TOP HEADLINES

• Ukraine remains in control of a key supply route into Bakhmut, a military spokesperson said, as the head of Russia's mercenary Wagner Group threatened to withdraw some of his troops from the eastern city if Moscow did not send more ammunition.

• A Ukrainian military intelligence official said more than 10 tanks of oil products with a capacity of about 40,000 tons intended for use by Russia's Black Sea Fleet were destroyed in a Sevastopol drone strike, RBC Ukraine reported. Sevastopol governor Mikhail Razvozhaev said only one drone hit the oil tanks.

• Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy carries a pistol and would have fought to the death with his inner circle had the Russians stormed his Kyiv headquarters at the start of the war, he said in an interview with 1+1 television channel.

• Zelenskyy said six children were killed by Russian shelling of the city of Uman. "We will do everything possible to ensure that the terrorist state is held accountable for its actions as soon as possible," he said in his nightly address. "Anyone who prepares such rocket attacks cannot but know that they will become an accomplice to murder."

• Two civilians died as a result of Ukrainian shelling on a village in Russia's Bryansk region on Saturday evening, Governor Alexander Bogomaz said.

• Russia has promised it would respond harshly to what it said was Poland's illegal seizure of its embassy school in Warsaw, an act it called a flagrant violation of the Vienna Convention on diplomatic relations.

• The International Olympic Committee's recommendation to allow Russian and Belarusian athletes to return to international competition as neutrals is "excessive and discriminatory," the Russian Olympic Committee's (ROC) athletes' commission said.

• Pope Francis met Ukrainian refugees on the second day of his visit to Hungary on Saturday, telling them a different future was possible as they described the hardships they have faced since the war began.

• Dividends of as much as $400 million to four Indian companies for their stakes in Russian oil assets are stuck due to problems in payments triggered by Western sanctions over Moscow's attack on Ukraine, a government source said on Saturday.

• Russia's Gazprom is continuing to ship gas to Europe via Ukraine, with a volume of 37m cubic meters on Sunday.

IN DETAIL

Ukrainian drone strike on fuel depot causes massive fire at Crimean port

A Ukrainian drone strike set ablaze a Russian fuel storage facility in the Crimean port of Sevastopol sending a vast column of black smoke into the sky in the latest attack on the Russia-controlled peninsula on Saturday.

The city's Moscow-installed governor blamed Ukraine and later said the fire had been put out before a disaster occurred.

A Ukrainian military intelligence official said more than 10 tanks of oil products with a capacity of about 40,000 tons intended for use by Russia's Black Sea Fleet were destroyed, RBC Ukraine reported.

The strike came as Ukraine prepares for a long-promised counter-offensive to push Russian forces back from territory they have taken control of during the conflict.

Ukraine says having control of all its territory, including Crimea, is a key condition for any peace deal. Russian forces moved onto the peninsula in 2014.

Moscow has accused Kyiv of sending waves of aerial and seaborne drones to attack Crimea.

Sevastopol governor Mikhail Razvozhaev said only one drone hit the oil tanks.

"The enemy... wanted to take Sevastopol by surprise, as usual, by staging a sneak attack in the morning," Razvozhaev wrote on the Telegram app. Russian firefighters had shown how to defeat a major blaze "and prevent a catastrophe," he added.

Ukraine lacks longer-range missiles that can reach targets in places such as Sevastopol, but has been developing drones to overcome this hurdle.

Ukrainian officials do not usually claim responsibility for explosions at military sites in Crimea, although they sometimes celebrate them using euphemistic language.

Andriy Yusov, a Ukrainian military official, did not say Ukraine carried out the attack. Instead, he told RBC the blast was "God's punishment" for a Russian strike on the Ukrainian city of Uman on Friday that killed 23 people.

"This punishment will be long-lasting. In the near future, it is better for all residents of temporarily occupied Crimea not to be near military facilities and facilities that provide for the aggressor's army," RBC quoted Yusov as saying.

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