Russia takes revenge after Ukraine’s “massive attack” on oil refineries and weapons factories

On Tuesday morning, Ukraine launched an attack on Russian oil refineries, warehouses and weapons factories in Engels, a city on the Volga about 700 kilometers southeast of Moscow, as well as in Bryansk, Kazan, Saratov and Tula.

Kiev did not say exactly how it hit the targets, but said drones and missiles were involved in the attack. According to the Reuters news agency, the drone attack on Russia was “one of the largest to date”. Ukraine has deployed — in addition to the drones — six American-made ATACMS ballistic missiles, six British-made Storm Shadow cruise missiles, Reuters reported.

Russia’s Defense Ministry said it had shot down all Western missiles fired by Ukraine into the Bryansk region, as well as 146 drones outside the war zone. The ministry said it had shot down two more Storm Shadow missiles over the Black Sea. (Read more below the post)

In the city of Engels, home to an air base with Russian nuclear bombers, the buildings of a factory were damaged in a drone attack. Local governor Roman Busargin confirmed this. Several schools in the towns of Engels and Saratov have switched to distance learning and planes have been grounded in some airports.

In the Saratov region, about 700 kilometers southeast of Moscow and 500 kilometers from the Ukrainian border, two industrial plants were damaged.

Revenge

The Russian military said on Tuesday it would take revenge against Ukraine. “The actions of the Kiev regime, backed by its Western curators, will not go unanswered,” the defense ministry said.

And that quickly became apparent. Early in the morning on Wednesday, air raid sirens sounded throughout Ukraine. Kiev warned that a group of strategic bombers had taken off from Russia’s Olenya airport.

After a “massive Russian missile attack,” Ukraine has introduced emergency power cuts in six regions, the national grid operator said on Wednesday. These would be Kharkiv, Dnipropetrovsk, Kirovohrad, Zaporizhzhia, Poltava and Sumi. There are currently no reports of casualties or damage.

After Ukraine first fired ATACMS missiles and British Storm Shadow missiles at Russia last year, Moscow responded by launching a new hypersonic ballistic missile, known as Oreshnik, at Ukraine.