KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — An oil storage facility in Russia’s southwestern Rostov region caught fire Saturday after a Ukrainian drone strike in the early morning hours, local officials said, the latest long-range attack by Kyiv forces on a border region.
Ukraine has in recent months increased air raids on Russian soil, targeting refineries and oil terminals in an attempt to slow the Kremlin’s war machine. Moscow’s military is pressing hard along the front line in eastern Ukraine, where a shortage of troops and ammunition is mounting in the third year of the war made defenders vulnerable.
Rostov regional governor Vasily Golubev said a drone strike had caused a fire covering 200 square meters (2,100 square feet) but that there were no casualties. About five hours after he reported the fire on Telegram, Golubev said the fire had been extinguished.
In addition to the two drones intercepted over the Rostov region, Russian air defense systems also destroyed two drones overnight over the western regions of Kursk and Belgorod, the Russian Defense Ministry reported Saturday.
Meanwhile, Ukrainian air defense intercepted four of the five drones launched by Russia overnight, the Ukrainian Air Force reported Saturday morning. Mykola Oleschuk, commander of the Ukrainian Air Force, said the fifth drone left Ukrainian airspace in the direction of Belarus.
Vadym Filashkin, the Ukrainian governor of the partially occupied eastern region of Donetsk, said on Saturday that Russian attacks on Friday killed six people and wounded another 22.
Oleksandr Prokudin, governor of the also partly occupied Kherson region, said on Saturday that one person had been killed and six wounded as a result of Russian shelling the day before.
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