Russian fuel facilities in the Oryol and Nizhny Novgorod regions caught fire on Tuesday following a Ukrainian drone attack that also targeted Moscow and other regions, local governors and media said. It appears to be a coordinated Kiev air operation.
A total of 25 unmanned aircraft launched by Ukraine over several Russian regions were shot down by air defense systems, RIA state news agency reported, citing the Russian Ministry of Defense.
It was not immediately clear whether all the drones were destroyed.
“In the morning, the Kustovo industrial zone, a fuel and energy complex, was attacked by an unmanned aircraft,” Nizhny Novgorod Governor Gleb Nikitin said on the messaging app Telegram, adding that a fuel processing plant caught fire. added. Results of the attack.
RIA, citing Russian Railways, reported that a train was taking part in extinguishing the fire on the premises of the Lukoil refinery in Kustovo.
Oryol’s governor Kriuchkov said on the messaging app Telegram that Ukraine had launched a drone attack on fuel facilities in the region, and Russian state news agency RIA said an oil tank caught fire after the attack, citing emergency services. I told him that it happened.
The Baza Telegram channel, which is close to Russia’s law enforcement agencies, posted photos of large flames rising above what appeared to be an industrial facility. The channel reported, citing local residents of Oryol, that there was an explosion before the fire broke out.
Reuters could not independently verify the report. There was no immediate comment from Ukraine.
Officials in Moscow, Kursk, Tula, Voronezh and Belgorod regions also reported drone attacks and said no casualties were reported from the attacks, although they provided few details about the potential damage.
Ukraine has launched a series of drone attacks against Russian refineries and energy facilities in recent months, some of which were successful and caused significant damage or shutdowns.
In January, two drones attacked a fuel facility in the city of Oryol, about 330 miles south of Moscow and 137 miles from the Ukrainian border.
A fire broke out at the facility in February, but authorities have not disclosed the reason for the subsequent fire.
Seven settlements in Russia’s Belgorod region, which borders Ukraine, remained without power overnight after Ukrainian-launched drones dropped explosives, Vyacheslav Gladkov, the governor of Belgorod Oblast, said in a telegram. .
Roman Starovoit, the governor of the Kursk region, which also borders Ukraine, said on Tuesday that six Ukrainian-launched drones were shot down over the region overnight and emergency services were assessing possible damage.
Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin said on Telegram that a drone flying toward Moscow was shot down over the Ramensky district on the outskirts of the capital.
A drone was also shot down over Russia’s Tula region, which borders the Moscow region, and the Voronezh region in southern Russia, local Russian officials said on their Telegram channel, without giving details. .
