Ukraine reportedly struck Russia’s largest steel plant and a major chemical factory overnight on Oct. 27-28, with fires reported at both facilities as Russian authorities reported a massive wave of drone attacks across several regions, Kyiv Post reports.
On the night of Oct. 27-28, a missile alert was declared in Russia’s Lipetsk Oblast.
“The enemy is attempting to attack the industrial infrastructure of Lipetsk. A massive attack is currently being repelled,” the Russian Telegram channel Radar Lipetsk reported.
Later, the channel reported a fire at the Novolipetsk Steel Plant (NLMK). The Ukrainian monitoring channel Exilenova+ also confirmed a blaze on the facility’s premises, suggesting that a Russian Pantsir air defense system may have failed to intercept an incoming aerial target.
Igor Artamonov, the governor of the Lipetsk Oblast, later said on Telegram that 45 drones had been shot down over the region overnight.
According to him, drone debris shattered windows in an apartment building in Lipetsk. In one of the region’s gardening cooperatives, a drone fell onto a garden plot next to a house. Another drone fell near a residential building in the Dankovsky District.
“Reports are circulating on social media and messaging apps about a major fire at an industrial facility. This is not true. Drone debris fell in a wooded area, sparking a fire that has now been contained,” Artamonov said.
NLMK is Russia’s largest steel plant and ranks among the 20 largest steel producers in the world. The facility has an annual production capacity of 17 million tons of liquid steel. It was previously targeted in an attack on July.
Early on the morning of Oct. 28, Tula Oblast Governor Dmitry Milyaev also declared a missile alert. He later reported that the region had come under a massive attack by Ukrainian drones.
“As a result of falling drone debris in Novomoskovsk, damage has been recorded to an apartment building, private homes, and infrastructure in the adjacent industrial zone,” Milyaev wrote.
