Russia said on Sunday it had thwarted a “large-scale” attack by Ukrainian drones on energy and fuel plants in Moscow and 14 regions, in one of the biggest assaults since the start of the two-and-a-half-year conflict.
Ukraine has repeatedly sent drones to attack Russia’s energy infrastructure in recent months, in response to Moscow’s missile strikes that have caused heavy damage to its own energy networks since the Kremlin first sent troops into the country in February 2022.
“It is entirely justifiable for Ukrainians to respond in any way necessary to stop Russian terrorism,” President Volodymyr Zelensky wrote on Facebook.
The Russian Defence Ministry said 158 drones were fired in the latest bombing, most of them downed in the Kursk, Bryansk, Voronezh and Belgorod regions bordering Ukraine.
Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin said 10 drones targeted various areas in and around the capital.
He said one of the blasts caused a fire at an oil refinery within the capital’s limits, while a coal-fired power plant near the city was also targeted.
The attack comes just days after Russia sent more than 200 drones and missiles against Ukraine’s energy infrastructure, the biggest assault of its kind.
The incident comes nearly a month after Ukraine invaded Russia’s Kursk region, crossing the border and seizing Russian territory, while Russian troops made a slow but steady advance into eastern Ukraine.
Sobyanin said on Sunday morning that the downed drone targeted the “technical building” of a Moscow oil refinery owned by the Gazprom energy giant, located in the Kapotnya area southeast of the capital.
The mayor later said that “the fire at the oil refinery was contained to a local containment zone and posed no threat to people or plant operations.”
In the Tver region, northwest of Moscow, five drones targeted the area of the Konakovo power plant and caused a fire that was quickly extinguished, according to Governor Igor Rudenya.
The ‘biggest’ attack
Mikhail Shuvalov, a local official in the Moscow region, said on Telegram that three drones also tried to attack the Kashira coal-fired power station, but “there were no casualties, no damage and no fire at the station”.
“The night attack by the Ukrainian armed forces was the largest since the start of the special military operation in 2022,” Russian military blogger Rybar, who is followed by more than 1.3 million people, wrote.
Vyacheslav Gladkov, the governor of Belgorod city and surrounding region, said the Ukrainian attack on Sunday afternoon injured 11 people, including two children, and caused extensive damage to flats and houses.
Russian forces are advancing towards the city of Pokrovsk in the Donetsk region and Ukrainian armed forces commander-in-chief Oleksandr Sirsky wrote on Facebook that “the situation in the direction of the enemy’s main offensive is difficult”.
At least three people were killed and nine injured in shelling in the Donetsk region near the town of Kurakhov, regional governor Vadim Filyashkin said.
Russia on Sunday claimed control of two new villages in the region: Pytche near Pokrovsk and Vymka in the northeast.
‘Terrorizing Kharkiv’
Russia attacked Ukraine’s second-largest city Kharkiv with missiles on Sunday afternoon, injuring 47 people, including seven children, according to emergency services.
The national police said 21 people were injured at a shopping centre and 18 at a sports centre, five of them children.
The emergency service said the attack caused “widespread destruction and fires” and that “people may be under rubble”.
An AFP photographer saw rescue workers with a dog working through the rubble of the destroyed Sports Palace centre, searching for survivors and carrying an injured man out on a stretcher.
Burnt out cars, shattered building remains and flames from damaged gas pipes were seen outside the shopping centre.
Prosecutors said Russia fired two Iskander-M ballistic missiles at a shopping centre and three at the Sports Palace, while three other missiles fell near the sports centre.
The Energy Ministry said Russia had attacked an energy facility in the city, without giving details.
Kharkiv was also hit by an air strike on Friday, killing seven people, including a teenage girl.
“Russia is once again terrorizing Kharkiv, attacking civilian infrastructure and the city,” Zelensky wrote on Facebook. He appealed for more weapons to deter attacks.
He urged global leaders to “show the courage to give Ukraine everything it needs to defend itself.”
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
