv, Dnipro and other regions also came under attack.
Kyiv itself came under attack by ballistic missiles and drones overnight. Mayor Vitali Klitschko said fires were reported in several districts, including a possible blaze involving fuel tanks.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in a post on X that at least four people, including a 3-year-old boy and his grandparents, were killed in the Kyiv region and four more were hospitalized, describing the victims as having been in "an ordinary residential building."
Kyiv has become increasingly vulnerable to ballistic missile attacks as Ukraine runs short of Patriot interceptors, its main Western-supplied weapon against such missiles, while new allied deliveries have lagged demand.
Ukraine's army General Staff said it intercepted 135 of 151 Russian drones overnight but none of six ballistic missiles fired. Ukraine's Defense Ministry said earlier in the week that it intercepted only 29 of 195 ballistic missiles launched by Russia in July.
Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha said the passenger train attacked in the Sumy region was struck alongside targets in the Chernihiv and Dnipro regions.
"We urge partners to take concrete steps to strengthen Ukraine's sky shield and increase the cost of prolonging this war for Moscow," Sybiha said on X.
Russia's Defense Ministry confirmed a strike on a fuel depot in Kyiv and said another overnight target was a plant it said produces parts for Ukraine's Flamingo missiles.
These claims could not be independently verified.
Russia and Ukraine continued to exchange strikes on vessels in the Black Sea and Sea of Azov, where their expanding naval conflict has already caused serious disruptions to oil and grain shipping routes.
Ukraine said naval drones hit 12 more vessels from what it calls Russia's "shadow fleet" in the Black Sea and Sea of Azov during an operation between Aug. 1 and Aug. 8, without identifying the vessels struck.
Russia's Defense Ministry said attack drones struck two dry-cargo ships carrying weapons and military equipment to Ukrainian ports south and east of Odesa.
The ministry said a day earlier that 34 vessels operating in the interests of Ukraine's armed forces had been damaged over the past week, including 31 dry-cargo ships and three tugboats.
In a statement posted to Telegram, Russia's Defense Ministry said its forces struck three dry-cargo ships Friday that it said were being used to transport weapons and military materiel.
"'Sea Devils' are attacking. A Geran-4 seeker drone struck a dry-cargo ship involved in transporting armaments and military property used in the interests of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, in the Black Sea, east of Odesa," the ministry said.
In a separate post, the ministry said: "As if out of a clear blue sky: 'Geran' drones came down on enemy vessels. Drone operators struck three dry-cargo ships involved in transporting armaments and military property. Two vessels were struck in the Black Sea, east and southeast of Odesa, and one at a berth in the port of Chornomorsk in the Odesa region."
The attacks have put further strain on Black Sea shipping after Russian strikes on Ukrainian ports threatened the country's agricultural exports.
Ukraine's Agriculture Ministry has said farm shipments could fall to 29.6 million tons in the 2026-27 marketing year, down from an earlier estimate of 64.4 million tons.
Wheat exports are projected to drop 53% as attacks on Odesa disrupt the route that normally handles most of Ukraine's grain exports.
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