Ukrainian drone and missile attacks on Russia’s Rostov region were “neutralized” but briefly caused a fire at an oil refinery, the local governor said Thursday.
• Also read: Russia: fire at an oil depot after a Ukrainian attack
• Also read: Kyiv claims attack on refinery in Russia
• Also read: Russia: fire at oil refinery after drone attack
The Rostov region, bordering Ukraine, was “subject to a massive attack by the enemy,” declared its governor Yuri Slioussar on Telegram around 6 a.m. local time (3 a.m. GMT).
Ukrainian forces used “more than thirty drones and three missiles,” he said, adding that Russian air defense services were activated in several cities in the region.
While “most aerial targets have been neutralized,” a fire broke out in an oil refinery. After the intervention of the firefighters, the fire “was reached”, Mr. Slioussar said later, around 6:45 a.m.
He also announced that one person was injured in a village near Rostov “due to falling drone fragments.”
For its part, the Russian Defense Ministry declared on Thursday that the drone attacks attempted by kyiv had been “foiled”.
Russian air defense destroyed more than 80 drones across the country, including in the Rostov region, according to Moscow.
Russia’s border regions are frequently targeted by Ukrainian forces. Last week, two separate attacks targeted Rostov as well as the western Bryansk region, causing an oil terminal to burn and an “industrial enterprise” to be damaged.
Russian President Vladimir Putin is due to give his annual press conference on Thursday, in a context marked by a Russian advance in Ukraine carried out at a pace not seen since the first months of 2022.
