Ukrainian drone strike kills 13 in Russia's Nizhnekamsk oil hub

On Monday, a Ukrainian drone attack struck the Russian city of Nizhnekamsk, killing 13 people, including a child. Authorities in the Tatarstan region confirmed the casualties. According to Radio Liberty, regional authorities said on Monday that so far, “13 people are known to have died, including one child" in the attack on the city of Nizhnekamsk. It was one of Kyiv's deadliest single attacks since Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine began more than four years ago.

Russia's oil-rich republic of Tatarstan is located about 1,200 kilometers from the Ukrainian border. Nizhnekamsk came under a “massive” drone attack targeting industrial and civilian facilities on Monday morning, according to the press service of Tatarstan’s head, Rustam Minnikhanov. "This is a tremendous pain for all of us," said Nizhnekamsk mayor Radmir Belayev.

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Ukraine’s General Staff said its forces struck a Taneco oil refinery in Nizhnekamsk, starting a fire. Russian officials didn’t say what the drones targeted, but the city is an important oil refining hub, home to two refineries and a petrochemical plant. Moscow confirmed industrial facilities were targeted as well as residential areas. "Civilian individuals who were not involved in any military operations were present," Russia's Investigative Committee said.

Ukraine has targeted Russian oil facilities with long-range drones almost daily in recent months. The barrage has caused fuel shortages in Russia, eaten into Russian refining capacity and unsettled the Russian public. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky says it is a campaign to force Russian President Vladimir Putin to the negotiating table and stop his more than 4-year-old invasion.

“We do deliver entirely justified responses, and every Russian strike will be met with our response. Russia’s war will be felt more and more at their own home – in Russia,” Zelensky said late Sunday on social media.

“The only reason this is still continuing is Russia’s unwillingness to end this war.” Ukraine’s domestically developed long-range drones have flown increasing distances deep inside Russia, with some now reaching Siberia, around 2,000 kilometres from the border.

Rostov Region Governor Yury Slyusar said that more than 70 drones were shot down over the region overnight, while Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin reported that 13 drones were intercepted as they approached the capital. As per Russian officials’ Ukrainian drones also attacked Belgorod, near the Ukrainian border, over the past day, killing at least four people and injuring several others. Meanwhile, authorities in Ukraine's Sumy region said 14 people, including a child, were injured in a Russian guided-bomb attack on the city of Sumy, near the border with Russia, overnight.

Russia has also regularly battered Ukraine from the air using missiles, powerful glide bombs and drones, hitting civilian areas and causing thousands of civilian casualties, according to the United Nations. The World Health Organization’s European office said Monday that one of its warehouses in the central Dnipro region of Ukraine had been struck twice in less than 24 hours. The attacks destroyed emergency supplies worth an estimated $500,000 that were intended for front-line health facilities, it said in a statement. No casualties were reported. Last week, a combined drone and missile strike on Kyiv killed 21 people.

It was not possible to independently verify either side’s claims. Nizhnekamsk is roughly 1,200 kilometres east of the Ukrainian border and has a population of about 240,000.