Ukraine seriously damages key Russian refinery in major drone attack

In one of the biggest Ukrainian drone attacks on Russia to date, Russia said it had downed 25 Ukrainian drones

Russian officials reported attacks on energy facilities, including a fire at Lukoil’s Norsi refinery and a drone destroyed on the outskirts of the town of Russia’s second largest oil refinery

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Firefighters work at a site of a building damaged by a Russian air strike in the town of Kupiansk, Kharkiv. Photo: Reuters

Published: 7:41pm, 12 Mar 2024

Ukraine pounded targets in Russia on Tuesday with dozens of drones and rockets in a sweeping attack that inflicted serious damage on a major oil refinery and sought to pierce the land borders of the world’s biggest nuclear power with armed proxies.

Russia and Ukraine have both used drones to strike critical infrastructure, military installations and troop concentrations in their more than two-year war, with Kyiv hitting Russian refineries and energy facilities in recent months.

Russia said Ukrainian proxies had sought to cross the Russian border in at least seven attacks which Russian forces had repelled. The Russian-speaking Ukrainian proxies said they had breached the border, a claim denied by Russia.

A fire breaks out following a Ukrainian drone strike at an oil depot in Oryol, in this screengrab obtained from a social media video. Photo: Reuters

In one of the biggest Ukrainian drone attacks on Russia to date, Russia said it had downed 25 Ukrainian drones over Russian regions including Moscow, Leningrad, Belgorod, Kursk, Bryansk, Tula and Oryol. Many more drone attacks were reported.

Russian officials reported attacks on a slew of energy facilities, including a fire at Lukoil’s Norsi refinery and a drone destroyed on the outskirts of the town of Kirishi, home to Russia’s second largest oil refinery.

Gleb Nikitin, governor of the Nizhny Novgorod region, posted a picture of a fire truck beside the Norsi refinery and said emergency services were working to put out a blaze there.

“A fuel and energy complex facility was attacked by unmanned aerial vehicles,” Nikitin said on Telegram.

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