KYIV, Ukraine (AP) – A Ukrainian drone attack killed one person and injured three in Russia’s southern Krasnodar region, local officials said Saturday, as part of Kyiv’s campaign of strikes on military and energy targets deep inside Russia.
Drone debris sparked a fire at a sea terminal, local Gov. Veniamin Kondratyev said. He did not give details, but Russian news outlets reported that a Black Sea export terminal transporting terminal crude oil, petroleum products and liquefied gas in the village of Volna was damaged.
Ukraine´s General Staff did not comment on the Krasnodar strike Saturday, but said that its forces had hit an oil preparation and pumping station overnight in Russia’s Volgograd region, as well as Russian-occupied areas in Ukraine’s Donetsk and Zaporizhzhia regions.
The attack comes after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said his country´s forces had struck several military and energy infrastructure sites deep inside Russia, including a military factory that he said supplied components for Russian drones and missiles.
He said Wednesday that Ukrainian FP-5 Flamingo long-range missiles had hit the facility in Cheboksary, in the Chuvashiya region, more than 900 kilometers (560 miles) from the front line.
More than four years since the start of Russia’s full scale invasion of Ukraine, the more than 1,000-kilometer (620-mile) front line has remained largely static as swarms of drones hinder advances. As a result, both sides have increasingly relied on long-range strikes.
Last week, Russian President Vladimir Putin vowed to strengthen air defenses after Ukrainian attacks set ablaze an oil terminal in St. Petersburg and also hit a nearby naval base, casting a cloud over a showcase economic forum in his hometown.
Elsewhere, Russian attacks injured nine people in Ukraine’s Dnipropetrovsk region, setting fire to a local marketplace, regional authorities said.
Russia attacked three districts of the region more than 20 times with drones and aerial bombs, according to regional head Oleksandr Hanzha in a Telegram post on Saturday. Six were hospitalized including a man in critical condition, he added.