(Reuters) – Kyiv launched more than two dozen drones on the Russian region of Kursk in several waves of attacks that started Saturday night and damaged an oil depot, the acting governor of the region that borders Ukraine said late on Sunday.
At least 13 drones launched from Ukraine were destroyed by Russia’s air defence systems late on Sunday, Andrei Smirnov, the governor, said on the Telegram messaging app. That follows 19 drones destroyed over the region during the day, he said.
Smirnov did not say how many drones in total Ukraine launched.
Firefighters were still trying to put out an oil depot fire in the region, sparked by Ukraine’s drone attack Saturday night, he added.
He said the attacks caused minor damages to several residential buildings. Russian officials rarely disclose the full extent of damage inflicted by Ukrainian attacks.
Ukraine has been systematically targeting Russian transport, energy and military infrastructure to disrupt the Kremlin’s economy and its ability to fund the war, which Russia launched with a full-scale invasion on its smaller neighbour in 2022.
Kyiv also says the drone attacks are in response to Russia’s continued bombing of Ukraine.
The governor of the southwestern Russian region of Oryol said early on Monday that a power plant was damaged in the region in a Ukraine-launched drone attack.
At least four drones were also destroyed over the Bryansk region, which borders Ukraine, the governor of the region said on Telegram.
(Reporting by Lidia Kelly in Melbourne; Editing by Leslie Adler)
