MOSCOW: A wave of drone strikes targeted Russia’s oil refineries and border regions for the second day in a row on Wednesday, with one sparking a fire and injuring several people in the Ryazan region, officials said.

Dozens of drones were launched overnight, with the vast majority shot down, causing some damage but no victims, over the Ukrainian border regions of Belgorod, Bryansk, Kursk and Voronezh, according to regional governors.

One sparked a fire and wounded several people when it crashed into an oil refinery in the Ryazan region that lies some 200 kilometres southeast of Moscow. “The Ryazan oil refinery was attacked by a drone,” Ryazan regional governor Pavel Malkov wrote on Telegram.

“According to preliminary information, there are injuries,” he wrote. A fire broke out at the refinery following the strike and “all rescue services are working at the scene,” Malkov said.

A drone targeting another oil refinery in the Leningrad region near the second city of Saint Petersburg in northwest Russia was shot down, Alexander Drozdenko, the regional governor wrote on Telegram, adding there was no damage and no victims.

More than 30 drones were shot down over the Voronezh region, with some light damage reported, regional governor Alexander Gussev wrote on Telegram. Six drones were shot down over the Belgorod region, damaging several electrical lines and causing power outages, governor Vyacheslav Gladkov wrote on Telegram.

Published in Dawn, March 14th, 2024