A Ukrainian drone strike has killed at least 13 people and injured 39 others in Nizhnekamsk, a city in Russia’s Tatarstan region.
Nizhnekamsk, located more than 600 miles (1,000 kilometres) east of Moscow, is home to a major oil refinery, one of several facilities Ukraine has frequently targeted in recent months.
Unspecified industrial and civilian targets were hit in Monday’s strike, Nizhnekamsk Mayor Radmir Belyayev said in a statement on Telegram.
Ukraine’s military said it had struck the Taneco oil refinery overnight, adding that a fire was recorded at the site.
Ukrainian strikes on Russian refineries have contributed to fuel shortages and reduced the country’s oil-refining capacity.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said the campaign was aimed at pressuring Russian President Vladimir Putin to negotiate an end to the more than four-year-old full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
“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,” Zelenskyy said in a social media post late Sunday.
The strike came as Russia and Ukraine intensified their aerial attacks against each other, while the front lines of the war remained largely stagnant.
More drones and missiles have been getting through both sides’ strained air defences, increasing civilian casualties and damage to critical infrastructure.
Russia has also regularly launched missiles, glide bombs and drones at civilian areas in Ukraine, causing thousands of civilian casualties, according to the United Nations.
Ukraine’s Air Force said Russia launched 126 drones in an overnight attack.
Meanwhile, Russia’s Defence Ministry said it had shot down 456 Ukrainian drones overnight. The ministry did not provide details on how many drones or missiles reached their targets or how many were intercepted over Tatarstan.
Near the front line in Ukraine, a Russian artillery strike killed five people in a village in the northeastern Kharkiv region, Ukrainian officials said.
“On August 10, Russian forces carried out a massive artillery strike on the residential area of the village of Bugaivka in the Chuhuiv district. Various houses were destroyed as a result of the enemy attack. Five people were killed,” the regional prosecutor’s office said in a statement on Telegram.