Oct 15 (Reuters) – A big Ukrainian drone attack on Russia’s Ryazan region caused a fire to break out at an oil refinery, the regional governor said on Thursday.
It was the first Ukrainian attack on a Russian energy facility since U.S. President Donald Trump announced on Sunday that Russia and Ukraine had agreed to an energy ceasefire. The truce was not confirmed by either side.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy told the Financial Times in an interview published on Thursday that Ukraine had paused energy strikes for 3 days to comply with US wishes but would now resume them because Russia was still attacking its energy infrastructure.
“The material damage is now being assessed. Emergency services are working at the scene,” Ryazan governor Pavel Malkov said in a post on Telegram.
A warehouse elsewhere was damaged in the attacks, he said, without giving further details.
The Ryazan refinery is owned by Russian oil major Rosneft and feeds Moscow with fuel. It has been attacked several times by drones in recent months. The refinery accounts for almost 5% of Russia’s total oil refining throughput.
Malkov said earlier on Thursday that classes in schools and kindergartens in two districts had been cancelled because of what he called mass drone attacks.
(Reporting by Reuters; Editing by Mark Trevelyan)
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