A new drone attack targeted an oil refinery in Ryazan, about 200 km southeast of Moscow, Russia. The latter will happen two days before elections scheduled in Russia from March 15 to 17, which should see the Kremlin boss triumph for a new six-year term in the absence of any opposition.
“The Ryazan oil refinery was attacked by a drone (…). According to preliminary information, there are casualties,” Ryazan Region Governor Pavel Malkov wrote on Telegram on Wednesday morning. According to him, after the attack “a fire broke out” at the refinery, one of the largest producers of fuel for central Russia and controlled by oil giant Rosneft. “All emergency services are on site,” he added, clarifying that he went there himself.
Another drone was shot down on Wednesday as it approached an oil refinery in the Leningrad region near St. Petersburg (northwest), regional governor Alexander Drozdenko said on Telegram, emphasizing that the attack “did not result in casualties or damage.”
“Election Subversion”
Several Russian regions, in particular Belgorod and Kursk, which border Ukraine, have been subjected to numerous attacks by Ukrainian drones for the second day in a row, with energy facilities being targeted. Russian volunteers fighting for Ukraine also said Tuesday they had infiltrated Russia and taken control of a border village in the Kursk region.
Russian President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday accused Ukraine of attacking Russian regions in an attempt to disrupt the presidential election. These attacks can be explained “very simply.” All this is happening against the backdrop of failures (of the Ukrainians, editor’s note) on the front line,” the Russian president said in an interview with the Rossiya 1 channel and the RIA Novosti press agency, excerpts from which were shown on Wednesday. Morning.
“However, the main goal, I have no doubt, even if it is not possible to disrupt the presidential elections in Russia, is to at least try to prevent citizens from somehow expressing their will,” he assured.
Dozens of drones
A total of 58 drones attacked several Russian regions overnight and into the morning, notably Belgorod, Bryansk, Kursk and Voronezh, all four of which border Ukraine, according to a Russian Ministry of Defense press release, ensuring that they were all destroyed.
On Tuesday, in the industrial zone of Kstovo in the Nizhny Novgorod region, 800 km from the border with Ukraine, an oil refinery caught fire after being targeted by a Ukrainian drone. Another fire broke out on Tuesday at a fuel complex in the Oryol region, about 160 km from the border with Ukraine, also after a drone attack.
On Wednesday, about thirty drones were also shot down in the Voronezh region; the attack caused minor damage to local infrastructure, the region’s governor, Alexander Gusev, wrote on Telegram.
Eight Ukrainian drones were shot down in the Bryansk region, regional governor Alexander Bogomaz said. Four drones were shot down in the morning in the Kursk region, said the regional governor, Roman Starovoit. Finally, six drones were shot down in the Belgorod region, where power lines were damaged in several settlements, leading to power outages, said the region’s governor, Vyacheslav Gladkov.
Since last summer, the Ukrainian army has increased the number of drone attacks against Russia, striking further and further into Russian territory. Although most of the devices are shot down, targets, especially energy and industrial ones, are hit regularly.
Source: Le Parisien
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