Ukrainian drone strikes on southern Russia have killed a nine-year-old boy and set fire to a major oil terminal, officials said.
This follows a massive aerial attack by Russia on its neighbour that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said was one of the heaviest bombardments of the country’s energy sector since Moscow’s full-scale invasion almost three years ago.
The boy died when a drone struck his family’s home outside Belgorod, a Russian city near the border with Ukraine, local governor Vyacheslav Gladkov reported on the Telegram messaging app.
His mother and seven-month-old sister were taken to hospital with injuries, Mr Gladkov said.
He posted photos of what he said was the aftermath of the attack, showing a low-rise house with gaping holes in its roof and front wall flanked by mounds of rubble.
Every day, we witness the outstanding work of our defenders in the skies. Last night brought yet another wave of Russian strike drone terror—over 130 strike drones launched. Nearly 60 were destroyed, and more than 70 were lost due to location disruption.
I thank all our… pic.twitter.com/S1MuFtGrXk
— Volodymyr Zelenskyy / Володимир Зеленський (@ZelenskyyUa) December 14, 2024
Elsewhere in southern Russia, Ukrainian drones hit a major oil terminal in the Oryol region overnight, sparking a blaze, Ukraine’s General Staff reported on Saturday.
Photos published by the General Staff and on Russian Telegram news channels showed huge plumes of smoke engulfing the facility, backlit by an orange glow.
Oryol governor Andrey Klychkov confirmed on Saturday that a Ukrainian drone strike set fire to a fuel depot there. In a separate Telegram post later that day, he said the blaze had been contained and that there were no casualties.
The Ukrainian strikes came a day after Russia fired 93 cruise and ballistic missiles and almost 200 drones at its neighbour, further battering Ukraine’s energy infrastructure, around half of which has been destroyed during the war.
Rolling electricity blackouts are common and widespread, and Mr Zelensky accused Moscow of “terrorising millions of people” with such assaults.
According to Ukraine’s air force, Russia kept up its drone attacks on Saturday, launching 132 of the munitions across Ukrainian territory. Fifty-eight drones were shot down and a further 72 veered off course, likely due to electronic jamming, according to the air force’s online statement.
The Russian Defence Ministry said the Russian military used long-range precision missiles and drones on “critically important fuel and energy facilities in Ukraine that ensure the functioning of the military industrial complex”.
The strike was in retaliation for Wednesday’s Ukrainian attack using the US-supplied Army Tactical Missile System (ATACMs) on a Russian air base, it said.
Kyiv’s Western allies have provided Ukraine with air defence systems to help it protect critical infrastructure, but Russia has sought to overwhelm the air defences with combined strikes involving large numbers of missiles and drones known as “swarms”.
Russia has held the initiative this year as its military steadily rammed through Ukrainian defences in the east in a series of slow but steady offensives.
But uncertainty surrounds how the war might unfold next year. US President-elect Donald Trump, who takes office next month, has vowed to end the war and has thrown into doubt whether vital American military support for Kyiv will continue.
