What the August 2026 strikes and Senate vote showed

What did the war look like in the days leading up to 12 August 2026? Reports from 6 to 10 August showed a conflict fought on two fronts at once: strikes on energy and cities, and a sanctions push in Washington aimed at Russia's oil and gas income.

Refineries in the crosshairs

On 6 August, Ukrainian forces launched drone attacks on two Russian oil refineries, the Yaroslavl refinery and a Bashneft-Novoil refinery in Bashkortostan, causing large fires at both. On 10 August, a Ukrainian drone attack on an oil refinery in Nizhnekamsk, Tatarstan, killed at least 13 people, including a child, and injured 39 others.

The pattern was consistent across those days: repeated strikes on Russian refining capacity. The Nizhnekamsk attack stood out for its human toll, which was reported as including a child among the dead.

Pressure on Ukrainian cities and infrastructure

Russian forces kept up their own campaign. On 6 August, Russian airstrikes across Ukraine killed six people, including three civilians in Kharkiv Oblast. A total power outage hit the city of Kherson after critical infrastructure was targeted overnight by Russian drones.

That day's events fit a broader pattern of Russian attacks on Ukrainian infrastructure. As later background describes it, Russia has launched waves of missile and drone strikes against energy in Ukraine since 2022, particularly critical power infrastructure, which is considered a war crime.

On 7 August, a Russian drone strike hit the Chornomorets Stadium in Odesa. Oleh Kiper, governor of Odesa Oblast, reported two people injured. Odesa and its surrounding region have been targeted by Russian shelling and air strikes on multiple occasions since the conflict began.

On 8 August, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy reported that a 3-year-old boy and his grandparents had been killed by a Russian drone strike in Kyiv.

The sanctions track in Washington

On 7 August, the US Senate voted 86–11 to pass a bill imposing sanctions on Russia's energy revenues, financial institutions, officials and shadow fleet. It also authorised tariffs of up to 100% on major buyers of Russian oil and gas. The legislation was to go to the House of Representatives for a vote.

The margin of the Senate vote and the scope of the measures were notable. The bill targeted not only Russian entities but also the buyers of Russian energy, extending the sanctions logic to third countries. Background on earlier sanctions shows why that mattered: after 2022, Western sanctions affected the Russian economy, but Russian authorities mitigated their impact by turning to trading partners that ignored Western sanctions, such as China, India, Turkey and the UAE. A tariff mechanism on major buyers of Russian oil and gas addressed exactly that kind of workaround.

The vote also came against a particular political backdrop. The second Trump administration, in office since 2025, had proposed a peace deal and increasingly sought to distance itself from financially supporting Ukrainian resistance. The Senate vote showed strong cross-party support in one chamber for tougher measures, although the bill still needed House approval as of 12 August 2026.

Why the week mattered

Taken together, the reports from those days show three overlapping pressures on Russia's oil sector: Ukrainian drones hitting refineries, a Senate-passed bill aimed at energy revenues and shadow fleet operations, and the threat of tariffs on buyers. On the Ukrainian side, the same days brought civilian deaths in Kyiv and Kharkiv Oblast, injuries in Odesa, and a blackout in Kherson.

What remained open on 12 August 2026 was whether the House would take up the Senate bill. The reports from that week establish the Senate vote and its terms, but the next step lay with the House.