UPDATES WITH FURTHER INFORMATION
By Burc Eruygur
ISTANBUL (AA) - Russia said early Tuesday that two of its fuel facilities in the country’s Oryol and Nizhny Novgorod regions were hit in mass Ukrainian airstrikes that also affected other regions, including the capital Moscow.
“In the morning, the Kstovo industrial zone, a fuel and energy complex facility, was attacked by unmanned aerial vehicles. Now special services are working on the spot, using all the necessary forces and means to localize the fire at one of the oil refining installations,” Nizhny Novgorod Governor Gleb Nikitin said on Telegram.
The LUKOIL-Nizhegorodnefteorgsintez refinery belonging to Russia’s multinational oil and natural gas firm Lukoil announced in a statement that the operation of the facility in the town of Kstovo, located about 450 kilometers (280 miles) east of Moscow, was temporarily stopped “due to an incident."
Meanwhile, the Russian Railways told the state news agency RIA that a fire train is taking part in extinguishing a fire on the grounds of the refinery.
Another fuel and energy facility was hit in the city of Oryol during a drone attack, Governor Andrey Klychkov noted on Telegram, saying special services are working at the site to contain a fire. Oryol is situated around 368 kilometers (228 miles) southwest of the Russian capital.
“In Oryol, the consequences of an evening drone attack have been eliminated. The resulting smoke does not pose any danger and is a consequence of the work of the fire services. There were no casualties,” he later reported.
In Moscow, Mayor Sergey Sobyanin said a drone was downed in the Ramensky district of the Moscow region, resulting in no damage or casualties.
Local authorities in the Belgorod, Bryansk, and Kursk regions bordering Ukraine, as well as the Leningrad and Tula regions, also reported the downing of drones.
Russia’s Defense Ministry said in a separate statement that it prevented drone attacks, involving a total of 25 aircraft-type unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), in several regions of the country.
“On-duty air defense systems intercepted and destroyed drones over the territories of Moscow (2 UAVs), Leningrad (1 UAV), Belgorod (7 UAVs), Kursk (11 UAVs), Bryansk (1 UAV), Tula (1 UAV), and Oryol (2 UAVs) regions,” the statement said.
It also reported earlier that nine Ukrainian missiles were downed by the country's air defense over the Belgorod region.
Later statements reported the downing of five more drones, four over the Kursk region and another over Belgorod.
Ukrainian authorities have yet to comment on the reports.