A Ukrainian attack knocked out power and heating supplies to more than half a million people in Russia’s border region of Belgorod, the regional governor said on Friday.
"According to the results of the enemy's overnight attack on Belgorod region's utility infrastructure, as of 6:00 am today, 556,000 people in six municipalities are without power," Governor Vyacheslav Gladkov said, adding that a similar number were also left without heating as temperatures hovered around freezing.
The disruption followed a separate overnight drone attack on Wednesday that sparked a fire at an oil depot in the southern Belgorod region.
Firefighters have since extinguished the blaze, Russia’s state television channel Vesti reported, citing local authorities.
Ukraine earlier said it had struck an oil depot in Belgorod as part of its campaign to target Russian energy facilities, which Kiev says are used to help finance Moscow’s war effort.
Gladkov stated late on Tuesday that several oil storage tanks had caught fire at the depot in the Starooskolsky district, approximately 70 kilometres from the Ukrainian border.
