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A Ukrainian drone strike on the central Russian region of Tatarstan killed at least 12 people in one of Kyiv’s most deadly single attacks of the more than four year war.
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“According to the latest information, 12 people have been killed and 39 wounded as a result of the drone attack,” on the city of Nizhnekamsk, the regional press service said in a statement on Monday.
More than 1,000 kilometres from the Ukrainian border, with a population of 240,000, the city is an important oil refining hub, home to two refineries and a petrochemical plant.
The region itself is rich in energy resources and has many major oil refineries that Kyiv has been targeting in retaliatory strikes.
Unverified footage on social media showed a large black smoke cloud billowing at the site of an oil facility near the industrial city of Nizhnekamsk.
Both sides have significantly escalated their long-range attacks this year, causing a spike in civilian deaths, according to the United Nations.
Strikes kill five in Ukraine
Near the front line in Ukraine, a Russian artillery strike killed five people in a village in the northeastern Kharkiv region, local Ukrainian officials said.
“On August 10, Russian forces carried out a massive artillery strike on the residential area of the village of Bugaivka in the Chuguiv district. Various houses were destroyed as a result of the enemy attack. Five people were killed,” the regional prosecutor’s office said in a statement on Telegram.
Russia’s defence ministry said it shot down 456 Ukrainian drones fired overnight. It never states how many reached their targets.
The Tatarstan region had earlier reported a “massive” Ukrainian drone attack.
Ukraine’s air force said Russia fired 126 drones in its overnight attack.
A woman was also killed in a Ukrainian attack on the Russian border region of Belgorod, and a man was killed in a Russian drone strike on a taxi in the frontline Kherson region, officials there said.
Military and oil infrastructures targeted
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 Zelenskyy says it is a campaign to force Russian President Vladimir Putin to the negotiating table and stop his more than 4-year-old invasion.
“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,” Zelenskyy said late Sunday on social media.
“The only reason this is still continuing is Russia’s unwillingness to end this war.”
