Ukrainian drones hit south Russia, Crimean port
Jun 23, 2024
Moscow [Russia], June 23: One person died and several others were injured during separate Ukrainian drone attacks reported by Russian authorities on Friday, targeting southern Russia and the Crimean peninsula.
Two people were injured in a strike on an oil refinery in the Krasnodar region, the state news agency TASS reported, citing the regional crisis response centre. The fire had been extinguished, it said.
One boiler house worker was killed and at least four people were injured by falling drone debris, according to the report.
According to media reports, facilities at the local airbase in the city of Yeysk were on fire. Russia uses this base for conducting airstrikes against Ukraine.
Drones were also observed over the town of Afipsky near Krasnodar, where a refinery is located.
The Ukrainian General Staff reported that the attacks targeted refineries in Yeysk, Afipsky, Krasnodar, and Astrakhan, as well as arsenals containing Russian combat drones.
A total of 114 Ukrainian drones were shot down in the combined attacks, 70 of them over Crimea and the Sea of Azov alone, the Ministry of Defence in Moscow said.
Several Ukrainian remote-controlled boats with explosives were also reportedly destroyed.
The information could not be independently verified.
Previously, the Russian side has omitted to confirm actual damage in attacks that it claimed to have repelled. On this occasion, drones targeting the Crimean port city of Sevastopol were successfully downed, according to the Russian-appointed governor Mikhail Razvozhayev.
A drone was also reportedly shot down over Russia's southern Volgograd region, which is far away from Ukraine.
For its part, Russia targeted Ukraine with four cruise missiles overnight but all of them were intercepted, the Ukrainian Air Force said on Friday.
The Netherlands, along with another country, will provide Ukraine with an additional Patriot air defence system, Dutch Defence Minister Kajsa Ollongren announced on Friday, according to the Dutch news agency ANP.
Source: Qatar Tribune
