MOSCOW (Reuters) -Ukraine launched waves of drone attacks targeting power plants and a refinery near Moscow, sparking fires, while more than 150 drones were destroyed across other parts of the country, Russian officials said on Sunday.
Drone debris caused fires at the Moscow Oil Refinery and at the Konakovo Power Station in the neighbouring Tver region, one of the largest energy producers in central Russia, officials and media said.
Russia’s defence ministry said on the Telegram messaging app that its air defence units had destroyed 158 drones launched by Ukraine overnight, including nine over Moscow and its surrounding region.
Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin said several drones targeted the Moscow refinery and caused a fire at a “separate technical room” at the plant. State news agency TASS later quoted emergency services as saying the blaze had been contained.
Reuters could not independently verify the reports. There was no immediate comment from Ukraine.
Temporary restrictions imposed on Moscow’s Vnukovo, Domodedovo and Zhukovsky airports overnight were lifted on Sunday morning, aviation watchdog Rosaviatsia said.
The two-and-a-half-year-old war is at a critical juncture, with Russia pressing an offensive in eastern Ukraine while trying to expel Ukrainian forces that broke through its western border in a surprise incursion on Aug. 6.
Russia last week pounded Ukraine with its heaviest air strikes of the war, hitting energy facilities nationwide.
Ukraine, with its domestic drone industry growing rapidly, has been stepping up its own attacks on Russian energy, military and transport infrastructure. But it is pressing the United States for permission to use more powerful Western-supplied weapons to inflict greater damage inside Russia and impair Moscow’s abilities to continue its attacks on Ukraine, which it invaded in February 2022.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy’s senior officials were in Washington last week, appealing to the United States for what Zelenskiy called “capabilities to truly and fully” protect the country.
LOUD BLASTS
The refinery that was hit in the southeast of the Russian capital is owned by Gazprom Neft, the oil arm of Russian gas giant Gazprom. Gazprom Neft declined to comment.
The Baza Telegram news channel, which is close to Russia’s security services, said loud blasts were heard near the Konakovo power plant in Tver region. Tver Governor Igor Rudenya said there was a fire in the town of Konakovo but that electricity and gas supplies were uninterrupted. He did not say what was burning.
Ukraine also attempted to strike the Kashira Power Plant in the Moscow region with three drones, Mikhail Shuvalov, head of the Kashira city district said on Telegram. There was no fire, damage or casualties as a result of the attack, he said.
“Electricity is being supplied without problems,” Shuvalov posted.
The defence ministry said 46 drones were destroyed over the border region of Kursk, 34 over Bryansk, 28 over Voronezh and 14 over the Belgorod regions. Several more were downed over Kaluga, Lipetsk, Ryazan and a score of other Russian regions, the ministry said.
There were no injuries as a result of any of the attacks, according to preliminary information. Russia rarely discloses the full extent of damage inflicted by Ukraine’s air attacks.
(Reporting by Lidia Kelly in Melbourne, Vladimir Soldatkin in Moscow and Lucy Papachristou in London; Editing by Mark Trevelyan and Mark Potter)
