(Bloomberg) -- Russia said it downed 158 Ukrainian drones across more than a dozen regions overnight, including the capital, where a UAV strike ignited a blaze at a major oil processor.
Ukraine and Russia continued to exchange hostilities on Sunday. Dozens were wounded in a missile attack on a major indoor sports center and other buildings in Kharkiv, while Kyiv’s troops struck the Belgorod region.
“The sports complex has been demolished,” Ukraine’s National Olympic Committee said on its Facebook page.
As part of one of the heaviest Ukrainian UAV barrages on Moscow to date, a downed drone damaged what was described as a “technical building” at the Moscow Oil Refinery, Governor Sergei Sobyanin said on his Telegram channel.
The fire has been “localized” and there’s no threat to people or to the plant’s operations, he said. Social media footage showed flames and smoke billowing from the massive facility, which is about 16 kilometers (10 miles) from the Kremlin.
The Gazprom Neft refinery in Moscow is one of Russia’s largest producers of high-octane gasoline, diesel and aviation fuels and supplies more than a third of the fuel market in the capital region, according to its website.
Moscow and the surrounding region were targeted by a total of nine drones overnight, Russia’s defense ministry reported. Flights in and out of area airports were halted briefly but have resumed.
Local media also reported a fire at a power plant in the Tver region northwest of Moscow, attributed to downed drones. There’s been no official confirmation so far.
The heaviest overnight concentration of UAVs was in the Kursk region, which borders Ukraine, where 46 drones were intercepted. A total of 34 drones were downed over the Bryansk region, as well as 28 over the Voronezh region and 14 over the Belgorod region, according to the ministry.
Separately, five people were killed and 46 wounded on Saturday in Ukrainian shelling of Belgorod, according to regional Governor Vyacheslav Gladkov. Ukraine hasn’t commented.
The wave of overnight attacks came as Russia continued to rush reinforcements to the Kursk border region, which neighbors Belgorod, to counter a Ukrainian ground incursion that started in early August.
Kremlin forces responded with a missile and drone attack on Ukraine overnight, according to Ukraine’s Air Defense.
Russia fired one Iskander-type ballistic missile from the Kursk region and 11 Shahed-type drones from Crimea at “agrarian enterprises” in the northeastern Sumy and southern Mykolaiv regions, Ukraine said. Sumy’s regional prosecutor said one person was killed and four injured.
In his regular address to the nation on Saturday night, President Volodymyr Zelenskiy reiterated his appeal to allies to allow Ukraine’s forces to strike military targets within Russia, citing an attack on Kharkiv on Friday that injured almost 100 civilians.
In the past week, Russia launched over 160 missiles of various types, 780 guided bombs and 400 drones at Ukraine, according to Zelenskiy.
At least 30 people were wounded in a series of Russian strikes on targets including the Palace of Sports, a major sporting and cultural complex in Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second largest city, on Sunday afternoon. Recovery efforts are continuing. A supermarket was also struck.
Russia said eight people were wounded in a Ukrainian attack on Belgorod.
--With assistance from Olesia Safronova.
(Updates with strike on Kharkiv from second paragraph)
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