234 fighters attempting incursion from Ukraine killed, claims Russia
The Russian defence ministry said on Tuesday night that Moscow’s military and security forces killed 234 fighters while thwarting an incursion into Russian border regions earlier in the day.
In a statement, the ministry blamed the attack on the “Kyiv regime” and “Ukraine’s terrorist formations”, insisting that the Russian military and border forces were able to stop the attackers and avert a cross-border raid. It also said the attackers lost seven tanks and five armoured vehicles.
The reports of border fighting earlier on Tuesday were murky, and it was impossible to ascertain with any certainty what was unfolding in Russia’s Kursk and Belgorod regions. Cross-border attacks in the area have occurred sporadically since the war began and have been the subject of claims and counterclaims, as well as disinformation and propaganda.
Ukrainian long-range drones smashed into two oil facilities deep inside Russia on Tuesday, officials said, while an armed incursion claimed by Ukrainebased Russian opponents of the Kremlin unnerved a border region just days before Russia’s presidential election.
Ukraine launches drone attack on Russian regions
Ukraine launched a sweeping drone attack on Russian regions on Wednesday, causing a fire at Rosneft’s biggest oil refinery in what President Vladimir Putin said was an attempt to disrupt Russia’s presidential election.
The day after seriously damaging Lukoil’s NORSI refinery, a Ukrainian drone attacked Rosneft’s Ryazan oil refinery, Russia’s seventh largest, 180km from Moscow.
Russian media said around 60 drones had been destroyed over Russian sovereign territory over just several hours.
“The Ryazan oil refinery was attacked by a UAV (unmanned aerial vehicle),” Pavel Malkov, governor of the Ryazan region bordering the Moscow region to its north, said on the Telegram messaging app.
“A fire broke out as a result. According to preliminary information, there are injuries,” he said, without elaborating.
Russia’s RIA state news agency said four Ukrainian drones attacked the plant in the early hours, leading to a 175 sq m blaze. The fire was put out several hours later.
Unverified video footage posted on social media showed a plume of black smoke soaring above flames at the Ryazan plant, which refines about 12.7 million tonnes of oil a year, or 4.6% of the Russian total, according to industry sources.
Russian volunteer forces fighting alongside Kyiv on Wednesday urged civilians to flee Belgorod and Kursk, threatening large-scale attacks on military targets in the Russian border cities.
“We call on the local authorities to preserve human lives and begin evacuating the cities of Kursk and Belgorod,” three groups comprised mainly of Russian citizens said in a joint statement, one day after claiming to have captured a village in Russia’s Kursk region.
Putin in remarks published on Wednesday accused Kyiv of attempts to interfere with the March 15-17 presidential election through its attacks.
“The main goal, I have no doubt about it, is to — if not to disrupt the presidential elections in Russia — then at least somehow interfere with the normal process of expressing the will of citizens,” Putin told Russia’s RIA state news agency and Rossiya-1 state television in a wide-ranging interview.