Multiple drones struck the Russian port city of Temryuk in the Krasnodar region overnight, igniting large fuel storage tanks and damaging industrial facilities, regional authorities and Russian media reported early on December 25.
The strike came as Russian forces launched a massive wave of nighttime drone attacks across Ukraine, hitting energy infrastructure and residential areas in several regions, Ukrainian officials said.
According to the Krasnodar regional operational headquarters, two oil product reservoirs caught fire following the attack on the port on the Sea of Azov in southern Russia.
The blaze spread over an estimated 2,000 square meters, and preliminary reports indicated no casualties. Footage published by local outlets showed flames rising from what appeared to be a refinery area near the shoreline.
Speaking to Reuters, an official with Ukraine’s Security Service (SBU) attributed the fire to a Ukrainian long-range drone strike, though Kyiv has not publicly claimed the attack.
Officials also reported damage to production buildings and agricultural equipment at a nearby enterprise in Nikolayevka Village in the Shcherbinovsky district.
Elsewhere, the Ukrainian Air Force claimed to have "successfully struck the Novoshakhtinsk oil refinery in Russia's southern Rostov region with Storm Shadow air-launched cruise missiles." The air force said multiple explosions were reported and the extent of the damage was being assessed.
Rostov Governor Yury Slyusar confirmed the attack, saying that an emergency worker was injured while fighting a fire at an industrial facility in Novoshakhtinsk.
Russia's Defense Ministry claimed on December 25 to have shot down between 141 and 170 Ukrainian drones overnight, including seven over Krasnodar Krai, as well as several others over the Moscow and Bryansk regions. Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin said eight drones heading toward the capital were intercepted.
However, Ukrainian forces have in recent months conducted repeated long-range drone operations targeting Russian energy and transportation infrastructure.
Earlier this month, Kyiv-linked drone units hit the Tamanneftegaz oil terminal in Krasnodar Krai, and on December 9, a liquefied gas terminal in Temryuk suffered damage in an attack attributed to the SBU.
Meanwhile, on the other side of the front line, Russian forces launched a massive wave of drones against Ukraine overnight.
"Russia did not stop its brutal bombing of civilians in Ukraine even on the holy Christmas night," Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andriy Sybiha wrote on X on December 25.
"Russia deliberately destroys energy and civilian infrastructure, leaving people without power, water, and heating amid freezing temperatures," he added.
In Chernihiv, a Russian drone struck a residential high-rise building, according to Ukraine's Emergency Service.
Fires also broke out as a result of strikes on several energy infrastructure facilities in the city, the emergency service said.
In the Odesa region, a Russian drone strike killed one and injured two, sparking fires at port and industrial facilities and damaging administrative buildings, the emergency service reported on December 25.
In Kharkiv, a Russian attack killed a 51-year-old man and injured several others, regional authorities said in post on Telegram.
The Ukrainian Air Force reported that 131 attack drones -- including Iranian-made Shahed and Russian-produced Geran variants -- were launched from Russia’s Kursk, Orel, and Primorsko-Akhtarsk regions, as well as from occupied Crimea and parts of Donetsk.
Ukrainian air defenses shot down or disabled 106 drones, the military said, though 22 drones hit targets at 15 locations in northern, southern, and eastern Ukraine.
The overnight attack on Ukraine came amid intense diplomatic and military activity, as Russia's full-scale invasion approaches the end of its fourth year.
In a statement posted online on December 25, almost a week after US talks with Ukrainian and Russian representatives in Florida, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said he spoke by phone with US special envoy Steve Witkoff and President Donald Trump's son-in-law, Jared Kushner.
"There are good ideas that could work toward a joint result and lasting peace," he said, adding that Rustem Umerov, who has led Ukrainian diplomats in the United States, would speak with Witkoff and Kushner again later in the day.
"I hope that today's Christmas agreements and ideas that were discussed will be useful," Zelenskyy added.
Commenting on the Kremlin's view of talks with the United States to end its invasion of Ukraine, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said Moscow saw "slow but steady progress."
Earlier, speaking at the annual press event in Moscow on December 19, Russian President Vladimir Putin gave no signal that the Kremlin was ready to make substantial concessions, voicing confidence in the positions of Russian military forces on the battlefield.
