Hormuz Attack, Ukraine Hits Russian Refineries

An Iranian container ship was attacked near Hengam Island in the Strait of Hormuz, killing one crew member and deepening uncertainty in global energy markets already rattled by the crisis in that waterway. The attack came as Ukraine widened its campaign against Russian fuel supplies. Kyiv's General Staff confirmed strikes on two Russian refineries and damage at a third from an earlier hit, while intelligence said forces struck the Slavyansk-EKO refinery in Krasnodar region, destroying a processing unit. Drones also hit the Nizhnekamsk refining hub in Tatarstan, 1,200 km inside Russia. Moscow answered overnight with 453 drones; defenses downed 409, but strikes hit 13 locations. A railway facility burned briefly in Vinnytsia region, no casualties. In Ivano-Frankivsk a Shahed wounded one person, and the mayor warned of more strikes ahead. Near the Yagodyn crossing on the Polish border, drone debris set a gas station and trucks alight, and in Stryi, Lviv region, an apartment block, a school building and structures near the train station were hit, without casualties. Brigadier General Denis Prokopenko took command of the new Azov troop group. In Germany, CSU leader Markus Söder rejected talk of replacing Chancellor Merz after the CDU's poor Saxony-Anhalt result. Separately, AI researchers warned an unchecked race to build stronger AI could threaten humanity within a decade.