Getty ImagesAt least 13 people have been killed in a Ukrainian drone strike on the Russian republic of Tatarstan, local officials have said.
They confirmed one child was among those killed, with 75 more people injured as drones hit Nizhnekamsk, more than 1,100 kilometres (680m) from the Ukrainian border. Ukraine’s Armed Forces said the city’s Tanevo oil refinery had been hit.
It is one of the deadliest single attacks on Russia since the start of Moscow’s full-scale war in Ukraine in 2022.
Kyiv has recently stepped up its long-range strikes on facilities it says contribute revenue and logistics to Russia’s war on Ukraine.
Verified images on social media show large plumes of smoke and flames rising into the sky in daytime, with air raid sirens howling in the background.
The Uzkbek consulate in Tatarstan said seven of those killed were citizens of Uzbekistan.
According to Russian news agency RIA, most of the victims had been staying in a hostel at the time of the attack, and Russia’s Investigative Committee said that “civilian individuals who were not involved in any military operations were present” where the drones struck.
The BBC has not independently verified this information. Moscow said that “all those involved in the attacks” would “face inevitable and severe punishment”.
Oil refineries in Nizhnekamsk had already been hit once – on 12 June.
“The facilities Ukraine targets are used to carry out attacks against Ukraine, manufacture weapons, support Russia’s war effort,” said Andriy Kovalenko, head of the Ukraine’s Centre for Countering Disinformation.
The head of Tatarstan, Rustam Minnikhanov, confirmed the strike and shared his condolences with the families of the deceased, while Nizhnekamsk Mayor Radmir Belayev said the deaths had been a “a tremendous pain for all of us”.
Ukraine’s Kovalenko said “every civilian death in Russia is on [President Vladimir] Putin” and that “Russians should direct their grievances at Putin and at the decisions made within their own country”.
“Without Putin, there would have been no aggression. Without the aggression, these people would still be alive,” he added.
More than 450 Ukrainian drones were shot down by the Russian air defences overnight across Russia, Moscow said.
Elsewhere in Russia, fires broke out when an industrial facility in Siberia’s Tyumen region was hit by several falling drones, according to local authorities.
Kyiv has become increasingly successful at carrying out long-range strikes on Russia, often targeting warehouses or energy infrastructure, with civilian casualties mounting.
Moscow, meanwhile, continues to target Ukraine with regular large-scale aerial attacks on cities and residential centres. Last week, a combined drone and missile strike on Kyiv killed 21 people.
