Ukrainian drones hit oil refinery in Russia’s Volgograd; one worker injured

Ukraine struck the southern Russian city of Volgograd overnight with drones targeting industrial sites, as Reuters reports. Volgograd is home to one of Russia’s largest oil refineries, owned by the energy giant Lukoil.

The regional governor, Andrei Bocharov, wrote on Telegram on Friday morning that Russian air defence had managed to repel the attack of eight drones over his region. According to him, a fire broke out on the refinery’s territory as a result of debris from a downed drone, but it was extinguished immediately. One refinery worker was taken to hospital for treatment.

The Ukrainian side confirmed the strike: Andriy Kovalenko, head of Ukraine’s Centre for Countering Disinformation, said on Telegram that the Volgograd refinery had been hit by drones.

Meanwhile, the Russian Defence Ministry announced that 49 Ukrainian drones had been shot down overnight, including 25 in the Rostov region and 8 in Volgograd; drones were also detected and destroyed in the Kursk, Yaroslavl, Belgorod, Voronezh and Krasnodar regions.

The attack is part of Ukraine’s ongoing campaign against Russian oil refineries, widely seen as a response to Russian attacks on Ukraine’s energy infrastructure.