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Drone strike causes fire at Belgorod Oblast gas station

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Drone strike causes fire at Belgorod Oblast gas station
The entrance to the Russian city of Belgorod, some 40 kilometers from border with Ukraine, on May 28, 2023. (Olga Maltseva / AFP via Getty Images)

Ukrainian forces attacked multiple settlements in Belgorod Oblast on May 16-17, damaging a gas station and killing two people, Governor Vyacheslav Gladkov claimed.

Reports of rocket or drone attacks against Belgorod Oblast, which borders Ukraine's Sumy, Kharkiv, and Luhansk oblasts, have become a common occurrence in recent months.

A drone struck a gas station near the village of Bessonovka, causing a fuel tank to catch fire, Gladkov said. Firefighters have since extinguished the blaze.

In the village of Oktyabyrsky, a drone attack killed a woman and her four-year-old child, Gladkov claimed. He also said the child's father was injured.

The Kyiv Independent could not verify Gladkov's claims.

The same night, Russian media and officials reported attacks against Novorossiysk in Krasnodar Krai and Sevastopol in occupied Crimea.

Ukraine has targeted Russia's oil infrastructure and defense industry with increasing attacks throughout winter and spring.

Kyiv does not always claim official responsibility for reported attacks on Russian soil. In some cases, Ukraine has disputed Russian allegations regarding attacks in Belgorod Oblast.

Andrii Kovalenko, the head of the counter-disinformation department at Ukraine's National Security and Defense Council, denied accusations that a Ukrainian attack caused a 10-story apartment building in the city of Belgorod to collapse on May 12.  

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Abbey Fenbert

Senior News Editor

Abbey Fenbert is a senior news editor at the Kyiv Independent. She is a freelance writer, editor, and playwright with an MFA from Boston University. Abbey served as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Ukraine from 2008-2011.

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The project would involve Romanian investment in a local factory, likely in Brasov, where Ukrainian and Romanian teams would collaborate on manufacturing drones based on Ukrainian designs developed through wartime experience.

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