Ukraine hits Transneft pipeline hub 1,500 km from front and Mi-28 + Mi-17 in Voronezh as Zelensky escalates 'long-range sanctions'

Ukrainian drone operations on April 29 ranged over six Russian oblasts and the Black Sea. The Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) struck the Transneft Perm linear production-dispatch station in Perm Krai -- more than 1,500 km from the front line -- igniting multiple fuel storage tanks; satellite imagery published the same day showed at least two tanks on fire, and city residents reported what local accounts called "oil rain" as droplets dispersed over Perm. Additional overnight strikes hit the Orsk oil refinery and a machine-building plant in Orenburg Oblast.

Closer to the front, a joint operation by elite Ukrainian drone units -- the 429th Separate Brigade "Achilles" and the 43rd Separate Artillery Brigade -- coordinating with the SBU's Alpha Special Operations Center destroyed a Russian Mi-28 attack helicopter and a Mi-17 transport helicopter at a forward field airstrip in Voronezh Oblast, roughly 150 km from the front. At least one maintenance specialist was killed. The same morning, two Ukrainian kamikaze sea drones hit an empty Cameroon-flagged tanker drifting with its AIS turned off off Russia's Black Sea coast as it waited for an at-sea oil rendezvous, striking the engine room and propeller area, according to Ukraine's General Staff.

President Volodymyr Zelensky framed the day's operations as part of a new stage of "long-range sanctions" -- strikes deep inside Russia intended to compress logistics, refining and air-defence assets that Western sanctions have not been able to reach. Reporting from Kyiv said Ukraine has been extending drone strikes into "Russia's vulnerable logistical zone" while accepting that "many drones lack hitting power" against hardened targets, and that a new generation of heavy drones reportedly penetrates Soviet-era Iskander shelters in Crimea.

Same-day developments included Ukraine's "Shamanbat" unit, working with the 104th Territorial Defense Brigade "Horyn" and HUR agent networks, conducting drone and artillery strikes that destroyed enemy transport, armoured vehicles and "several dozen" Akhmat personnel. Russia's Victory Day parade was reported to be going ahead in 2026 without armour, after Ukrainian estimates put cumulative Russian combat-vehicle losses at 24,486. The US ambassador to Ukraine, Julie Davis, was reported by the Financial Times to be planning to resign in the coming weeks amid frustration with the Trump administration's handling of the war.