Putin humiliated as Ukraine destroys Black Sea special forces rig in fireball blitz

Vladimir Putin was left humiliated as Ukraine struck multiple targets across several regions of Russia while the country celebrated a national holiday. One of the attacks saw a Russian special forces unit wiped out on a Black Sea oil platform, the Ukrainian military claimed.

Footage shared online showed Monday's dramatic ambush involving kamikaze boats and first-person view (FPV) drones. The Sivash drilling platform - some 87 miles east of Ukraine's Snake Island and 40 miles off the Crimean coast - was a Russian military intelligence hub with an elite special unit, along with surveillance and reconnaissance equipment. The Ukrainian navy said: "The enemy's reconnaissance and observation systems, as well as the crew of an anti-tank missile complex, were destroyed."

Russia's energy infrastructure was also rocked as it marked its annual National Unity Day, one of the most important public holidays in the Russian calendar.

A giant fire from Ukrainian bombardment broke out at a major energy hub in Kstovo, 240 miles east of Moscow.

Meanwhile, a key refinery - crucial for supplies to the Russian capital - was reported ablaze.

A campaign of Ukrainian strikes has crippled Russian oil supplies and caused petrol shortages.

In another failure for Mr Putin's air defences, a major petrochemical plant crucial for aviation fuel was hit in the city of Sterlitamak, 735 miles east of Moscow.

Drones struck power plants in Rylsk, near the Ukrainian-Russian border in the Kursk region, triggering widespread power outages.

Another electricity plant was hit in the Volgograd region.

In Sevastopol, Crimea, a small Russian anti-submarine ship was ablaze in the port. The cause of the fire was not immediately disclosed.

Russia also suffered a setback in Ukraine as its bid to seize the strategic hub of Pokrovsk in the Donetsk region appeared to falter.

Ukraine has deployed special forces troops using Black Hawk helicopters in an operation led personally by Lieutenant-General Kyrylo Budanov, the head of GUR military intelligence.

"After a successful landing operation, additional forces of the special unit joined the GUR special forces, who occupied the designated lines, broke through the ground corridor and joined," a military intelligence statement said.

It added that "fierce battles" are taking place.

This came as reports claimed Mr Putin's forces were using a meat processing plant to store their frontline dead in the battles around Pokrovsk.

"The cause was an unprecedented influx of the dead from Pokrovsky and Myrnohrad," said Russian partisan group Atesh, which supports Ukraine.

"The enemy's morgue system and rear logistics are completely paralysed."

Meanwhile, Russia killed another civilian - a woman pensioner, 65 - in a missile and drone strike on Mykolaivka in Dnipropetrovsk region.

Eleven more - including two children -were wounded as the Russians hit a cafe-shop and private housing.

A five-year-old girl was in serious condition in hospital.