Sept 11 (Reuters) – At least two people were killed in a Ukrainian drone attack on Russia’s Tula region, while eight people were injured in Russian air strikes which caused a fire in a nine-storey apartment building in Kyiv on Friday morning, the authorities said.
Ukraine, which has been defending itself against Russia since February 2022, says the strikes are part of a campaign to “bring the war home” to ordinary Russians and raise the cost to Moscow of continuing the conflict.
Both Russia and Ukraine deny targeting civilians.
Russia returned to its near-constant air attacks on Kyiv this week after a brief halt during the visit to Moscow and Kyiv of U.S. President Donald Trump’s negotiators seeking to end the war which the Kremlin started by invading Ukraine in 2022.
Reuters footage showed servicemen trying to put out a fire at the apartment building in Kyiv where a number of windows were blown out.
In Russia, Tula region’s governor Dmitry Milyayev said on Telegram that two people were killed and another three were injured in drone attacks overnight.
Ukrainian drones also damaged civilian infrastructure in the central Volga River city of Saratov, regional governor Roman Busargin said on Telegram, adding that there were no casualties.
Russian e-commerce company Ozon said on Telegram that a Ukraine drone attack caused a fire at its logistics hub in Saratov, adding to more than two dozen warehouses, owned by Ozon and its top peer Wildberries, that have been recently hit.
The Saratov region, a frequent target of Ukrainian air strikes, including an attack earlier this week, is home to a large oil refinery run by state oil company Rosneft, as well as a number of other industrial and military facilities.
In the city of Volgograd south of Saratov and also located on the Volga River, a missile attack injured two after hitting two residential buildings, with its debris also damaging an industrial facility, local authorities said on Telegram.
They said a temporary makeshift shelter was set up at a school for people from the damaged houses.
The post did not provide details about the industrial facility. The Volgograd oil refinery run by Lukoil, one of Russia’s biggest by processing capacity, is located on the outskirts of the city.
Reuters could not immediately verify the reports.
(Reporting by Gleb Garanich in Kyiv and Jekaterīna Golubkova in Tokyo; Editing by Muralikumar Anantharaman and Michael Perry)
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