Ukraine launched 35 drones at targets across Russia, causing a brief fire at an oil refinery and disrupting electricity supplies in border areas, the Russian government said on Sunday, the last day of its presidential election.
According to Russia, the attacks also targeted the country's capital, Moscow.
Moscow accused Kiev of election sabotage with days of attacks on Russian infrastructure, one of the most comprehensive air operations on Russian territory since President Vladimir Putin ordered the invasion of neighboring Ukraine two years ago.
Putin, almost certain to win re-election, has vowed to punish Ukraine for the attacks.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy thanked Ukraine's military forces and intelligence for new “long-range capabilities” in an evening speech on Saturday, without mentioning the reported intensified attacks by his country's forces.
The Russian Defense Ministry wrote on messaging app Telegram on Sunday that 17 drones were destroyed in Russia's southern Krasnodar region, four in the Moscow region and the rest in six other regions.
“The drones were neutralized, but a fire broke out as a result of the crash of one of the devices,” the operational headquarters for the Krasnodar region in southern Russia said on Telegram.
The fire at the Slavyansk refinery in Krasnodar was extinguished and there were no casualties as a result of the fire, although preliminary information indicated that one person died of a heart attack, the administration said.
Roman Siniagovskyi, head of the Slavyansk administrative district, said on Telegram that refinery workers had been evacuated and that there was no threat from the incident to nearby populated areas.
Reuters was unable to independently verify the facts.
Ukrainian newspaper Ukrainska Pravda cited a Ukrainian intelligence source as saying that Kiev considered the drone attack a success because a large fire broke out near the crude oil distillation units, which were the main target.
The Slavyansk refinery, about 70 km north of Krasnodar, processes about 4.5 million metric tons of crude oil a year, producing fuel mainly for export but also selling some gasoline domestically.
A Ukrainian intelligence source told Reuters on Sunday that long-range Ukrainian attack drones launched by the SBU internal security service had hit 12 Russian oil refineries during the war so far.
Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin said there were no reports of casualties or damage caused by the downed drones in three districts near the capital.
North of Moscow, four drones were destroyed in the Yaroslavl region, with no reports of damage or injuries, Governor Mikhail Yevrayev said on Telegram.
In the border region of Belgorod, an attack by four drones launched by Ukraine damaged electricity and gas lines in a village, Governor Vyacheslav Gladkov said.
Russia's Defense Ministry said Russian forces also shot down 12 rockets fired from Ukraine toward the Belgorod region on Sunday.
As Russia faced attacks from Ukraine, Kiev's military said on Sunday that Russian airstrikes damaged agricultural businesses and destroyed several industrial buildings in the Black Sea port of Odessa overnight.
Source: CNN Brasil
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