A large Ukrainian drone attack on Nizhnekamsk killed 13 people and injured 75 others Monday, according to Russian regional authorities, while Ukraine said its forces struck the city’s Taneco oil refinery and ignited a fire.
By yourNEWS Media Newsroom
A Ukrainian drone attack on the Russian industrial city of Nizhnekamsk killed 13 people, including a child, and wounded 75 others Monday, according to authorities in Russia’s Tatarstan region, as Kyiv said its forces had struck a major oil refinery in the city.
The press service for Tatarstan leader Rustam Minnikhanov described the morning assault as a “massive” drone attack directed at industrial and civilian facilities.
Russian officials did not immediately identify the intended targets or provide additional details about where the deaths and injuries occurred.
Ukraine’s General Staff said its forces struck the Taneco oil refinery in Nizhnekamsk and caused a fire.
The competing claims from Russian and Ukrainian authorities could not be independently verified.
Nizhnekamsk is a major center of Russia’s petroleum industry, containing two oil refineries and a petrochemical plant. The city, with a population of approximately 240,000, lies roughly 1,200 kilometers, or 750 miles, east of the Ukrainian border.
The strike is the latest in a sustained Ukrainian campaign against Russian energy infrastructure. Ukraine has used long-range drones to attack oil facilities inside Russia on an almost daily basis in recent months, reducing refining capacity, contributing to fuel shortages and bringing the effects of the war deeper into Russian territory.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has said the attacks are intended to increase pressure on Russian President Vladimir Putin and push Moscow toward negotiations aimed at ending Russia’s invasion, which has lasted more than four years.
“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 on social media late Sunday.
“The only reason this is still continuing is Russia’s unwillingness to end this war.”
Ukraine’s domestically produced long-range drones have increasingly demonstrated the ability to reach targets far beyond regions near the border.
Some Ukrainian drones are now capable of reaching Siberia, approximately 2,000 kilometers, or 1,200 miles, from the Ukrainian frontier.
The growing range has allowed Kyiv to broaden its campaign against refineries, fuel infrastructure and other strategic targets inside Russia.
Russia, meanwhile, has continued regular aerial attacks against Ukraine using missiles, drones and powerful glide bombs.
Those strikes have repeatedly hit civilian areas and caused thousands of civilian casualties during the war, according to the United Nations.
The World Health Organization’s European office said Monday that one of its warehouses in Ukraine’s central Dnipro region had been struck twice in less than 24 hours.
The attacks destroyed emergency supplies valued at an estimated $500,000 that had been intended for health facilities near the front lines, the WHO said.
No casualties were reported in the warehouse strikes.
Monday’s attack on Nizhnekamsk underscores the increasingly long-range nature of the conflict, with Ukraine extending drone operations hundreds of miles into Russian territory while Russian forces continue aerial strikes throughout Ukraine.
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