Ukrainian drone strike kills 13 inside Russia, authorities say, in deadliest attack in two years

By Issy Ronald and Svitlana Vlasova, CNN

(CNN) — A Ukrainian drone strike has killed at least 13 people and injured 75 others in Nizhnekamsk, a city in the Tatarstan region deep inside Russia, local authorities said Monday, marking the deadliest attack to hit the country in more than two years.

Nizhnekamsk lies more than 600 miles (1,000 kilometers) east of Moscow and is the site of the major, technologically advanced Taneco oil refinery, which Ukraine’s armed forces said they had targeted.

Videos circulating on social media, and geolocated by CNN, show a huge blaze raging and plumes of smoke rising from an area just outside the city, close to what appear to be the characteristic towers of an oil refinery. It isn’t clear exactly what was struck in the attack.

The strike comes as both Russia and Ukraine intensify their aerial attacks against one another, while the frontlines of the war largely stagnate. More drones and missiles are slipping through both sides’ fraying air defenses, meaning that the civilian death toll has increased, and more critical infrastructure is being damaged. July was the deadliest month for Ukrainian civilians since April 2022. And 1,396 people have been killed and 7,978 injured in the first six months of the year, an increase from 2024 and 2025, the UN said recently.

A child was among those killed in Nizhnekamsk, according to the Russian Investigative Committee, while 21 people have been hospitalized, the region’s press service said. And another four people were killed over the last 24 hours in the Russian region of Belgorod, which borders Ukraine, the region’s acting governor Alexandr Shuvayev said Monday.

As Ukraine’s long-range drone technology has improved in recent months, it has demonstrated a newfound ability to frequently strike infrastructure deep inside Russia, like oil refineries, tankers, power substations and broader energy infrastructure as well as warehouses belonging to Russia’s largest online retailer, Wildberries.

Attacks on Wildberries’ warehouses last month killed at least eight people in a single day which, up until Monday’s strike on Nizhnekamsk, was the deadliest Ukrainian attack inside Russia.

Russia’s daily aerial assualts on Ukraine still vastly outnumber Kyiv’s retaliatory attacks. In just one night earlier this month, Russian missiles killed at least 17 people and injured dozens of others in the Kyiv region.

Such attacks are made even more deadly by Kyiv’s shortage of ballistic-missile interceptors, as it desperately seeks help from allies to replenish its supply of US-made Patriot interceptor missiles.

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CNN’s Anna Chernova and Lauren Kent contributed reporting.