Ukraine claims drone strike on Russian oil refinery

Ukraine reportedly hit a Russian oil refinery and targeted Moscow during an attack that included a wave of at least 100 drones, one of the largest single operations of its kind during the war.

Video footage verified by the BBC showed a fireball at a refinery and pumping station in the Ryazan region, southeast of Moscow, which Ukrainian officials said was a target.

Russia said it had shot down 121 drones that had targeted 13 regions, including Ryazan and Moscow, but caused no damage.

Elsewhere, Ukrainian officials said three people were killed and one was injured when a Russian drone hit a residential building in the Kiev area.

Andrey Kovalenko, head of Ukraine’s Center for Countering Deterrence, said on Telegram that an oil refinery in Ryazan was hit, as well as the Kremenny plant in Bryansk. Kiev says the facility produces components for missiles and other weapons.

Bloggers posted images and videos of the fire in Ryazan on the social media site Telegram. Footage verified as genuine by the BBC shows people fleeing the site in cars as a blaze takes hold.

Russian state-owned news agency RIA cited a statement from the Kremenny plant in Bryansk, which said work had been suspended after the attack involving six drones. The regional governor, Pavel Malkov, said that emergency services were responding.

The Kremlin acknowledged the attacks but made no mention of damage or casualties.

It claimed to have destroyed 121 Ukrainian drones, including six in the Moscow region, 20 in the Ryazan region, and a number in the border region of Bryansk.

Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin said that the city’s air defense had stopped attacks by Ukrainian drones in four locations.

He said air defenses in Kolomna and Ramenskoye, southeast of the capital, had also repelled drones, without specifying why. He said there was no damage.

Two Moscow airports, Vnukovo and Domodedovo, had resumed flights after suspending operations for a time, Russian news agencies quoted Federal Aviation Agency Rosaviatiya as saying. Six flights were redirected to other airports.

In the city of Kursk, Mayor Igor Kutsak said overnight attacks damaged power lines and cut electricity in one district.

In Ukraine, officials said its air defenses had destroyed 25 of 58 drones launched by Russia overnight.

The Interior Ministry said that debris from one of the drones had killed two men and a woman in Halevakha in the Kyiv region, and that another person was injured.