New car sales across Russia’s North Caucasus fell by 21% in July compared with the same month last year. The sharpest decline was recorded in Dagestan, where the new-car market nearly halved over the year.
A Russian drone strike on an oil depot of the Azerbaijani state-owned company SOCAR in the Odessa region of Ukraine caused a fire and damaged a diesel fuel pipeline. Four employees were seriously injured and hospitalized.
Ukrainian law enforcement agencies believe that the strikes were targeted. This is not the first case: a gas distribution station in Odessa's Orlovka, associated with SOCAR, was previously damaged.
In parallel, Romania suspects Russia of polluting Azerbaijani oil supplied via the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan pipeline. The Romanian Ministry of Energy suggests that the chlorine contamination could have been sabotage aimed at destabilizing the operation of oil refineries and creating a fuel crisis. In this regard, a state of emergency was declared and strategic reserves were activated.