A refinery near Nizhny Novgorod, Russia’s sixth most populous city, and a fuel depot in the Oryol region burst into flames yesterday morning after being hit by bombs dropped by Ukrainian combat drones. They are the most important effects of the extensive attack with drones and rockets carried out by the Kyiv army against targets inside Russian territory. In addition, several Ukrainian-allied Russian militias attempted an incursion into two Russian border regions.
Yesterday’s attacks came just three days before the start of presidential elections in Russia which, with victory assured, will perpetuate Vladimir Putin in power until 2030. Russians will vote on March 15, 16 and 17 in elections in that, after years of repression, the three rivals of the head of the Kremlin do not represent a real opposition.
The governor of Nizhny Novgorod, Gleb Nikitin, reported on his Telegram channel that the Ukrainian projectiles hit the industrial area of ??Kstov, close to the capital of that Volga region. “The special services, all the forces and means are involved to locate the fire in one of the oil processing plants. According to the first data, there are no injuries”, said the senior official.
Nikitin specified that the wreckage occurred in a crude oil refining unit, which was burning. The governor published a photo of the Norsi refinery, belonging to the Russian oil company Lukoil.
Hours earlier, another unmanned aircraft struck fuel installations at another Russian refinery, in this case in the Oryol region, halfway between Moscow and the border with Ukraine. As a result, one of the oil storage tanks caught fire.
The Russian Ministry of Defense said it had shot down 25 Ukrainian drones targeting Russian energy infrastructure in several Russian regions. According to this department, Ukrainian forces also launched nine missiles, eight RM-70 rockets and one Tochka-U missile, against the Russian region of Belgorod, which borders the Ukrainian province of Kharkiv. This artillery could be part of an attempt by armed groups to cross into Russian territory.
Three militias of Russian anti-Putin fighters installed in Ukraine assured that they had advanced with the intention of reaching Russian territory. According to the ex-Russian deputy, now exiled in Ukraine, Illià Ponomariov, these forces managed to penetrate and even occupied a small town. Russia, for its part, claims that they did not succeed, that the fighters were repulsed and lost a hundred men.
“The Legion of Freedom for Russia, the Russian Volunteer Corps and the Siberian Battalion have entered the Kursk and Belgorod regions of the Russian Federation as part of a joint operation,” Ponomariov wrote on his Facebook account, which is considered the political head of the Legion Freedom for Russia. He added that the town of “Lozovaia Rudka, in the Belgorod region, is under the total control of the liberation forces”. Lozovaia Rudka is a small town which, according to the 2010 census, has a population of only 45 inhabitants.
The raid was also confirmed by the Freedom Legion for Russia on its Telegram channel. “Like all our fellow citizens, in the Legion we dream of a Russia free from Putin’s dictatorship. But we don’t just dream: we make every effort to make these dreams come true”, reads the channel.
Since the beginning of the conflict, these militias have carried out several incursions into Russian territory. In May of last year, they gained control of some localities in the Russian region of Belgorod for several hours.
The Russian Security Service (FSB) categorically denied that enemy troops had arrived on its territory, as reported by the RIA Novosti agency. Another state agency, Tass, claimed that FSB forces, which are responsible for monitoring the borders, had killed 100 people and destroyed numerous armored vehicles when they tried to penetrate into Russia.
According to Moscow, this attack was carried out by saboteurs from the armed forces of Ukraine, and made no reference to Russian anti-Putin militias.
Ponomariov said there was also fighting between them and Russian forces in Tyotkino, in Russia’s Kursk region, which is north of Belgorod and borders Ukraine’s Sumy province.
While these attacks were taking place, a Russian Ilyushin-76 military transport plane crashed in the Ivanovo region, less than 300 kilometers from Moscow, with fifteen people on board who died, the Ministry of Russian Defense Everything indicates that the reason for the catastrophe was the fire in one of the engines, which was perfectly appreciated in several videos published on social networks by witnesses of the accident.
