An oil refinery in the city of Slavyansk-on-Kuban in southern Russia’s Krasnodar region has been forced to suspend operations after being struck by six drones overnight, municipal authority head Roman Sinyagovsky said on Sunday.
Sinyagovsky said the drones had caused no injuries or damage, while the municipal press service said there had been no reports of fire at the refinery.
However, Eduard Trudnev, the security director at Slavyansk ECO Group, which operates the plant, said that the oil refinery was temporarily suspending operations due to the drone strikes, noting that the drones used in the overnight attack “were larger and much more powerful” than the ones used to attack the plant last month. An investigation is now being carried out at the refinery.
Elsewhere in the Krasnodar region, residents of the town of Kushchyovskaya told independent news outlet ASTRA that drones had also attacked a local military airfield overnight. Emergency responders were unable to confirm the report, but did say that a fire had occurred in the area.
Earlier on Sunday, the Russian Defence Ministry said that its air defence systems had destroyed 61 drones and 9 missiles over annexed Crimea and southern Russia overnight, 57 of which were shot down over the Krasnodar region.
The attacks come amid an increase in Ukrainian drone strikes targeting oil refining and storage facilities in southern Russia in recent months.
