Several Russian regions have been bombed by Ukrainian drones. Russian volunteers fighting for Ukraine carried out attacks near Kursk.
Nine regions of Russia were hit on Tuesday by a fleet of Ukrainian drones, Russian authorities report. A fuel depot in Orel, a Russian city located about 160 km from the Ukrainian border, was attacked by a drone which started a fire, announced regional governor Andrei Klitskov.
“A drone crashed in Oryol. A fuel and energy complex was attacked. Special services are working at the scene to contain the fire. There are no casualties”wrote Mr. Klitskov on his Telegram account.
Ukrainian drones also attacked the Russian region of Belgorod, near the Ukrainian city of Kharkiv, on the night of Monday to Tuesday, without causing any injuries, according to the regional governor, who added that a power line was damaged.
Furthermore, a drone was destroyed above the Tula region, south of Moscow, according to the regional security ministry cited by the TASS news agency. The governor of the Kursk region, also located near the border with Ukraine, announced that two Ukrainian drones had been shot down by Russian defense.
Lukoil, one of Russia’s largest oil companies, also confirmed that operations at its processing units had been temporarily suspended “due to these incidents”.
Russian volunteers fighting for Ukraine entered Russia
In addition to this attack, a group of Russian volunteers fighting for Ukraine claimed to have carried out offensives near the Ukrainian border.
Both the Russian Freedom Legion and the Siberian Battalion announced on their Telegram pages that they had launched attacks into Russia from Ukraine.
“We crossed the border”the unit called the Russian Freedom Legion said on Telegram, later claiming to have destroyed an armored vehicle in the village of Tetkino, in the Kursk region. “We dream of a Russia free of Putin’s dictatorship, but we don’t just dream: we do everything we can to make these dreams come true”writes the legion on Telegram, adding: “Russians will vote for who they want and not for who they should. Russians will live freely.”
The Siberian Battalion claims that “ballots and polling stations are in this case a fiction. You can only really change your life for the better with weapons in your hands”. For its part, the Russian Volunteer Corps also announced that it had entered Russia.
The Russian governor of the region confirmed the attack in progress and reported one lightly injured, but denied any “breakthrough” attackers.
On the Ukrainian side, 10 regions in the east of the country, notably Kharkiv, were targeted by Russian missiles. Several civilians are said to have been killed and injured. A human assessment should be presented soon.
Visit of a chief of the Russian general staff to Avdiivka
Sergei Kirienko of the Russian general staff reportedly went to Avdiivka, taken three weeks ago by Moscow. He would have notably supervised security operations there.
Moscow also claimed to have taken a village in eastern Ukraine, near the city of Donetsk already under its control. “In the Donetsk direction, units of the Southern grouping of forces liberated the village of Nevelské and occupied more favorable lines and positions”the Russian Defense Ministry said in its daily report.
This information comes the day after the announcement by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky who claimed to have “stopped” the Russian advance.