The aftermath of the strike on a building in Tver. Photo: The Tver region Investigative Committee
One person was killed and two more were injured in an overnight Ukrainian drone strike on the western Russian city of Tver, regional authorities said on Tuesday, with industrial sites in several other regions of Russia also coming under attack.
According to Tver Acting Governor Vitaly Korolyov, debris from a downed Ukrainian drone hit a flat on the ninth floor of an apartment block, sparking a fire. He initially said the strike had killed one person and injured two others before clarifying that the individual had been killed by a “domestic gas explosion” that occurred as air defences tried to repel the drone attack.
The two people who were wounded refused hospitalisation, Korolyov added, while emergency services were assessing the damage to determine whether evacuated residents could return to their homes or instead be placed in temporary accommodation.
Independent Russian news outlet ASTRA reported that the likely target of the attack was the Tver Carriage Works, the largest manufacturer of passenger cars for Russia’s vast railway network, located around a kilometre from the damaged apartment block.
Russia’s Defence Ministry said its air defences had intercepted 129 Ukrainian drones over 21 regions of the country as well as annexed Crimea overnight, including six over the Tver region.
In Russia’s central Lipetsk region, Governor Igor Artamonov said falling drone debris had caused a fire at an “industrial facility”, which ASTRA identified through open source intelligence analysis as the Usman oil depot in the village of Streletskiye Khutora.
Eyewitnesses in the city of Sterlitamak, in the Volga region republic of Bashkortostan, reported several explosions overnight, with a petrochemical complex that was damaged in a previous strike in November thought to have come under renewed attack.
ASTRA also reported that a transport facility in the Volga region city of Penza had been struck after residents reported explosions. Penza Governor Oleg Melnichenko made no mention of damage in a Telegram post, but said that air defences had downed five Ukrainian drones over the city.
Elsewhere, Alexander Drozdenko, governor of the northwestern Leningrad region surrounding St. Petersburg, said drone debris had caused damage to a gas compressor station in the village of Berezhki.
