An industrial facility in Russia’s southwestern Saratov region was damaged by a Ukrainian drone attack, regional governor Roman Busargin confirmed on Feb. 11.
“There are no casualties,” Busargin wrote on the Telegram messaging platform without identifying the damaged facility.
According to the Russian Ministry of Defence, Ukraine carried out an attack overnight—using dozens of drones—on multiple targets in several regions of Russia.
The ministry said 40 incoming drones had been downed by Russian air defenses, 18 of them over Saratov.
After the attack, Russia’s civil aviation authority temporarily grounded flights at Saratov’s regional airport and in the cities of Kazan, Ulyanovsk, and Kirov.
Andriy Kovalenko, head of Kyiv’s anti-disinformation agency, said a major oil refinery in Saratov had been damaged.
He did not say whether the damage was due to a Ukrainian attack.
Unverified images posted on social media purported to show a large fire and billows of smoke in the vicinity of the refinery.
The Epoch Times could not independently verify claims by either side, including reports that the oil refinery had sustained significant damage.
In mid-January, Ukraine conducted a wide-ranging drone attack on multiple energy sites located in southern and western Russia.
In that attack, drones struck a fuel depot in Saratov, which borders Kazakhstan, causing a fire that took several days to extinguish.
Last week, a similar Ukrainian drone attack caused a fire at an oil refinery in Russia’s western Volgograd region and temporarily halted regional air traffic.
Two days later, an oil depot in Russia’s Black Sea region of Krasnodar was set ablaze after being struck by falling debris from a downed Ukrainian drone.
While recent attacks have caused significant material damage, none resulted in deaths or injuries, according to Russian officials.
Gas Site Hit in Ukraine’s Poltava
In Ukraine’s east-central Poltava region, natural gas production facilities were damaged in an overnight Russian missile attack, German Galushchenko, Kyiv’s energy minister, said on Feb. 11.Naftogaz, Ukraine’s leading state-run oil and gas company, also confirmed that its gas production facilities in Poltava had sustained damage.
“There were no casualties,” the company said in a statement, adding that Naftogaz was taking “all necessary measures to stabilize the gas supply situation” in the region.
It did not provide details as to the extent of the damage.
According to the region’s military administration, a total of nine settlements in Poltava’s Myrhorod district had been left without gas as a result of the attack.
The attack on Ukrainian gas infrastructure comprised at least 19 missiles, including ballistic ones, the Ukrainian Air Force said.
The air force refrained from saying whether any incoming missiles had been downed before reaching their targets.
A day earlier, Russia fired scores of combat drones at targets in Kyiv and Ukraine’s northeastern city of Sumy, causing limited material damage.
In recent months, Russia has broadened the scope of its aerial bombardments to include attacks on Ukrainian gas production and storage facilities.
Most gas storage facilities are located in Ukraine’s western regions, while production sites are generally located in the country’s east, including in Poltava.
“Emergency blackouts hit multiple regions across Ukraine,” the newspaper said in a Feb. 11 post. “The full extent of the damage is still being assessed.”
In 2022, Russia invaded and effectively annexed broad swaths of eastern and southeastern Ukraine.
Since then, it has carried out frequent aerial strikes on targets inside Ukraine, especially energy facilities, claiming such sites serve a military function.
Kyiv has responded in recent months by attacking energy infrastructure inside Russian territory, typically using missiles and drones.
According to Ukrainian officials, Russian energy sites play a key role in fueling Moscow’s ongoing invasion, which will enter its fourth year later this month.
Both sides claim to use precision weapons in their respective attacks with the ostensible aim of avoiding civilian casualties.
