Russian regions report deaths, injuries after another night of Ukrainian drone attacks

MOSCOW, July 16 - Authorities in at least three Russian regions reported deaths and injuries inflicted by Ukrainian drone and rocket strikes overnight, as Kyiv's campaign against Russian energy infrastructure continues.

In Yaroslavl region, 250 km (155 miles) east of Moscow and home to an oil refinery that has come under repeated attack, Governor Mikhail Yevrayev said that one man had been killed and another four injured.

He said 19 drones had been downed over the region, but did not specify what had been targeted.

In the Volga river region of Saratov, Russian media cited local authorities as saying there were casualties after a drone strike on the city of Engels, which hosts an airbase that has come under repeated Ukrainian attack in recent years.

In Russia's far west, the governor of Bryansk region, which borders Ukraine, said that a 15-year-old girl and her grandmother had been killed in a rocket strike on the village of Suzemka that injured a third person.

Russia has been experiencing acute fuel shortages across its 11 time zones in recent weeks, as Ukrainian long-range drone strikes hit its oil refineries and other energy infrastructure.

Ukraine says it is seeking to limit the oil revenue that funds Russia's four-year-old war on its neighbour, with thousands of Ukrainians killed in Russian strikes far from the front line across southeastern Ukraine. Both sides deny targeting civilians.

Ukrainian officials said Russian ballistic missiles struck at least two districts in the Ukrainian capital Kyiv early on Thursday, triggering fires and killing two people. REUTERS