Ukraine attacked one of Russia’s largest oil refineries with drone strike, killing 13 Russians, in one of Kyiv’s most deadly single attacks of the four-and-a-half-year war.
A child was among the victims, and 78 were wounded in the strike on Nizhnekamsk, in Russia’s Tatarstan region, according to PBS.
The region’s oil refinery, understood to be one of Russia’s most technologically advanced, was hit in the long-range attack.
Long-distance drones travelled almost 800 miles to strike the giant facility.
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 the country’s refining capacity and unsettled the Russian public.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky says it is a campaign to force Vladimir Putin to the negotiating table and stop his invasion.
Nizhnekamsk is roughly 1,200km (nearly 750 miles) east of the Ukrainian border and has a population of about 240,000.
The city is an important oil-refining hub, home to two refineries and a petrochemical plant.
Tatneft’s TANECO refinery, which was also hit by Ukraine in early June, processed 17million tons of crude oil in 2024, producing 2.7million tons of gasoline and 8.5million tons of diesel fuel.
