Two people have been confirmed dead and seven others injured after multiple air attacks set an oil refinery on fire in Russia.
According to authorities, one of the drone attacks, which left two dead and others injured, occurred in the Russian border region of Belgorod, adjoining Ukraine, on Saturday.
Another drone attack on the Samara region caused a fire at a major oil refinery, the latest in a series of strikes against Russia’s fuel industry.
Belgorod governor Vyacheslav Gladkov, speaking on the attacks, wrote on the Telegram that two districts in his region as well as the regional capital, also called Belgorod, had been hit in drone and air attacks.
“It’s shaping up to be a difficult morning. As a result of an air attack by Ukrainian armed forces on Belgorod, three balconies collapsed in an apartment building.
One of these apartments was occupied by a married couple. To much grief, the man died from his injuries on the spot,” he said.
A residential building with a partially destroyed facade was depicted in a photo posted by an individual. Additionally, another fatality was reported in a drone attack targeting areas outside the city.
In the Samara region, situated approximately 1,000 kilometers (620 miles) away from the front lines in the east, the local governor disclosed “several drone attacks” on local oil refineries. One of these assaults triggered a fire at the Kuibyshev refinery, as mentioned by Governor Dmitry Azarov in a statement on Telegram.
The Kuibyshev refinery, operated by Russian oil giant Rosneft, stands as one of the region’s largest, boasting an annual production capacity of seven million tonnes, according to its official website.
Moreover, Azarov stated that a drone attack on another refinery in the region, Novokuibyshevsk, was thwarted without causing damage to the technological equipment.
The attacks occurred just 24 hours after Russia launched one of its most extensive aerial barrages in the two-year conflict, targeting numerous Ukrainian energy sites and resulting in over a million people experiencing temporary power outages.
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