Ukrainian drone attack on an oil hub deep inside Russia kills 13, officials say

Ukraine attacked the petroleum hub of Nizhnekamsk in central Russia’s Tatarstan region on Monday, killing 13 people and injuring 78 others, local authorities said, in one of the deadliest attacks in the country in the 4-year-old war.

The Ukrainian military said it hit an oil refinery in Nizhnekamsk, which is about 1,200 kilometers (750 miles) east of the Ukrainian border and has a population of about 240,000.

Russian officials didn't say what the drones targeted, but the city is home to two refineries and a petrochemical plant. Ukraine has targeted Russian oil facilities with long-range drones almost daily in recent months. The campaign has caused fuel shortages in Russia, eaten into its refining capacity and unsettled the population.

Previous Ukrainian attacks on Russian soil with high death tolls have come in the border region of Belgorod. In December 2023, Ukrainian shelling of the region’s capital, also called Belgorod, killed 25 people and wounded over 100, local officials said. Five months later, a Belgorod apartment building partially collapsed after shelling, killing at least 13, according to Russian authorities.

Also on Monday, several Ukrainian drones sparked a fire at an industrial facility in the Tyumen region of western Siberia, said Gov. Alexander Moor, without offering any details.

Ukraine’s General Staff said its forces damaged part of a petrochemical complex in Tobolsk, in the Tyumen region. The plant produces rocket fuel components, aviation fuel, composite materials for drones and high-octane gasoline, it said in a Telegram post.

Last month, Ukrainian drones hit a refinery in Tyumen, more than 2,400 kilometers (about 1,500 miles) east of the border with Ukraine.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy says his country is trying to force Russian President Vladimir Putin to the negotiating table and stop his full-scale invasion, launched in 2022. Russia is one of the world’s biggest energy producers.

Ukraine’s General Staff said its forces struck a Taneco oil refinery in Nizhnekamsk, starting a fire.

The city came under a “massive” drone attack targeting industrial and civilian facilities, according to the press service of Tatarstan’s head, Rustam Minnikhanov.

One of the drones hit a hostel, killing nine of the 13 victims, including citizens of Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan, officials said. Uzbekistan’s consular office in Tatarstan said seven of its nationals were killed.

A child was among the dead, along with the 75 injured, the press service said, adding that Monday was declared a day of mourning in Tatarstan.

It was not possible to independently verify either side’s claims.

Russia’s Foreign Ministry urged foreign governments and international organizations to condemn Ukraine for the attacks.

Russia has also regularly battered Ukraine from the air using missiles, powerful glide bombs and drones, hitting civilian areas and causing thousands of civilian casualties, according to the United Nations. In the first six months of this year, 1,396 civilians were killed and 7,978 injured in Ukraine, the U.N. office in Kyiv said last week. That was a 37% increase from the same period last year, it said.

A Russian glide bomb struck the city of Zaporizhzhia in southern Ukraine, injuring 24 people, authorities said Monday. The city is the capital of a region of the same name that is partly occupied by Russian forces.

The World Health Organization’s European office said that one of its warehouses in the central Dnipro region of Ukraine was hit twice in less than 24 hours. The attacks destroyed emergency supplies worth an estimated $500,000 that were intended for front-line health facilities, it said in a statement. No casualties were reported.

Ukraine’s domestically developed long-range drones have flown increasing distances deep inside Russia, with some now reaching Siberia, around 2,000 kilometers (1,200 miles) from the border.

“We do deliver entirely justified responses, and every Russian strike will be met with our response. Russia’s war will be felt more and more at their own home -– in Russia,” Zelenskyy said late Sunday on social media.

“The only reason this is still continuing is Russia’s unwillingness to end this war.”

As part of a parallel campaign to disrupt Russian military supply lines leading to the front line in eastern and southern Ukraine, Kyiv's forces struck road, rail and pontoon bridges in six regions last month, the Defense Ministry said Monday.

