Ukrainian drones target Russian steel mill in overnight raid
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Kyiv: A "swarm" of Ukrainian drones attacked the Novolipetsk Steel (NLMK) facility in Russia during the early hours of Sunday, but the steel mill suffered no significant damage, according to a company spokesperson.
The spokesperson mentioned that the raid only resulted in some additional welding work.
Igor Artamonov, the governor of the Lipetsk region in western Russia where the steel mill is located, confirmed that nine drones were downed over the facility.
While Kyiv neither confirms nor denies such attacks, it maintains that facilities supporting Russia's war in Ukraine are legitimate military targets. NLMK, however, denies any cooperation with the Russian defense ministry, asserting that its operations in Russia are not capable of producing military-grade heavy steels and do not supply the military.
Earlier, Russia's defense ministry reported that air defense systems had destroyed 36 drones launched by Ukraine, targeting several regions in Russia's southwest, including Lipetsk. Additionally, Russian forces claimed to have taken control of the villages of Spirne and Novooleksandrivka in Ukraine's eastern Donetsk region, according to the Russian news agency RIA. This marks the latest in a series of incremental territorial gains by Russian forces.