Ukraine strikes Siberia refinery

Kazakh leader tells Putin war should end

MOSCOW:

Ukrainian drones struck a Siberian oil refinery Saturday and disrupted a Urals athletics competition, as Kazakhstan's president told Russia's Vladimir Putin the Ukraine war should end during a forum in Siberia's Omsk.

occupied Ukraine, Russian-installed authorities said a Ukrainian strike had killed 11 people at a seaside "tourist camp", as well as one more in a Moscow-held town and two in Russian border villages. Kyiv said Russian attacks killed five people in eastern and southern Ukraine. The 19 deaths come as the UN has warned of civilians dying in larger numbers recently in the almost 4.5-year war.

US-led talks on ending fighting have stalled and the Kremlin said it intends to seize the rest of east Ukraine.

Moscow said Ukraine -- which has intensified its retaliatory strikes -- launched more than 300 drones into Russia, including on far-flung regions, Saturday.

The governor of Siberia's Tyumen region said a local oil refinery was set ablaze, while Russia's athletics federation said an all-Russian competition in the Urals city of Yekaterinburg was halted over drone threats.

Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky claimed the Siberia strike and said Kyiv had hit a military factory in the Kirov region for a second day in a row, a day after an attack there killed five people, according to local authorities.

Kyiv has said its retaliatory strikes are aimed at damaging Moscow's war effort and force the Kremlin to negotiate.

In Siberia's Omsk hours after the strikes, Kazakh leader Kassym-Jomart Tokayev told Putin the Ukraine war should end as the pair met for a Russia-Kazakh summit.

"It is a shame, young people are dying... All this has to be stopped," Tokayev said sitting next to Putin in televised comments.

Putin is rarely confronted with officials publicly telling him the fighting should stop. Tokayev said the conflict should be "frozen" and suggested a return to Istanbul talks before moving "to a long-awaited peace."

The Central Asian leader, who is a Moscow ally but who has never condoned Russia's offensive, said the roots of the war are "not understandable".

Putin responded that he will inform Tokayev on "the details" of the war.

The Russian leader has repeatedly said Moscow intends to take the rest of east Ukraine by force. US-led talks to end Europe's worst conflict since WWII have stalled.

Russian occupational authorities in southern Ukraine said a Ukrainian strike on an Azov Sea town left 11 people dead, including four children, on Saturday, accusing Kyiv of targeting a "tourist camp."