Ukrainian drone attack on a Russian city kills 13, officials say, with a refinery reportedly hit
Kyiv’s military claims to have hit an oil refinery in the attack as ongoing Ukrainian strikes continue to cause fuel shortages in Russia.
A Ukrainian drone attack Monday on the Russian city of Nizhnekamsk killed 13 people, including a child, and wounded 75 others, authorities in the Tatarstan region said. The Ukrainian military said it hit an oil refinery there.
Russian officials didn’t say what the drones targeted, but the city is an important oil refining hub, home to two refineries and a petrochemical plant. Ukraine has targeted Russian oil facilities with long-range drones almost daily in recent months. The barrage has caused fuel shortages in Russia, eaten into Russian refining capacity and unsettled the Russian public.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky says it is a campaign to force Russian President Vladimir Putin to the negotiating table and stop his more than four-year-old invasion.
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Ukraine’s General Staff said its forces struck a Taneco oil refinery in Nizhnekamsk, starting a fire.
It was not possible to independently verify either side’s claims but social media footage appeared to show a refinery well ablaze against the night sky.
Nizhnekamsk is roughly 1,200 kilometres east of the Ukrainian border and has a population of about 240,000.
Ukraine’s domestically developed long-range drones have flown increasing distances deep inside Russia, with some now reaching Siberia, around 2,000km from the border.
“We do deliver entirely justified responses, and every Russian strike will be met with our response. Russia’s war will be felt more and more at their own home – in Russia,” Mr Zelensky said late Sunday on social media.
“The only reason this is still continuing is Russia’s unwillingness to end this war.”
Russia has also regularly battered Ukraine from the air using missiles, powerful glide bombs and drones, hitting civilian areas and causing thousands of civilian casualties, according to the United Nations.
The World Health Organization’s European office said Monday that one of its warehouses in the central Dnipro region of Ukraine had been struck twice in less than 24 hours.
The attacks destroyed emergency supplies worth an estimated $500,000 that were intended for front-line health facilities, it said in a statement. No casualties were reported.