By repeatedly striking routes for fuel, ammunition and reinforcements, Ukrainian commanders say they have made Russian logistics slower, costlier and hard to organize. That has helped stall Russian advances and enabled Ukrainian counterattacks, they say.

Repairing the stricken refineries also is complicated for Russia. Ukraine’s attacks have damaged specialized equipment that is often imported, making repairs time-consuming and expensive as workarounds or replacements are sought by evading international sanctions.

Follow the AP’s coverage of the war in Ukraine at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine

Residents leave their damaged home after a Russian air guided bomb strike in Zaporizhzhia, Ukraine, Monday, Aug. 10, 2026. (AP Photo/Kateryna Klochko)

Local residents sit with their dogs after a Russian air guided bomb strike damaged their home in Zaporizhzhia, Ukraine, Monday, Aug. 10, 2026. (AP Photo/Kateryna Klochko)

Residents look at their ruined home following a Russian air guided bomb strike in Zaporizhzhia, Ukraine, Monday, Aug. 10, 2026. (AP Photo/Kateryna Klochko)

Rescue workers try to put out a fire of a residential building and cars burning after a Russian air guided bomb strike in Zaporizhzhia, Ukraine, Monday, Aug. 10, 2026. (AP Photo/Kateryna Klochko)

Residents leave their damaged home after a Russian air guided bomb strike in Zaporizhzhia, Ukraine, Monday, Aug. 10, 2026. (AP Photo/Kateryna Klochko)

Paramedics give first aid to an injured woman after a Russian air guided bomb strike in Zaporizhzhia, Ukraine, Monday, Aug. 10, 2026. (AP Photo/Kateryna Klochko)

Rescue workers try to put out a fire of a residential building and cars burning after a Russian air guided bomb strike in Zaporizhzhia, Ukraine, Monday, Aug. 10, 2026. (AP Photo/Kateryna Klochko)

Russian President Vladimir Putin holds the Security Council meeting in Moscow, Friday, Aug. 7, 2026. (Alexander Kazakov, Sputnik, Kremlin Pool Photo via AP)

Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy speaks during a press conference with his Serbian counterpart Aleksandar Vucic at the Serbia Palace, in Belgrade, Serbia, Saturday, Aug. 8, 2026. (AP Photo/Darko Vojinovic)

The Indian airline captain who helped thwart an apparent attempt to crash a FlyDubai flight said in a live video call that he knew he had to get back on his feet to save passengers after being stabbed by his co-pilot.

Meanwhile, a Palestinian citizen of Israel who was running in Israel’s upcoming election is withdrawing his candidacy following comments about Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack on Israel.

Here is the latest news from the Middle East on Friday. Full coverage is available here.

The FlyDubai captain told Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi that he knew he had to get back on his feet to save everyone on board, after he was stabbed by his co-pilot and the aircraft plunged into a steep descent.

“I had so many wounds. I had fallen down,” Capt. Smit Machchhar said from a hospital in Abu Dhabi. “I was fighting for my life. At one point I realized that if I didn’t get up … then passengers would lose their lives.”

Machchhar was seriously injured in Wednesday’s attack but managed to open the cockpit door, allowing passengers to enter and restrain the attacker as the Boeing 737 descended sharply, witnesses and Israeli authorities said.

The flight from Dubai to Tel Aviv, with 182 people on board, was diverted to Tabuk in northwestern Saudi Arabia for an emergency landing.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the attacker, an Omani national, was arrested in Saudi Arabia. His motive for the attack was not immediately clear.

The first repatriation flight left the UAE shortly before 11 p.m. and landed in Tel Aviv just after 1 a.m., according to the Ben Gurion International Airport website.

— More coverage on the attempt to crash the plane is available here.

In the Strait of Hormuz, a tanker was struck by an “unknown projectile” while transiting outbound through the waterway, the British military said Friday, adding that the attack caused a “small fire and blackout onboard.” There were no reported casualties, the United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations Center (UKMTO) said. The fire was extinguished and the tanker continued its transit.

