Yahoo Finance Russia Reports Multiple Deaths After Belgorod Tower Strike
(Bloomberg) -- Russia reported multiple fatalities after the partial collapse of a residential building in Belgorod it said was struck by a missile, hours after one if its largest oil refineries was hit by drone debris.
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Sections of a 10-story apartment block collapsed, the Belgorod region’s governor Vyacheslav Gladkov, said in a Telegram post.
At least six people were reported killed and 20 injured, Interfax reported, citing the ministry of emergency situations. Rescue efforts are continuing.
Russia’s defense ministry said the building was hit by debris from a Soviet-era Tochka-U tactical ballistic missile. Investigators have opened a criminal case into the incident, Interfax said. Ukraine hasn’t commented.
Belgorod, which lies about 40 kilometers (25 miles) from the Ukrainian border, is regularly shelled. Moscow has stated its intention to create so-called “buffer zone” stretching into Ukrainian territory to reduce the risks of further strikes into Russian territory.
Those efforts by Kremlin forces continued over the weekend. Oleksandr Syrskyi, Ukraine’s army commander in chief, said Sunday on Telegram that fighting is ongoing in the Kharkiv border region with the situation “difficult” for Kyiv’s troops.
Read more: Kyiv Sees ‘Difficult’ Situation at NE Border as Russia Advances
Early Sunday morning, debris from a downed drone triggered a blaze at Lukoil PJSC’s large oil refinery in Volgograd, hundreds of miles east of the Ukrainian border, which authorities said was extinguished with no casualties.
“During the night of May 12, the air defense and electronic warfare forces fought off a drone on the territory of the Volgograd region,” Governor Andrey Bocharov wrote on Telegram.
Unverified images on social media showed flames shooting from the facility. The extent of damage was unclear, and Lukoil hasn’t commented.
Ukraine’s intelligence agency claimed the overnight strike in addition to one targeting the same refinery the previous night.
The Volgograd refinery is capable of processing 14.8 million tons of oil a year and is among Russia’s largest. It was previously struck by drones in February, when it temporarily cut back some of its operations.
Ukraine resumed attacks on Russian refineries in late April after a pause almost of a month. On Thursday, Gazprom PJSC’s Salavat Neftekhim petrochemical and oil-refining plant was attacked and on Friday a small facility was hit by drones in the Kaluga region.
(Updates with new death toll in third paragraph.)
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