Russian strikes kill 11 in Ukraine as Kyiv targets gas plants in Arctic

Russian forces have launched attacks across Ukraine, killing at least 11 people, according to Ukrainian officials, as Kyiv claimed responsibility for a drone attack that set off a fire at a natural gas plant deep in Russia’s Arctic region.

Four people – two men and two women – were killed in a Russian attack in the port city of Mykolaiv in southern Ukraine overnight into Thursday, said Heorhii ⁠Reshetilov, the acting governor of the region. At least 19 others were wounded, he added on Telegram.

Three other people were killed and at least 14 wounded when a jet-powered drone hit a shopping centre in the northeastern city of Sumy on Thursday, according to Oleh Hryhorov, head of the Sumy Regional Military Administration. Three of the victims were children, he said on Telegram.

Later, two people were killed in an attack on a sunflower oil facility in Dnipro, according to Ukraine’s Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha. Five others were wounded in the attack, according to a local official.

“This is no coincidence, but part of Moscow’s systematic terror campaign against American businesses and ⁠economic interests,” Sybiha wrote on X.

And in Ukraine’s southern Odesa region, two Azerbaijani crew members were killed and two others injured in a Russian attack on a civilian tugboat, authorities in Kyiv and Baku, the Azerbaijani capital, said.

Ukraine’s Infrastructure Ministry said on X that six other crew members received immediate medical assistance after the vessel, the TEDY, was hit.

Sixteen people were also injured in Russian strikes on educational facilities and homes in Kramatorsk in the Donetsk region.

Two others were injured in two separate Russian drone strikes on targeting a motorcyclist and a municipal vehicle.

⁠Ukraine’s Prime Minister Sergii Koretskyi warned on Thursday that Russian attacks ⁠on businesses and ⁠civilian infrastructure ‌is ”growing rapidly” and announced additional support ‌measures for enterprises.

Ukraine has struggled to repel the attacks amid a shortage of air defence systems.

Strikes on Russia

The Russian Ministry of Defence confirmed the attack in Mykolaiv, but said it targeted a drone warehouse. The ministry said it also hit the Ukrainian port of Chornomorsk and two vessels near Odesa on the Black Sea.

The targets of the strikes were being used for military purposes, the ministry claimed.

The attacks came after Russian authorities said Ukrainian forces had launched a drone attack on the country’s northwestern Yamal-Nenets region, which is located some 2,800 kilometres (1,700 miles) from the Ukrainian border.

Dmitry Artyukhov, the region’s governor, said the attack targeted an industrial facility in Novy Urengoy. The attack was repelled, but falling debris from the drone caused a fire, he said on Telegram.

“The main thing is that there were no deaths or injuries. The extent and nature of the damage are being determined,” he added.

Artem Zhoga, the Kremlin’s envoy to the Urals, said Wednesday’s strike was the first ever to hit the Arctic part of the region.

Ukraine’s Special Operations Forces (SOF) confirmed the attack in a series of posts on X.

“For the first time! Deepest strike of the war: Ukrainian SOF hit critical Russian plants more than 3,000 km away,” it said. “Ukraine’s Special Operations Forces carried out the deepest strike inside Russia since the beginning of the full-scale war.”

In the posts, the Ukrainian force claimed it “successfully struck” two gas plants, Novy Urengoy and Purovsky.

“Until today, the area was considered a safe rear zone for the aggressor,” it added.

The Ukrainian force said the facilities play a key role in Russia’s gas industry, processing large volumes of condensate from gas fields across the Yamal region, processing millions of tonnes of condensate per year.

Gazprom, an energy company owned by the Russian government, exported gas from Yamal as far as Western Europe ⁠until relations broke ⁠down following the start of Russia’s war in Ukraine in 2022.

It estimated the region’s gas resources at ‌26.5 trillion cubic metres as of 2020, enough to cover global demand for more than ‌six ‌years.

Ukraine has escalated its long-range strikes on Russia in recent months, in retaliation for daily Russian bombardment of Ukrainian towns and cities.

Earlier this month, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said his country’s drones would make Russian airspace “completely unsafe” for the duration of the war.