Blaze as Ukraine hits refinery
UKRAINE launched 35 drones at targets across Russia that sparked a brief fire at an oil refinery, took aim at Moscow and disrupted electricity supplies in border areas, Russia said yesterday, the last day of its presidential election.
Moscow has accused Kyiv of election sabotage with days of strikes on Russian infrastructure, one of the most sweeping air operations on Russian territory since President Vladimir Putin ordered the invasion of neighbouring Ukraine two years ago. Putin, all but certain to win re-election, has vowed to punish Ukraine for the attacks.
The Russian defence ministry wrote on Telegram yesterday that 17 drones were destroyed over the southern Russian region of Krasnodar, four over the Moscow region and the rest over six other regions. The fire at the Slavyansk refinery in Krasnodar was extinguished and there were no casualties. Roman Siniagovskyi, head of the Slavyansk administrative district, said on Telegram refinery workers had been evacuated and there was no threat to nearby populated areas from the incident.
Ukraine’s Ukrainska Pravda newspaper cited a Ukrainian intelligence source as saying Kyiv considered the drone raid a success because a large fire broke out near the crude distillation units which were the primary target. The Slavyansk refinery, 70km north of Krasnodar, processes around 4.5 million metric tons of crude a year, producing fuel mainly for export
A Ukrainian intelligence source said yesterday that long-range Ukrainian attack drones launched by the SBU domestic security service had hit 12 Russian oil refineries during the war so far. Moscow mayor Sergei Sobyanin said there were no casualties or damage reported from the drones shot down over three districts near Moscow.
North of Moscow, four drones were destroyed over the Yaroslavl region, with no damage or injuries reported. In the border region of Belgorod, an attack by four Ukraine-launched drones damaged electricity and gas lines in one village.
Russia’s defence ministry said Russian forces also shot down 12 rockets launched from Ukraine towards the Belgorod region yesterday.
Kyiv’s military said yesterday that Russian air attacks had damaged agricultural enterprises and destroyed several industrial buildings in the Black Sea port of Odesa overnight.