Officials in two Russian regions bordering Ukraine say Ukrainian drones have killed two people and hit an oil refinery, setting it on fire.
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Vyacheslav Gladkov, the governor of the Belgorod region, said several drone and missile strikes killed a man and a woman in Belgorod city and in one of its suburbs.
"In Belgorod, three balconies collapsed in an apartment building -- a married couple was in one of these apartments. To great grief, the man died on the spot from his wounds before the arrival of the ambulance crew," Gladkov said on Telegram, adding that a second person, a woman, was killed and two were wounded in Chernyansky district.
Belgorod has been hit repeatedly over the months by Ukrainian strikes. While casualties have been relatively low, the attacks have rattled local residents, and caused an exodus of people.
Russian military authorities have struggled to repel the Ukrainian air attacks, as well as several ground incursions by groups allegedly linked to Ukrainian intelligence.
In the Samara region, hundreds of kilometers from the Ukrainian border, the Kuibyshev and Novokuibyshev oil refineries were attacked by drones early on March 23, said the governor of the region, Dmitry Azarov.
At Kuibyshev, a massive blaze was sparked by the strike, but the attack at the second was repulsed, Azarov said, adding that there were no deaths or injuries.
The Kuibyshev refinery is one of the largest in the region.
The attack came just days after news reports said U.S. officials had asked Ukrainian authorities to stop targeting Russia’s oil infrastructure.
Ukraine has continued its monthslong campaign of using drones to target Russian oil and other infrastructure. The effort has partially disrupted Russian gasoline supplies, and driven domestic prices higher.
Fears that disrupted Russian oil prices could ripple through global markets prompted U.S. officials to quietly urge Ukraine to halt attacks on Russia’s energy infrastructure, the Financial Times reported March 22.
The repeated warnings were delivered to senior officials at Ukraine’s state security service, its military intelligence directorate, three unnamed officials were quoted as saying.
An official in Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy’s office later denied the report.
There have been at least 12 attacks on major Russian refineries since 2022, and at least nine this year, the Financial Times reported.