Emergency crews recovered the bodies of two people from the rubble of a four-story apartment building in the southern Samra region on Wednesday morning after a Ukrainian drone strike leveled part of the building.
Samara region Governor Vyacheslav Fedorishchev said the victims were a woman and a child. Unconfirmed reports in the local press identified them as a 12-year-old girl and her grandmother.
The strike injured 12 others, Fedorishchev said, three of whom were hospitalized.
Russia’s Defense Ministry said it intercepted 155 Ukrainian drones countrywide between Tuesday night and Wednesday morning, including in the skies above the Samara region.
Samara, a critical node in Russia’s energy archipelago and home to major refineries and chemical plants, is located around 900 kilometers (560 miles) east of the border with Ukraine.
A Rosneft-operated oil refinery in Syzran was attacked twice in December. Ukraine has justified the strikes by alleging the facility provides fuel to the Russian military.
Industry sources told Reuters on Tuesday that primary processing at another major site in the Samara region, the Novokuibyshevsk refinery, has been halted since April 18 following a drone attack there.
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