UKMTO did not identify the tanker and there was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attack. Four tankers have recently been hit by projectiles in the critical waterway, bringing the total to five with Friday’s incident, UKMTO said.

Overall ship traffic remains below prewar levels in the Strait of Hormuz, as do shipments of energy products, even though Iran has lost its near-complete chokehold over the crucial waterway thanks to the U.S. Navy's efforts to shepherd oil tankers through the strait. That, along with various pipelines, has allowed Gulf countries to restore oil exports to nearly prewar levels.

Three Israeli strikes in Gaza City and central Gaza killed three people and wounded at least one other on Friday, according to health officials at Gaza’s hospitals.

Two strikes in Gaza City killed one person each, while another strike in central Gaza killed a third, officials said.

Israel’s military acknowledged carrying out the strikes, saying that it was hitting militants in those areas, without elaborating.

In Yemen, intense fighting engulfed a residential area in Taiz City as clashes between the Iran-backed Houthis and Saudi-backed government forces raised concerns over a worsening humanitarian situation.

The World Food Program warned that renewed fighting in Yemen is worsening an already dire humanitarian situation in a country suffering from severe hunger.

WFP director Matthew Hollingworth said that almost three out of four households are unable to meet their basic food needs.

Shelling Friday by the Houthis on the residential neighborhood of Wadi al-Qadi in Taiz City injured several people, according to an Associated Press reporter in the city.

Separately, Saudi Arabia said Friday that it intercepted three ballistic missiles, launched by the Houthis, over the city of Khamis Mushait. The statement, by Saudi spokesman Gen. Turki al-Maliki, did not specify when the attacks occurred or report any immediate damage. A fourth projectile, also blamed on Houthi rebels, fell on a school in the city of Najran, causing material damage, Saudi Civil Defense said. No injuries have been reported.

In Israel, the chairman of the left-wing Balad party said he would withdraw from Israel’s upcoming election after the country’s Supreme Court president said a majority of justices were prepared to uphold his disqualification.

Sami Abou Shehadeh’s candidacy was challenged over an editorial he wrote in the newspaper Al-Araby al-Jadeed the day after Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack on Israel. The article did not condemn Hamas and argued that it was surprising violence hadn’t erupted earlier given conditions in Gaza.

In a subsequent article, Abou Shehadeh, a former member of Israel’s Knesset, called Hamas’ attack both unacceptable and a crime. He said he hadn’t known the scale of the violence when he wrote the first article.

The court weighed whether his remarks violated an Israeli law barring candidates who reject Israel’s existence, incite racism or support armed struggle against Israel. His lawyers said that barring him would reinterpret the law and create a new threshold.

About 20% of Israel's citizens are of Palestinian descent.

Israeli soldiers have barred Palestinian farmers and activists from harvesting olives in the northern West Bank, according to video footage obtained by The Associated Press.

The footage showed soldiers firing shots in the air and tear gas toward the Palestinian farmers and activists, while settlers were also seen in the area.

Israel's military said troops were deployed following reports of a confrontation, which was dispersed. It added that a security official at the scene fired shots into the air earlier, without elaborating. The military said no one was injured.

The olive harvest season in the West Bank is usually marred by tensions between Palestinian farmers and settlers. Israel has imposed new rules this year, prohibiting Palestinians from harvesting in what’s known as Area C, which is under Israeli security control and encompasses the majority of the territory’s agricultural lands.

An earlier version of this story mistakenly said that a fourth projectile reported by Saudi Arabia Friday was not attributed to anyone in particular; it was blamed on Houthi rebels.

This screengrab from Narendra Modi YouTube Channel shows Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi speaking with FlyDubai pilot Capt. Smit Machchhar on Friday, Oct. 2, 2026. (Narendra Modi YouTube Channel via AP )