Ukraine drone attacks kill three in Russia, cause fire at oil refinery

Ukrainian drone strikes have killed at least three people and wounded two others overnight in western Russia, regional governors said, as a fire broke out at an oil refinery in central Russia after it was hit.

One woman was killed and two others wounded in an attack on an enterprise in Penza, the region’s governor, Oleg Melnichenko, wrote on Telegram on Saturday.The second death of an elderly man happened inside a house that caught fire due to falling drone debris in the Samara region, Governor Vyacheslav Fedorishchev posted on Telegram.

In the Rostov region, a guard at an industrial facility was killed after a drone attack and a fire in one of the site’s buildings, acting Rostov Governor Yury Slyusar said. “The military repelled a massive air attack during the night,” destroying drones over seven districts, Slyusar posted on Telegram.

Meanwhile, Ukraine’s military said it struck Russia’s Ryazan oil refinery on Saturday, causing a fire on its territory.

In a statement on Telegram, the Unmanned Systems Forces also said they hit the Annanefteprodukt oil storage facility in the Voronezh region. The statement did not specify how the facilities were hit, but Ukraine’s military specialises in drone warfare, including long-range strikes.

Separately, Ukraine’s SBU intelligence agency said its drones had hit Russia’s Primorsko-Akhtarsk military airfield, which has been used to launch waves of long-range drones at targets in Ukraine.

The SBU said it also hit a factory in Penza that it said supplies Russia’s military-industrial complex with electronics.In Ukraine’s central Dnipropetrovsk region, overnight Russian drone attacks also left three people wounded, Governor Serhiy Lysak wrote on Telegram. Several buildings, homes and cars were damaged, he added.

Russia’s Defence Ministry said its forces captured the village of Oleksandro-Kalynove in the Donetsk region on Saturday. Russian forces now control almost 20 percent of Ukraine in its east and south after three and a half years of the grinding war.

Kyiv, however, denies any Russian presence in the Dnipropetrovsk area.