Ukrainian drone attack on Russia’s Tuapse port kills two, including teenage girl, governor says

MOSCOW, April 16 – A major Ukrainian drone attack on Russia’s Black Sea port of Tuapse killed two people, including a 14-year-old girl, injured seven, and sparked a large fire, Russian officials and media reported on Thursday.

Tuapse is one of Russia’s major southern ports, serving as an oil product export hub and also handling dry bulk cargo such as coal and fertiliser. It is also home to a major oil refinery of the same name owned by Rosneft, Russia’s biggest oil producer.

Veniamin Kondratiev, governor of the Krasnodar region, said that an unidentified adult woman had been killed in what he called a massive attack by Ukrainian drones on Tuapse in addition to the teenager.

Drone fragments had damaged 24 private houses, six apartment blocks, two educational facilities and a music school, he added.

Unverified images published by Russian media on Telegram showed the night sky illuminated red from a fire in the area.

There was no immediate comment from Ukraine, where local officials said Russia itself had unleashed its deadliest attack so far this year on the Ukrainian capital Kyiv and other cities overnight, killing 16 people, including a 12-year-old child, and wounding scores. Moscow did not immediately comment on its strikes.

Sergei Boiko, the head of the Tuapse municipality, said that fragments from the Ukrainian drone attack had fallen on enterprises at the port. He gave no further details.

Russia’s defence ministry said 207 Ukrainian drones were intercepted overnight.

(Reporting by Vladimir Soldatkin and Anton Kolodyazhnyy; Writing by Guy Faulconbridge; Editing by Andrew Osborn and Philippa Fletcher)