Kyiv’s newest assault on Russia’s essential infrastructure hits second oil refinery in area of per week.
A Russian oil refinery within the southern Volgograd area caught hearth after being hit by particles from a Ukrainian drone assault.
Regional Governor Andrei Bocharov confirmed the in a single day assault, saying on Friday that the blaze was “promptly extinguished” and one injured employee was hospitalised.
The assault was Ukraine’s newest salvo in its campaign to destroy refineries, oil depots and industrial websites underpinning Russia’s battle efforts.
Andriy Kovalenko, the top of Ukraine’s Heart for Countering Disinformation, described the Volgograd refinery as one of many largest in Russia.
Earlier this week, Kyiv claimed to have struck and set on hearth a Lukoil refinery within the Nizhny Novgorod area, east of Moscow. A drone assault final week compelled a refinery in Ryazan, southeast of Moscow, to droop operations.
Russia’s Ministry of Defence stated on Friday that 49 Ukrainian drones had been downed in a single day, together with 25 within the southern Rostov area and eight within the Volgograd area.
Assault on Odesa
In a single day, Russia launched a volley of drones at Ukraine’s southern Odesa area, injuring 4 individuals within the metropolis of Chornomorsk, in keeping with regional Governor Oleh Kiper.
The assaults additionally partially disrupted electrical energy provides within the metropolis and broken its hospital, administrative constructing, grain warehouse, a home and several other vehicles, he stated.
In the meantime, Ukraine’s air power stated its defence methods shot down 59 of 102 Russian drones in a single day.
The assault got here in the future after Russian drones killed 9 individuals in a strike on a residential block within the japanese Ukrainian metropolis of Sumy.
After the assault, Andriy Yermak, head of the presidential workplace, accused Russia of launching Shahed drones charged with shrapnel “to extend the variety of civilian casualties”.
Buying and selling accusations
On Friday, Russia’s Investigative Committee stated it was probing the killing of twenty-two individuals between September and November in an occupied Russian village. It stated the determine consists of eight girls who have been allegedly raped earlier than being killed.
Investigators stated one of many Ukrainian troopers allegedly accountable for the killings was arrested within the western area of Kursk, the place Ukraine controls dozens of border cities since launching an offensive final yr.
Russia and Ukraine have accused one another of killing civilians because the battle started almost three years in the past, the latter claiming Moscow’s forces murdered a whole lot of civilians within the city of Bucha, close to Kyiv.
Moscow rejected the allegations and accused Kyiv of staging the footage, a declare denied by a number of unbiased fact-checking organisations and media shops.
