Ukrainian Drone Attack Kills One, Sparks Fire at Yaroslavl Oil Refinery

A Ukrainian drone attack resulted in one fatality and ignited a blaze at one of Russia’s largest oil refineries in Yaroslavl, according to Russian and Ukrainian authorities. Governor Mikhail Yevrayev of the Yaroslavl region reported that a civilian was killed and 27 others were injured when drone debris struck an intercity bus. The governor claimed that 67 Ukrainian drones were brought down over the region, though the debris fell on residential areas, commercial properties, and "industrial infrastructure."

Ukraine’s military claimed they targeted the Slavneft-Yanos refinery, which it stated supplies fuel and lubricants to the Russian military. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky confirmed the attack and revealed that Ukraine’s SBU security service had also struck a Tu-95MS missile-carrying aircraft in the Saratov region city of Engels. Reports suggest that Ukrainian drones had already targeted the Slavneft-Yanos refinery at least seven times this year prior to Friday’s incident.

In the Moscow region town of Pavlovsky Posad, a drone crashed into a Magnit grocery store, shattering windows nearby at a clinic. Despite the damage, the clinic remained open. In the southwestern Belgorod region, Ukrainian attacks over the past 24 hours killed two people and injured nine others, reported by the local governor.

Russia’s Defense Ministry stated they intercepted 512 Ukrainian drones across Russia and annexed Crimea between Thursday night and Friday morning. The Russian Prosecutor General’s Office designated The Moscow Times as an undesirable organization, criminalizing its work and putting its staff at risk of prosecution. The paper's founders defend their work as accurate and unbiased, refusing to be silenced despite the allegations.

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