(Adds new Ukrainian reports on Russian attacks, paragraphs 12-15)
By Tom Balmforth and Olena Harmash
kyiv, April 20 (Reuters) – Ukraine attacked eight Russian regions with dozens of long-range attack drones, setting fire to a fuel depot and hitting three electricity substations in a major attack on Saturday morning, a an intelligence source in Kiev told Reuters.
The nighttime attack, which was confirmed by the Defense Ministry in Moscow, comes amid a campaign of Russian airstrikes that have battered Ukraine’s energy system and pounded its cities in recent weeks.
Facing growing battlefield pressure more than two years after Russia’s full-scale invasion, Ukraine has attempted to find a pressure point against the Kremlin by targeting oil refineries and energy facilities in Russia using drones.
“At least three electricity substations and a fuel storage base were hit, where fires broke out,” the Ukrainian source said, citing videos posted on social media showing fires raging in different locations.
The source said the facilities were intended to support Russian military industrial production.
The Russian Defense Ministry said it shot down 50 Ukrainian drones, including 26 in the Belgorod region, 10 in the Bryansk region, eight in the Kursk region, two in the Tula region and one in each of the Smolensk regions. , Ryazan, Kaluga and Moscow. .
Vyacheslav Gladkov, governor of Russia’s Belgorod region, which borders Ukraine, said two civilians were killed following the attack.
The strike targeted an oil power production facility in the Kardym district of the western Smolensk region, hitting a tank containing fuel and lubricants, the local governor confirmed.
“Thanks to the work of the air defense forces, the plane was shot down. However, as a result of falling debris, a tank containing fuel and lubricating oil caught fire,” he said, adding as firefighters struggled to put out the fire. flame.
It was unclear whether anyone was injured, he said.
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On Saturday, Ukrainians were impatiently awaiting a vote in the US House of Representatives that could finally unlock more than $60 billion in aid to Ukraine, which has been blocked for months.
Dnipropetrovsk region governor Serhiy Lysak said a Russian attack killed a man near the town of Dnipro while Russian artillery hit areas near Nikopol, a frequent target opposite the nuclear plant Russian from Zaporizhzhia.
In the southern Odessa region, Governor Oleh Kiper said a missile attack on the port city injured three people, including a child. A military statement said three missiles were intercepted.
Reuters could not independently verify either side’s accounts of the battlefield.
Nearly 26 months after the 2022 invasion, Russia is slowly advancing into eastern Ukraine and has stepped up its bombing of towns and villages behind the front lines.
This year alone, Ukraine has been attacked by nearly 1,200 missiles, more than 1,500 drones and 8,500 guided bombs, amid a slowdown in Western military assistance, President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said Friday.
Unable to quickly produce long-range missiles and with limited access to those made by its Western allies, kyiv has focused on developing long-range attack drones to fight back. Russia has a vast arsenal of missiles and drones.
The night drone attack was a joint operation carried out by Ukraine’s SBU security services, the GUR military intelligence agency and special operations forces, the source said. (Reporting by Tom Balmforth and Olena Harmash; editing by Toby Chopra, Ron Popeski and Andrea Ricci)
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