Air defence systems destroyed a drone attempting to strike a nuclear power facility in the western region of Smolensk bordering Belarus, governor Vasily Anokhin said on the Telegram messaging app.
The Smolensk nuclear power plant, the largest power generating plant in Russia’s northwest, was working normally, RIA state news agency reported, citing the plant’s press service.
Reuters could not independently verify the reports and there was no comment from Ukraine.
The Russian defence ministry said on Telegram that 104 drones were involved in raids across western Russia, 11 of which were destroyed over the Smolensk region.
In total, Russian air defences destroyed drones over nine regions, nearly half of them over Kursk where Russian forces are fighting to drive out Ukrainian troops that have occupied several villages.
Debris from a destroyed drone sparked a fire at an industrial facility in Kstovo in the Nizhny Novgorod region, about 800km (497 miles) east of Ukraine, governor Gleb Nikitin said on Telegram. There were no casualties, he added.
Baza, a Russian Telegram news channel, which is close to Russia’s security services, reported that an oil refinery in Kstovo was on fire.
One person was injured and hospitalised in result of a drone attack on the Belgorod region bordering Ukraine, the regional governor said.
Russian aviation watchdog Rosaviatsia temporarily halted flights at the Kazan airport in Russia’s Republic of Tatarstan, and at the Pulkovo airport in the Leningrad region. Flights have resumed since, according to Rosaviatsia’s Telegram statements.
Both sides deny targeting civilians in their attacks in the war that Russia started with a full-scale invasion in Feb 2022. Kyiv says that its attacks inside Russia aim to destroy infrastructure key to Moscow’s war efforts.
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