Ukraine Strikes Russian Intelligence Satellite Centre for Second Time, Zelensky Says

Ukraine's military struck a satellite communications centre being used for intelligence in the Moscow region on Tuesday for the second ⁠time, President Volodymyr Zelensky said.

In a post on Telegram, Zelensky said the attack had hit the Dubna space communications centre as Kyiv widened its campaign of strikes deep inside Russian territory.

Zelensky ‌said the site, located more than 500 km from the Ukrainian border, ‌was used for reconnaissance and ‌for coordinating the activities of Russia's forces in Ukraine.

It also came under Ukrainian attack last ⁠week, the Ukrainian military's General Staff said.

Zelensky added that Ukrainian forces had recently struck four similar Russian centres in the Moscow and Vladimir regions.

Last week, the Ukrainian president said he had ‌approved a 40-day campaign to "influence" Russia ​to end its war against Ukraine, ‌now in its ⁠fifth year.

Ukraine has stepped up ⁠strikes on Russian military and energy infrastructure in recent ‌months, contributing ​to fuel shortages in ‌parts of Russia.

Queues have been seen at petrol stations across Russia, while fuel rationing has been implemented in regions including occupied Crimea and Siberia.

Putin acknowledged the impact of the strikes in a rare admission last Sunday, saying that they had left Russia facing “problems”.

“As for strikes against critical infrastructure in general, and energy infrastructure in particular, of course these attacks on our infrastructure facilities create problems, that’s obvious,” Putin said in the interview, which was published by the Kremlin.

“Right now we’re observing a certain shortage, but it’s not critical.”

In the past 24 hours, Russia also hit four ⁠stations in the northern Chernihiv region, regional governor Viacheslav Chaus said.

Ukraine has stepped up its attacks on Russian military supply routes as part of a mounting campaign to target Moscow's logistics far behind the frontline, an effort analysts have ‌said is helping slow its war machine after more than four ​years of conflict.

Ukraine's defence ministry said that Ukraine's forces hit 11 oil ‌refineries, as well as fuel ⁠logistics facilities, military factories, and other targets in June.

Meanwhile, Moscow attacked five retail fuel stations in Ukraine's southeastern Dnipropetrovsk region overnight, killing a woman, regional governor Oleksandr Hanzha said on the Telegram messaging app on Wednesday.

Russia has been ​striking ⁠fuel stations, but the drone ‌attacks have intensified recently, with Ukrainian authorities in frontline Zaporizhzhia, Sumy, Kharkiv and Dnipropetrovsk regions reporting nearly daily attacks.