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Ukraine has struck three Russian oil tankers, a missile-carrying warship, and a patrol boat across two ports in a wave of drone strikes targeting Russia’s oil export infrastructure.

Some shit you should know before you dig in: If you’re unaware, the war in Ukraine has officially entered its fifth year, and Ukrainian forces have been ramping up their drone campaign deep inside Russian territory over the last year (particularly against oil infrastructure). We’ve been seeing this since 2023, and the logic is pretty straightforward: oil revenue is the main thing keeping Russia’s war machine running, and the war on Iran has pushed global oil prices up, allowing Russia to make a shitload of cash amid low global supplies. In response, Ukraine has been hammering the shit out of Russian refineries and export terminals (Tuapse and Novokuibyshevsk both had to shut down in April after Ukrainian strikes damaged their facilities), with Primorsk and Ust-Luga (Russia’s two biggest Baltic export hubs) taking the brunt of it since they move roughly 40% of the country’s oil exports between them. Russia has also been using a “shadow fleet” of tankers to skirt Western sanctions and the price cap on its energy, and Ukraine has increasingly targeted those vessels. The drone war has become such an issue that the Kremlin announced Wednesday it was trimming its annual May 9 Victory Day parade in Moscow, citing what it called the “terrorist threat” from Ukraine.

What’s going on now: Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Sunday that two tankers from Russia’s “shadow fleet” were hit just outside the Black Sea port of Novorossiysk, with the operation credited to Ukraine’s general staff chief Anatoliy Hnatov, along with SBU counterintelligence and the Ukrainian Navy. Zelensky posted black-and-white footage that seemed to show a sea drone bearing down on one of the tankers. In a statement, Zelensky said, “These tankers were actively used to transport oil. Now they won’t.”

A separate strike at Russia’s largest Baltic Sea oil export terminal in Primorsk hit another tanker, a patrol boat, and a Karakurt-class corvette built to launch Kalibr cruise missiles. Russian regional Governor, Alexander Drozdenko, confirmed a fire at the port but said there was no oil spill. Primorsk is roughly 620 miles from Ukraine, tucked between the Russian-Finnish border and St. Petersburg.

Russia’s Defense Ministry claimed it knocked down 334 Ukrainian drones overnight throughout Russia and occupied Crimea, while Ukraine’s Air Force said Russia threw 269 drones and ballistic missiles at the country, with 249 of them either intercepted or jammed. According to Russian media, a Ukrainian drone killed a 77-year-old man in a strike near Volokolamsk (a town sitting roughly 75 miles west of Moscow), and three people (including a child) were injured inside an apartment building in Russia’s Smolensk region after drone debris fell on the structure.

On the Ukrainian side, Russian attacks left at least 10 dead and 76 injured during the same 24-hour stretch, with deaths reported across Kherson, Odesa, Donetsk, Zaporizhzhia, and Sumy regions. In Odesa, two people died and three were wounded, with damage to three apartment buildings and to port facilities. Up in Dnipropetrovsk, Ukrainian media reported that six people were injured and a passenger bus carrying 40 kids was damaged, but somehow nobody on the bus was hurt.

This all comes as Ukrainian forces reportedly hit an external radiation monitoring lab at the Russian-held Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant Sunday, according to the plant’s press service, which said the facility runs 24/7 radiation tracking and is essential for coordinating any emergency response if something goes sideways at the plant. No serious damage or injuries were reported, and the plant kept running normally.

International Atomic Energy Agency Director General Rafael Grossi condemned the strike, saying “any attacks near nuclear sites can pose nuclear safety risks,” and the IAEA has requested access to inspect the lab.