Ukrainian drones struck an oil refinery and a fuel depot in Russian border regions, officials in the targeted areas said Thursday, in Kyiv‘s ongoing effort to disrupt the Kremlin’s war machine and as Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy sought further Western support in Europe’s biggest conflict since World War II.
Zelenskyy was due to join world leaders, including U.S. President Joe Biden, at D-Day commemorations in France on Thursday. On Friday, he was due to meet with French officials.
Zelenskyy’s trip came a day after Russian President Vladimir Putin warned that Russia could provide long-range weapons to other countries so that they could strike Western targets. That threat came after NATO allies said they would allow Ukraine to use weapons they deliver to Kyiv to attack Russian territory.
Ukraine’s army is fighting to hold back a recent Russian push in eastern areas, including the border regions of Kharkiv and Donetsk, that seeks to exploit Kyiv’s shortages of ammunition and troops along the roughly 1,000-kilometer (620-mile) front line after more than two years of war.
Biden countered Putin’s threat with an insistence that Washington has imposed restrictions on how Ukraine can use American-supplied weapons inside Russia.
“We’re not talking about giving (Ukraine) weapons to strike Moscow, to strike the Kremlin,” Biden told ABC News during an interview that aired Thursday.
Ukraine has received authorization…
