An overnight drone attack caused a brief fire at an oil refinery in Russia's Volgograd region, Governor Andrey Bocharov reported on Telegram.
"The fire was extinguished. There were no casualties,” Bocharov said on May 12. Several Telegram channels posted photos and video of the attack with flames ascending into the night sky above what appeared to be an industrial structure with a prominent chimney.
Volgograd Oblast is located in the southwestern part of Russia, and borders several other regions, including Astrakhan, Saratov, and Rostov oblasts.
In recent months, drone attacks targeting energy facilities within Russia's borders have increased in its frequency. According to Kyiv officials, these attacks are carried out to undermine Russia's military operations and retaliate against Moscow's strikes on Ukrainian energy infrastructure.
On May 10, Ukraine's military intelligence agency (HUR) confirmed it was behind the attack on the oil refinery in Russia's Kaluga Oblast.
Kaluga Oblast Governor Vladyslav Shapsha claimed earlier in the day that a falling drone caused a fire in the Dzerzhinsky district overnight.
The governor did not specify the facility being attacked, but locals reported the fire at the Pervyy Zavod plant, the largest petrochemical enterprise in Kaluga Oblast, according to the Russian Telegram channel Mash.
A day before, a long-range drone operated by Ukraine's State Security Service (SBU) attacked an oil refinery, Gazprom Neftekhim Salavat, in Russia's Republic of Bashkortostan, an SBU source told the Kyiv Independent. For the first time since the start of the full-scale invasion, Ukraine attacked facilities in Bashkortostan, some 1,500 kilometers from the country's border, according to the source.
Igor Kossov
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