Over the night of Saturday, Russia and Ukraine exchanged a heavy aerial attacks with both sides reporting more than 100 enemy drones over their respective territories.
The attack comes less than 24 hours after President Vladimir Putin met with U.S. envoy Steve Witkoff to discuss details of the American proposal for a 30-day ceasefire in the war with Ukraine.
Volgograd regional governor Andrei Bocharov said that falling drone debris caused a fire in the city’s Krasnoarmeysky area, near a Lukoil oil refinery, but did not provide any other information. Local media sites reported that nearby airports had temporarily halted flights. There were no casualties reported.
Kyiv’s military have targeted the Volgograd refinery multiple times since Moscow launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine more than three years ago, most recently in a drone attack on February 15.
According to Russia’s Defense Ministry, they shot down 126 Ukrainian drones, 64 of which were destroyed over the Volgograd region. Drones were also shot down over the Voronezh, Belgorod, Bryansk, Rostov and Kursk regions, officials said.
However, Ukraine’s air force on Saturday said that Russia had launched a barrage of 178 drones and two ballistic missiles over the country overnight. The barrage was a mixture of Shahed-type attack drones and imitation drones designed to confuse air defenses. Some 130 drones were shot down, while 38 more were lost en route to their targets.
Russia attacked energy facilities, causing significant damage, said Ukraine’s private energy company DTEK.
Russia struck energy infrastructure in the Dnipropetrovsk and Odesa regions, DTEK said in a statement on Saturday. Some residents were left without electricity.
“The damage is significant. Energy workers are already working on the ground. We are doing everything possible to restore power to homes as soon as possible,” the energy firm said.
