12th March, 2024
Dozens of Ukrainian combat drones attacked targets in several parts of Russia overnight, including an oil refinery some 800 kilometres from Ukraine, Russian authorities said on Tuesday.
26 drones were intercepted above seven different districts including in the St Petersburg region, the Defence Ministry in Moscow said.
The most distant target was a refinery belonging to the Russian oil company Lukoil in Kstovo, near the city of Nizhny Novgorod east of Moscow, where the drone caused a fire.
The city on the Volga was located some 800 kilometres from Ukraine.
A railway fire engine was deployed to fight the flames, regional governor Gleb Nikitin said.
A fire also broke out in a petrol depot in the southwestern district of Oryol after it was hit by a drone.
A woman was also reported to have been injured, it is, not possible to independently verify the information from the attacks.
It was reported by Moscow that there had been Ukrainian attacks of a similar scale on the weekend.
In recent weeks, Ukraine, which had been fending off a full-scale Russian invasion for more than two years, had increasingly targeted metal factories, and oil and gas facilities with combat drones.
The target was ordered to disrupt supplies for the attacking Russian troops.
The range of Ukraine’s domestically manufactured weapons had increased in the process.
However, the consequences of the attacks were usually not as devastating as the Russian missile and drone attacks on Ukrainian cities.
(dpa/NAN)