Battle for key city: Ukrainian drones reach deep inside Russia

Moscow: Ukrainian long-range drones attacked an industrial plant around 1,300 kilometres (800 miles) inside Russia, local officials said Tuesday, while Ukraine's army remained locked in an intense battle to hold back a Russian push on the key city of Pokrovsk in the eastern Donetsk region, the Associated Press reported.

Two drones targeted an industrial facility in Sterlitamak, a city in Russia's Bashkortostan region, regional Gov. Radiy Habirov said in an online statement. He didn't specify what facility was targeted, but he said that both drones were shot down. There were no casualties, and the facility was operating normally, he said.

Meanwhile, the city administration reported an explosion at the Sterlitamak Petrochemical Plant caused the plant's water treatment facility to partially collapse, adding that the cause of the explosion was not known. The plant, which makes rubber and aviation fuel, is not known to have been attacked before.

Ukraine's daring strikes deep inside Russia using domestically produced drones have embarrassed Moscow, with officials being unforthcoming about any damage, and unnerved Russians. Ukraine has taken aim at manufacturing plants, oil refineries and military logistics hubs in a bid to disrupt Russia's war effort almost four years after Moscow launched an all-out invasion.

Explosions were also heard at an industrial area of the Nizhny Novgorod region, some 800 kilometres (500 miles) from Ukraine, where an oil refinery and a petrochemical plant are located, Russian media reported. Officials did not confirm the reports.

Both Bashkortostan and Nizhny Novgorod are among the regions where the Russian Defence Ministry said Tuesday that Ukrainian drones were shot down, claiming that 85 were intercepted overnight.