Big wave of Ukrainian drones kills two in Russia, causes refinery fire

Big wave of Ukrainian drones kills two in Russia, causes refinery fire

Ukraine mounted an unusually large wave of overnight drone attacks on Russia that killed two people in Belgorod region and set fire to an oil refinery at Tuapse on the Black Sea, Russian officials said on Friday.

Belgorod regional governor Vyacheslav Gladkov said a mother and her four-year-old son were killed while travelling in a car.

The fire at the Tuapse refinery was extinguished, local authorities said. The extent of damage was not clear.

The refinery had undergone several months of repairs, completed only at the end of April, after a previous fire in January. At the time, a Ukrainian source said that blaze too was caused by Ukrainian drones, which have repeatedly struck Russian refineries and caused significant disruption to output.

Tuapse has an annual capacity of 12 million metric tons (240,000 barrels per day). It produces naphtha, fuel oil, vacuum gasoil and high-sulphur diesel, supplying mainly to Turkey, China, Malaysia and Singapore.

Russia's defence ministry said early on Friday that Russian air defences had destroyed 102 Ukrainian aerial drones and six uncrewed naval boats in the Black Sea overnight.

In Russian-annexed Crimea, an electrical substation was damaged in Sevastopol, local governor Mikhail Razvozhaev said on Telegram. He said there would be "isolated blackouts" and school classes had been cancelled.

Ukraine's military said it shot down all 20 drones launched overnight in Russia's latest such attack on Ukraine since its February 2022 invasion.