Ukraine attacked oil refineries and a military airport in Russia with drones.
Vilma Romsi,
Yrjö Kokkonen
16:14•Updated 16:40
Ukraine and Russia have struck each other’s infrastructure targets with drones and missiles early on Saturday.
Russia admits that Ukraine caused significant damage to the Slavyansk Eko oil refinery in the Krasnodar region. The news agency Tass, which is close to the Russian government, reports that the refinery has had to partially suspend its operations.
– Exactly ten drones hit the refinery precisely. A strong fire broke out. There may also be damage in places that we haven’t noticed yet, said the refinery’s safety manager Eduard Trudnev In an interview with Tassi.
In addition, Ukraine seems to have struck at least the Ilsky oil refinery and the bitumen production plant in the Krasnodar region. The attack on the oil refinery is also confirmed by the administrator of the Slavyansk region Roman Siniagovski.
In addition, according to eyewitnesses, there have also been explosions at the Kushivskaya military airport south of the city of Rostov-on-Don.
A Ukrainian intelligence source tells the news agency Reuters that the attacks were carried out by the Ukrainian intelligence service SBU, and that Ukraine is also behind the attacks on the military airport.
Russia attacked thermal power plants
Russia, on the other hand, carried out missile strikes on the western and central parts of Ukraine earlier on Saturday, says the country’s energy minister Herman Halushchenko.
Attacks hit at least Lviv and Ivano-Frankivsk in the western part of Ukraine, and Dnipropetrovsk in the central part of the country.
Ukraine’s largest private energy company DTEK says that the attacks damaged four of its thermal power plants.
It is known that no one has been killed in the Russian infrastructure attacks.
In addition, Russia attacked a psychiatric hospital in Kharkiv with a missile at night. A woman who was a patient was wounded in the attack, but no one died. There were 63 patients in the hospital building at the time of the incident.
– You saw how big the crater was right between the hospital buildings. We were very lucky, because if the missile had hit one of the buildings, there would have been many victims, the mayor of Kharkiv Ihor Terehov says.
Russia has stepped up its airstrikes
Russia fired a total of 34 missiles at Ukraine last night, says the commander of the Ukrainian Air Force Mykola Oleštšuk. According to him, Ukraine repelled missiles on the 21st.
According to Oleshchuk, Ukraine used fighter jets, anti-aircraft missiles, mobile weapon groups and electronic jamming in missile defense.
Russia, on the other hand, says it shot down 68 Ukrainian drones. According to Russia, 66 drones were shot down in the Krasnodar region and two in Crimea.
Russia has recently stepped up its attacks on Ukraine’s energy infrastructure. In March, Russian strikes destroyed approximately 80 percent of energy company DTEK’s thermal power production capacity, online media The Kyiv Independent tells.
Sources: Reuters, AFP