Ukrainian bombing kills 5, drone sparks refinery fire: Russian officials

MOSCOW/KYIV, May 31 (Reuters) – Ukrainian airstrikes killed five people in a village in eastern Ukraine’s Luhansk region, Moscow-based officials said on Wednesday, while a drone strike sparked a fire at an oil refinery in southern Russia.

Ukrainian artillery also hit a Russian town near the border for the third time in a week, damaging buildings and vehicles and injuring four people, Russian officials said.

A day after the Kremlin accused Kiev of sending drones to attack buildings in Moscow, Russian-based officials in Luhansk said five people were killed and 19 wounded when Ukrainian forces used US-made HIMARS rocket launchers to strike. attack a farm in the village of Karpaty overnight.

Russian forces control almost the entire Lugansk region in eastern Ukraine.

ukrainian artillery It also struck the Russian town of Shebekino about 7 km (4.5 miles) north of the border with Ukraine’s Kharkiv region, regional governor Vyacheslav Gladkov said on the Telegram messaging app.

Two people were hospitalized and shells smashed windows and damaged the roofs of an eight-story apartment building, four houses and a school, it said.

Reuters was unable to independently verify the reports. There was no immediate response from Ukraine and both sides deny attacking civilians.

The governor of the Krasnodar region in southern Russia said a drone was the probable cause of a fire that broke out in the Afipsky oil refinery.

The fire was put out and there were no casualties, Governor Veniamin Kondratyev said on Telegram. The Afipsky refinery is not far from the Black Sea port of Novorossiisk, near another refinery that has been attacked. repeatedly this month.

There was no immediate word on who launched the drone, but Moscow accused Kiev of increasing attacks inside Russia in recent weeks, while Russia has repeatedly attacked Ukrainian cities with drones and missiles.

Skies over Ukraine were relatively calm on Tuesday night, with no major airstrikes reported after waves of strikes over the previous 24 hours. Russian drone strikes killed one person and injured four in kyiv on Tuesday, according to Ukrainian officials.

The attacks in Russia come as Ukraine prepares a counter-offensive in hopes of driving Russian forces out of territory they have occupied since their full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.

Ukraine almost never publicly claims responsibility for attacks in Russia or Russian-controlled territory in Ukraine.

DRONE WAR

ukrainian drones hit the wealthy districts of Moscow on Tuesday, Russia said, in what one politician called the most dangerous stroke in the capital since World War II. Kyiv it was also hit from the air for the third time in 24 hours.

Airstrikes by both sides have intensified as a stalemate persists on the ground with Russian forces entrenched along an extended line in eastern and southern Ukraine.

The Russian Defense Ministry said eight drones sent to Moscow by Ukraine and targeting civilians were shot down or deflected with electronic jammers, though Baza, a Telegram channel with links to security services, said there were more than 25.

Mykhailo Podolyak, a Ukrainian presidential aide, denied that kyiv was directly involved, but said “we are pleased to see developments” and predicted more such attacks.

Two people were injured as some apartment blocks were briefly evacuated, according to Moscow’s mayor. Residents said they heard loud banging followed by the smell of gasoline. Some filmed the downing of a drone and a column of smoke.

The drones targeted some of Moscow’s most prestigious districts, including the home of Russian President Vladimir Putin and other members of the elite.

Putin said Ukraine’s biggest drone attack on Moscow was an attempt to scare and provoke Russia, and that air defenses around the capital would be strengthened.

Since the early days of the war, civilian targets in kyiv and other Ukrainian cities have been repeatedly attacked by Russian drones and missiles.

But Tuesday marked only the second time Moscow had come under direct fire.

yousaid the White House was collecting information on reports of drone strikes in Moscow.

“We do not support attacks inside Russia. That’s it. Period,” White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said at a briefing.

Washington is a major supplier of weapons to Ukraine on the condition that it uses it to defend itself and retake Ukrainian territory occupied by Russian forces.

Russia’s ambassador to the United States has accused Washington of encouraging “terrorists” in kyiv by publicly ignoring the drone strike.

One of the southern locations that Russian forces have controlled since shortly after the invasion is the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, and on Tuesday the head of the UN nuclear watchdog called on Ukraine and Russia to respect five principles to safeguard it.

The head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, Rafael Grossi, said there should be no attacks on or from Europe’s largest nuclear power plant and that it should not be used as a base for heavy weapons and other military equipment.

Reporting by David Ljunggren, Guy Faulconbridge, Max Hunder, Olena Harmash, Pavel Polityuk, Valentyn Ogirenko, Gleb Garanich, Lidia Kelly, Trevor Hunnicutt, and Steve Holland; Written by Stephen Coates; Edited by Robert Birsel

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