Ukraine drone attack sparks industrial fire in Russia’s Rostov-on-Don, officials say

A Ukrainian drone attack overnight caused two fires at an industrial facility, injured four people and damaged apartment buildings in the southern Russian port of Rostov-on-Don, regional officials said on Wednesday.

Yuri Slyusar, governor of Russia’s Rostov region, said four people, including a four-year-old child, were injured when falling debris from downed drones damaged their apartments.

Rostov-on-Don is the Rostov region’s administrative centre.

All of the injured people were hospitalised, Slyusar said on the Telegram messaging app.

He would not say what industrial facility was on fire, adding that by early Wednesday morning, one of the fires was extinguished and the other contained.

Aleksandr Skryabin, the mayor of Rostov-on-Don, said temporary accommodation was arranged for the families from the damaged apartments.

The full-scale impact of the attack was not immediately known.

There was no comment from Ukraine about the strike.

Ukraine has used drones to strike targets inside Russia, saying such attacks seek to degrade Moscow’s military and energy infrastructure and respond to Russia’s continued strikes on Ukrainian cities during the war that Moscow launched nearly four years ago.

Rostov-on-Don, a major transport and logistics hub near Ukraine, hosts key military headquarters and routes used to supply Russian forces, making it a strategic rear-area centre for Moscow’s operations and a target for drones.