At least two people were killed in a large-scale Ukrainian drone attack on the city of Voronezh in southern Russia, local authorities said early Monday, with another 17 people being reported injured.
Voronezh region Governor Alexander Gusev said air defense systems destroyed 113 drones in the skies above the region overnight. He said most unmanned aircraft were intercepted directly over the regional capital.
“Unfortunately, two people were killed,” Gusev wrote in a post on Telegram, identifying the victims as two men born in 1960 and 1973. He warned that the death toll may rise throughout the day.
Gusev said most of the people wounded in the overnight attack were traveling inside a passenger train.
Falling drone debris also sparked fires at multiple industrial and commercial sites, the governor added, as well as residential buildings and a school’s sports arena.
The exiled news outlet Astra used eyewitness footage of black smoke rising over Voronezh to identify one of the targeted industrial sites as a synthetic rubber plant owned by the Sibur petrochemical corporation.
The facility makes rubber and polymers used in military aircraft tires, armored vehicles and solid rocket fuel components for Iskander ballistic missiles.
If confirmed, the strike in Voronezh would mark the third attack on a Russian synthetic rubber factory in as many days, following strikes on rubber plants in the cities of Tolyatti and Omsk this weekend.
Elsewhere, Bryansk region Governor Yegor Kovalchuk said a drone attack killed a train driver on Sunday night.
A passenger train bound from the southern resort town of Anapa to Moscow was also hit in an overnight strike, with Russian Railways reporting that at least five passengers were wounded.
Russia’s Defense Ministry said it intercepted 290 Ukrainian drones across Russia and annexed Crimea between Sunday evening and Monday morning. Civil aviation authorities temporarily suspended flights across all Moscow airports.
Reuters contributed reporting.
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