Drone attacks on a military facility in southern Russia spark a fire

A Ukrainian drone attack has targeted a Russian military facility in southern Russia, sparking a fire, the regional governor said

Russia Ukraine (Copyright 2020 The Associated Press. All rights reserved)

A drone attack sparked a fire at a military facility in the Volgograd region of southern Russia on Thursday, regional officials and the country's Ministry of Defense said.

Regional Volgograd Governor Andrei Bocharov said on Telegram that a “defense ministry facility” was on fire after being attacked with drones in the area of Marinovka. There were no casualties, he said.

Bocharov did not specify what was damaged but Russian Telegram channels said that drones attempted to attack a military air base near Marinovka in the village of Oktyabrsky.

Ukraine did not acknowledge the attack but it comes as Ukraine has intensified its attacks on Russia, with a ground offensive into the Russian region of Kursk and drone attacks that targeted Moscow on Wednesday in what the capital's mayor called one of the largest done attacks to date since Russia's all-out invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.

Videos shared on Russian social media channels showed thick black smoke rising from the air base and an explosion in the night sky reportedly near the base. Marinovka is about 300 kilometers (185 miles) east of the Ukrainian border and about the same distance west from the border with Kazakhstan.

The Baza Telegram channel, which is close to Russian law enforcement, said one drone was taken down several kilometers (miles) from the airfield and that wreckage from another fell on a trailer near the air base, causing it to catch fire.

Data from NASA fire satellites, which monitor Earth for forest blazes, showed fires breaking out around the air base’s apron, where fighter jets previously have been seen parked.

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Associated Press writer Jon Gambrell contributed from Dubai, United Arab Emirates.