KYIV, Ukraine (AP) – Ukrainian drones overnight struck a major gas processing plant in southern Russia, sparking a fire, according to a Russian governor and the Ukrainian military.
The Orenburg plant, run by state-owned gas giant Gazprom and located in a region of the same name near the Kazakh border, is part of a production and processing complex that is one of the world’s largest facilities of its kind, with an annual capacity of 45 billion cubic meters.
According to regional Gov. Yevgeny Solntsev, the drone strikes set fire to a workshop at the plant and damaged part of it. Solntsev said there were no casualties.
Ukraine’s General Staff said in a statement Sunday that a “large-scale fire” erupted at the Orenburg plant, and that one of its gas processing and purification units was damaged.
In the same statement, it claimed a separate drone strike hit Russia’s Novokuibyshevsk oil refinery, in the Samara region near Orenburg, sparking a blaze and damaging its main refining units.
The Novokuibyshevsk facility, operated by Russian gas major Rosneft, has an annual capacity of 4.9 million tons, and turns out over 20 kinds of oil-based products. Russian authorities did not immediately acknowledge the Ukrainian claim or discuss any damage.
Russia’s Defense Ministry said in a statement early Sunday that its air defense forces had shot down 45 Ukrainian drones during the night, including 12 over the Samara region, one over the Orenburg region and 11 over the Saratov region neighboring Samara.
Ukraine has ramped up attacks in recent months on Russian energy facilities it says both fund and directly fuel Moscow’s war effort.
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