Ukraine launched another major drone swarm into Russia on Thursday, killing at least two civilians and hitting two oil refineries, attacks that came after a day of major Russian missile strikes in Kyiv.
Yegor Kovalchuk, the acting governor of Russia’s Bryansk Oblast, said that the two civilians were killed by Ukrainian attacks on towns in the region, which borders Ukraine. He said that one of the attacks hit a car, killing the driver and injuring five others.
In Russia’s Yaroslavl Oblast, which is about 160 miles northeast of Moscow, the governor, Mikhail Evraev, reported the “largest ever attack by enemy drones,” saying that 93 targeting the region were intercepted, The Irish Times reported.
Russia’s Defense Ministry reported that its forces shot down more than 600 drones over multiple Russian regions and the Black and Azov Seas.
Evraev said that oil storage tanks were hit by falling debris, and photos from the region show large plumes of black smoke following the attack. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky also claimed an attack on an oil refinery in Ufa, the largest city in Russia’s Bashkortostan, which is over 800 miles from the Russian border, though it hasn’t been confirmed by local authorities.
While Ukraine has been able to repeatedly strike Russian oil infrastructure in attacks that are supported by US intelligence, Reuters reported on Thursday that Russia’s oil output rose slightly in July. The attacks also haven’t had an impact on the front lines, where Russian forces continue to hold the momentum and are slowly making gains.
A Ukrainian attack in Russia’s Tver region on Thursday also hit a warehouse belonging to Wildberries, a Russian online retailer that’s become a frequent target of Ukrainian drones in recent weeks. Russia’s strikes on Kyiv on Wednesday targeted multiple Ukrainian retailers and killed at least 17 people, including six employees of a food retailer.
