(Reuters) -Ukraine’s overnight drone attacks targeted fuel and energy facilities in Russia, sparking fires at a Volgograd oil refinery and disrupting flights at several airports, Russian officials said on Monday.
“The air defence forces of the defence ministry repelled a massive attack by aircraft-type drones on the territory of the Volgograd region,” Governor Andrei Bocharov said in a statement issued by the administration of the southern Russian region on the Telegram messaging app.
Falling drone debris sparked several fires at an oil refinery, the statement said. Bocharov did not say which refinery was on fire but said the blazes had been contained.
Baza, a Russian news Telegram channel that is close to Russia’s security services, said that a series of explosions were heard in the area around a refinery operated by Russia’s second-largest oil producer Lukoil.
Russia’s defence ministry said that its air defence units intercepted and destroyed 70 Ukrainian drones over Russian territory overnight, including 25 over the Volgograd region, 27 over the Rostov region and seven over the Astrakhan region.
In Astrakhan, the drone attack sparked a fire, the region’s governor said, without disclosing what was ablaze.
“Ukrainian armed forces attempted a drone attack on objects located in the region, including fuel and energy facilities,” Igor Babushkin, the governor, said on Telegram.
“There were no casualties.”
Baza said that Ukraine attacked a gas processing plant near Astrakhan.
Reuters could not independently verify the Baza reports about the attacks in Volgograd and Astrakhan.
Russia’s aviation watchdog Rosaviatsia temporarily suspended flights from the airports of Astrakhan and Volgograd, as well as from Kazan, Nizhnekamsk, Saratov and Ulyanovsk to ensure air safety.
Flights were later restored at most of the airports, Rosaviatsia said on Telegram.
There was no immediate comment from Ukraine about the attacks on Russia and their full scope remained unclear.
Kyiv has said previously that its attacks inside Russia are aimed at destroying energy, transport and military infrastructure that is key to Moscow’s war efforts.
President Volodymyr Zelenskiy has said they are also a response to Russia’s continued bombing of Ukraine since the start of Moscow’s full-scale invasion in February 2022.
(Reporting by Lidia Kelly in Melbourne; Editing by Muralikumar Anantharaman, Kim Coghill and Kate Mayberry)
