Ukrainian drones killed one person in the southern Volgograd region on Friday as they struck an energy facility and warehouse belonging to the online retailer Wildberries.
Volgograd region Governor Andrei Bocharov initially said five people were injured during the overnight attack but did not identify the targeted energy facility by name. He later said the body of a woman was recovered from beneath the rubble of a damaged residential building.
NASA's fire monitoring system FIRMS showed several large active fires at the site of a major Lukoil-operated oil refinery just south of the city of Volgograd. Lukoil has not commented on the reported attack on its facility.
In a statement, Wildberries confirmed that a fire broke out at one of its logistics hubs in Volgograd following the Ukrainian drone attack, but reported no casualties at the site.
Images shared on social media showed a large column of black smoke rising above the city early Friday.
In the neighboring Rostov region, Governor Yury Slyusar said a woman was injured during a separate drone strike in the town of Gukovo.
Separately, online retailer and Wildberries competitor Ozon said it was forced to evacuate one of its warehouses in the republic of Tatarstan due to an air raid alert. A video shared on social media purportedly showed employees fleeing the building as a drone crashes in the distance.
Russia's Defense Ministry said it intercepted 371 Ukrainian drones across Russia and annexed Crimea between Thursday night and Friday morning.
Drone strikes have damaged around a dozen Wildberries warehouses over the past two weeks, destroying an estimated 10% of the company's storage capacity and inflicting losses on tens of thousands of small businesses using the e-commerce platform.
Ukraine accuses Wildberries of helping supply the Russian military with parts for drones and other equipment. The company denies the allegations.
Meanwhile, in Ukraine on Friday, authorities said Russian attacks killed at least nine people and injured 48 others across the country over the past day. The Russian military was also reported to have hit an American company's drone factory in Kyiv overnight.
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