Ukrainian drones hit ‘central Russian fuel facility’

Ukrainian drones targeted a fuel facility Russia’s Oryol region sparking a fire politician has said.

Writing on the Telegram messaging app early on Saturday, regional governor Andrei Klychkov said a “mass attack” on an infrastructure site caused fuel to catch fire. Fragments from downed drones smashed windows in homes.

Drone attacks were also understood to have occurred in other Russian regions.

The reports from either side could not be independently verified.

A nine-year-old child was also reported to have been killed in a Ukrainian drone attack on Russia’s Belgorod region on Saturday.

Two other people, including another child, were injured in the attack, regional governor Vyacheslav Gladkov said on the Telegram messaging app.

Governor Vyacheslav Gladkov said Ukrainian forces attacked two villages in Belgorod, injuring one resident and triggering a fire in a house that was quickly extinguished.

Vladimir Kondratyev, governor of Krasnodar region, said air defences had destroyed Ukrainian drones in several areas of the region south and east of Ukraine. One drone smashed windows in village houses, but there were no injuries.

Air defences destroyed seven drones over Bryansk region on Ukraine’s northern border, regional governor Alexander Bogomaz said.

In Ukraine, air defences shot down 58 of 132 Russian drones launched in an overnight attack, according to the country’s air force.

It said 72 Russian drones were “lost” due to the use of electronic warfare interference tactics. There were no immediate reports of major damage.

On Friday Russia hammered Ukrainian energy facilities in a massive aerial attack that President Volodymyr Zelensky said was one of the largest yet on the ailing grid and evidence of why Kyiv needed more Western support before any peace with Russia.

Russia’s 12th major assault on the energy system this year damaged power facilities in several Ukrainian regions and forced authorities to impose even longer electricity cuts for millions of civilians, the national grid operator said.

In a post published on X yesterday, Mr Zelensky said Russia had deliberately waited for freezing weather to strike, aiming to make life even harder for people.

“Every missile was directed at energy infrastructure, but thanks to the accuracy of our defenders and the reliability of our air defence systems, many lives were saved,” he said.

This comes amid reports Russia could launch another hypersonic ballistic missile at Ukraine.

The Oreshnik missile was fired against the Ukrainian city of Dnipro on 21 November, shortly after the US granted Ukraine permission to use long-range ATACMS missiles to strike deep inside Russian territory.

Now a US intelligence assessment has reported that Russia could repeat its launch, as an intimidation tactic.

“We assess that the Oreshnik is not a game-changer on the battlefield, but rather just another attempt by Russia to terrorise Ukraine, which will fail,” the official reportedly said, describing a US intelligence assessment.

Additional reporting by Reuters