DEBRIS from destroyed Ukrainian drones sparked fires at an oil refinery and a hospital roof in Russia’s Volgograd region, the administration of the southwestern Russian region said on Tuesday in a post on the Telegram messaging app.
“Firefighters are working on site trying to contain and extinguish the fires,“ the administration cited the region’s governor, Andrei Bocharov, as saying in its post.
“According to preliminary information, there are no injuries.”
Russia’s civil aviation authority Rosaviatsia said on Telegram that flights in and out of Volgograd were halted for about three hours overnight.
The scale of the attack was not immediately clear. Bocharov called the drone strikes “massive”.
Reuters could not independently verify the report and there was no immediate comment from Ukraine.
Kyiv says its strikes inside Russia are in response to Moscow’s continued attack throughout the war and are aimed to undermine infrastructure integral to Russia’s military, including energy infrastructure.
The Volgograd oil refinery, which belongs to Russian oil giant Lukoil’s had already been shut down after being hit by drone attacks, two sources familiar with the matter said on Monday.
Oil processing at the Volgograd refinery has been halted at least until the middle of September, the sources said.
In 2024 the Volgograd refinery processed 13.7 million metric tons of oil, or 5.1% of the total volume at Russian refineries. – Reuters