Ukraine drone strike on oil refinery deep inside Russia kills at least 13

Attack hundreds of miles from border would be among deadliest of war as Kyiv aims to strangle Russian economy

A Ukrainian drone strike on an industrial city deep inside Russia has killed at least 13 people, according to the local mayor, as Kyiv steps up its campaign of long-range strikes on targets far from the frontline.

Kyiv said it hit the Taneco refinery in the city of Nizhnekamsk, about 750 miles (1,200km) from the Ukrainian border. Footage circulating online appeared to show smoke rising from the refinery.

Ukraine’s general staff said the raid was part of a campaign to reduce the “military potential of the Russian aggressor”.

Russian investigators claimed civilian and industrial sites in the city had been hit. The head of the Tatarstan region, Rustam Minnikhanov, said a Ukrainian drone hit a hostel, killing nine people. He posted images showing a badly damaged building.

If the death toll is confirmed, the strike would be among the deadliest Ukrainian attacks on Russian territory since the full-scale invasion began in 2022, underscoring the growing reach of Kyiv’s strikes deep inside Russia.

The Uzbek consulate said in a Telegram post that seven of the victims were Uzbek citizens. Minnikhanov declared a day of mourning and Russian prosecutors opened a criminal case into alleged terrorism.

Local video footage showed Ukrainian drones buzzing above the city’s skyline, flying low over grey and box-like Soviet-era apartment blocks. Two plumes of black smoke could be seen rising above an industrial zone on the wooded outskirts of Nizhnekamsk.

The site is home to Taneco, one of Russia’s biggest and most technologically advanced oil refineries, owned by Tatneft. It also houses a plant that produces rubber and petrochemical products. Ukraine also bombed the area in June.

In an address on Sunday, Volodymyr Zelenskyy said “long-range sanctions” against the Kremlin and its war machine would continue. In recent months Ukrainian drones have wreaked havoc on Russia’s oil export industry, even hitting refineries in Siberia, 1,500 miles from the frontline.

The governor of the Tyumen region in western Siberia said on Monday that several Ukrainian drones had fallen on an industrial facility and that emergency services were dealing with a fire.

There have been several strikes on warehouses belonging to Wildberries, Russia’s equivalent of Amazon, as well as on oil tankers in the Sea of Azov and Black Sea. Ukraine’s long-term goal is to slowly strangle the Russian economy so Moscow can no longer fund its war.

Zelenskyy described his country’s remote bombing campaign as “entirely justified”. “Every Russian strike [on Ukrainian towns and cities] will be met with our response. Russia’s war will be felt more and more at their own home – in Russia,” he said on social media. “The only reason this is still continuing is Russia’s unwillingness to end this war.”

Russia’s defence ministry said it had intercepted 456 Ukrainian drones flying above Russian territory and annexed Crimea. Ukraine says it is knocking out its opponent’s air defence systems more quickly than they can be replaced, creating air corridors or “doors” it can exploit.

Overnight, Ukraine’s armed forces hit equipment depots and a repair unit in the occupied Donetsk and Luhansk parts of eastern Ukraine, while ⁠Russian-appointed local authorities said the ⁠Zaporizhzhia region in south-east Ukraine was largely without ⁠electricity on Monday ⁠after ​Ukrainian attacks destroyed key power facilities.

On Russia’s Black Sea ⁠coast, power outages were ​reported in ‌parts of ‌Novorossiysk, a major export ‌port, and in the holiday resort of Gelendzhik, regional authorities said on Telegram.

There were unconfirmed reports that Russian ballistic missile launcher systems were destroyed inside Russia, not far from the border.

According to Telegram channels citing Ukrainian military sources, the targeted high-value military assets were in Russia’s western Kursk and Bryansk regions. Both were used to launch Iskander and hypersonic Zircon missiles towards Kyiv.

Ukrainian prosecutors said five people were killed on Sunday in a Russian artillery strike on a village outside Kharkiv. Several houses were flattened as a result of an “enemy strike” on Buhaivka in the Chuhuiv district, they said.

Sweden’s security service, Säpo, said on Monday it ⁠had shut down a Russian spying operation that had tried to ⁠influence decision making ⁠there ​and discredit the Nordic country as well as its EU and ⁠Nato allies.

Säpo said the operation had been planned and directed by Russia’s SVR foreign ⁠intelligence service and involved three people working under ​the cover of ‌diplomatic immunity.

“This is ‌consistent with the threat we see Russia posing,” a Säpo spokesperson said. “We have been able to monitor ​what happened at these meetings between the individuals involved, what was said and what assignments were given. They are ⁠no longer in Sweden and we ​have ​been able to break up ​this operation.”