Key facts
- A Ukrainian drone strike targeted the Taneko oil refinery in Nizhnekamsk, Russia, killing at least 13 people.
- The attack, approximately 1,200 km from the Ukrainian border, is one of Kyiv's deadliest strikes on Russian territory.
- Seven Uzbek citizens were among the victims.
- Ukraine stated the strike aimed to reduce the "military potential of the Russian aggressor."
- Russian forces killed five people in an artillery strike on a village in Ukraine's Kharkiv region.
Ukraine launched a significant drone strike targeting the Taneko oil refinery in Nizhnekamsk, a city located approximately 1,200 kilometers from the Ukrainian border, killing at least 13 people, including seven Uzbek citizens. The local mayor reported that a drone hit a hostel, resulting in nine fatalities. This attack represents one of the deadliest Ukrainian strikes on Russian territory since the full-scale invasion began in 2022, underscoring Kyiv's expanding reach.
Ukraine's general staff stated the raid was part of a campaign to reduce the "military potential of the Russian aggressor." Footage circulating online appeared to show smoke rising from the refinery, which is one of Russia's largest and most technologically advanced oil refineries, owned by Tatneft. It also houses plants producing rubber and petrochemical products.
In parallel, Russian forces conducted an artillery strike on the village of Bugaivka in Ukraine's northeastern Kharkiv region, killing five people and flattening several houses. Russia's defense ministry claimed to have intercepted 456 Ukrainian drones overnight, though it did not specify how many reached their targets. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has framed these strikes as justified responses to Russia's ongoing invasion, stating that Russia's war will be increasingly felt within its own borders until it ends.