MOSCOW: A Ukrainian drone strike on the central Russian region of Tatarstan killed at least 13 people in one of the deadliest attacks carried out by Kyiv since the war began more than four years ago. Kyiv said it had struck an oil refinery in the industrial city of Nizhnekamsk, more than 1,000 kilometres (620 miles) away from the Ukrainian border. Both sides have significantly escalated their long-range attacks this year, causing a spike in civilian deaths, according to the United Nations.
"At this moment, 13 people have been killed" in the attack on Nizhnekamsk, the regional press service said in a statement on Monday. Another 75 people were wounded, 21 of which had been hospitalised, the authorities added. Russia's Tatarstan region 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.
Ukraine's General Staff said it had struck the Taneko refinery, controlled by oil giant Tatneft, as part of a campaign of "reducing the military potential of the Russian aggressor". Russia's Investigative Committee, which probes major crimes, said a child was among those killed. So too were citizens from Tajikistan and Uzbekistan, according to the regional government.
Russia also hit Ukraine with deadly strikes on Monday. Near the front line, 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," regional prosecutor's office said in a statement on Telegram. It posted a picture of a house reduced to rubble by the attack.
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.
In Ukraine's southern Odesa region, tens of thousands of households were still without power after Russian struck the power grid over the weekend.
Concerns are rising in Kyiv over the upcoming winter, with the energy network still reeling from four years of Russian strikes. Last winter, millions were plunged into darkness and had their heating and water cut for hours as temperatures sunk to -20C.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky warned on the weekend that his country has "virtually no intact thermal power plants" following the Russian attacks. Kyiv has also been running short of vital missile interceptors as Russia has significantly escalated its attacks with hard-to-intercept ballistic missiles. Dozens have been killed in Kyiv over the last two months in direct hits on apartment buildings.
Meanwilen, Germany will beef up its anti-drone police unit, the government said on Monday, days after an explosives-laden unmanned aerial vehicle was flown into a strategically important airport. Berlin was shocked by the incident last week when the UAV was defused after it was found near a Ukrainian cargo plane at Leipzig-Halle airport, a key hub for military equipment transports.
Interior Minister Alexander Dobrindt — who labelled the incident a "hybrid attack scenario" potentially involving a "foreign power" — now plans to double personnel in the federal police anti-drone unit to 300. The number of operational bases for the unit will rise from four to eight, a ministry spokeswoman added at a press conference. She also said that Dobrindt would next week formally open a new drone technology research centre, attached to the German Aerospace Center. — AFP
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