At least 13 killed in Ukrainian drone attack on Russia’s Nizhnekamsk

At least 13 people, including a child, have been killed in a Ukrainian drone attack on the Russian city of Nizhnekamsk, authorities said, as Ukraine’s military said it targeted an oil facility in the region.

Monday’s attack in the Tatarstan region, about 800km (497 miles) east of Moscow, wounded at least 39 others, regional authorities said.

Regional head Rustam Minnikhanov denounced the attack as “barbaric” and said civilian infrastructure had been struck in a post on Telegram.

The Uzbek consulate in Kazan announced that at least seven of the 13 people killed were Uzbek citizens.

Between two and three million citizens of Uzbekistan, Central Asia’s most populous country, work in Russia, with the Uzbek economy partly based on remittances from migrants.

Uzbekistan has struck a diplomatic balance amid Russia’s war on Ukraine, maintaining close ties with Moscow while also stressing support for Kyiv’s territorial integrity.

The Russian defence ministry says it intercepted more than 450 Ukrainian drones overnight, as both sides continue to exchange heavy attacks.

Nizhnekamsk plays a crucial role in Russia’s oil exports, hosting one of the country’s largest and most advanced refineries. Ukraine’s military says it successfully struck the site in an overnight attack.

Svetlana Petrenko, spokesperson for the Investigative Committee of Russia, said a child was among the dead. Petrenko added that Kyiv had struck industrial facilities and civilians “who had no connection” to the country’s military. Russia has launched a criminal investigation into the strike, which it has called a “terrorist attack”.

“A criminal case has been opened regarding the terrorist attack carried out by Ukrainian armed forces on industrial and civilian facilities in the Republic of Tatarstan,” Petrenko told reporters on Monday.

Reporting from Moscow, Al Jazeera’s Yulia Shapovalova said “a day of mourning” had been declared in Tatarstan.

“This attack follows several similar attacks on the exact same industrial zone in June and July this year,” Shapovalova said.

“Ukraine’s constant long-range drone attacks on Russian regions are designed to dismantle the country’s war economy by crippling its fuel production, disrupting military logistics and exposing gaps in domestic air defences. Today, Ukraine has carried out one of its largest coordinated long-range strikes to date.”

Meanwhile, Major Robert “Magyar” Brovdi, the commander leading Ukraine’s drone war, said his country’s recent strikes in Crimea mark the first phase of a campaign aimed at rendering the peninsula unusable as a staging ground for Russian forces.

Russia illegally annexed Crimea in 2014.

In an interview with AP, Brovdi said his forces were equipped at just 14 percent of what they would need to carry out the campaign at full capacity, adding that his forces would be able to strike seven times more targets if funds pledged by Western allies came quicker.

“Crimea falls within the key conceptual pillars on the path to ending the war,” he said.

Despite the shortfall, Ukraine’s summer campaign in Crimea has already inflicted significant damage: striking rail bridges, oil depots and power infrastructure to disrupt supply lines and prevent Russian air defences from detecting incoming drones.

In Ukraine, at least five people have been killed in the country’s eastern Kharkiv region in what officials described as a “massive artillery attack” by Russian forces on a residential area.

In a statement on Telegram, the regional prosecutor’s office said the assault happened in a village in the Chuhuiv district, adding that investigations into potential war crimes were under way.

In a post on X on Sunday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said attacks on Russian oil refineries would continue and that Moscow was “beginning to feel” the consequences.

He also accused Russia of refusing to end the war and said he would speak to mediators this week to discuss peace efforts.

Ukraine has cut its grain export forecast for the 2026/27 July-June season by up to 12 percent from a previous projection, Agriculture Minister Taras Vysotskyi told Reuters, blaming Russian attacks on the country’s southern Odesa port hub.

“We are currently targeting 38–40 million tonnes,” Vysotskyi said in the first official export forecast since escalating Russian attacks late last month effectively halted shipments from Odesa ports, which are vital to Ukraine and the global agricultural market.

The ministry had forecast exports of 43m tonnes this season before the escalation.

Earlier this month, Vysotskyi said losses to the agricultural sector from the port blockade could reach $3bn, as Ukraine ships more than 90 percent of its grain exports through the seaports.