A barrage of drones launched by Ukraine overnight sparked a blaze at an oil refinery in southern Russia, in Kyiv’s latest aerial strike, officials in Ukraine and Russia said Monday.
Regional authorities in the Russian Black Sea town of Tuapse in the Krasnodar region said debris from one downed drone sparked a fire at an oil refinery.
Kyiv and Moscow have intensified fatal cross-border missile and drone attacks over recent months with both sides primarily targeting energy infrastructure.
The governor of Russia’s southern Belgorod region meanwhile said one person driving a tractor was killed by a Ukrainian drone and his wife had been injured.
A source in the Ukrainian defense sector said drones linked to the Defense Intelligence of Ukraine were behind the attack, and that the facility was operated by Russian state energy giant Rosneft.
“The extent of the damage to the aggressor state’s military-industrial complex is currently being clarified,” the source said in written comments.
Russia said its forces had downed 75 Ukrainian drones overnight, with nearly 50 destroyed over the southern Rostov region.
Air defense systems intercepted 47 drones over Rostov, 17 over the Black and Azov seas and 11 in other areas including one over the frontier region of Belgorod, the defense ministry said.
Russian authorities said on Telegram that nearly 100 firefighters had been deployed to battle the blaze.
With AFP
