Russia's Primorsk port hit as Ukraine launches wave of drone strikes


MOSCOW, May 3 (Reuters) - Ukrainian drones ⁠attacked Russia's Baltic Sea port of Primorsk on Sunday, temporarily setting ⁠it on fire, local governor Alexander Drozdenko said on the Telegram ‌messaging app, as Kyiv launched a wave of strikes on targets across the country.

Drozdenko said more than 60 drones were downed overnight over Russia's northwestern Leningrad region. There was no oil ​spill following the attack on Primorsk, a major ⁠oil exporting outlet, and the ⁠fire was extinguished, he added.

Primorsk, one of Russia's largest export gateways, has capacity ⁠to ‌handle 1 million barrels per day of oil supply. It has been hitmultiple times in recent months asUkraine has stepped up attacks ⁠on Russian energy infrastructure and other targets as U.S.-brokered talks ​to end the ‌Ukraine war have stalled.

Ukrainian forces also struck two shadow fleet tankers in ⁠waters at ​the entrance to the Russian Black Sea port of Novorossiysk, Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Sunday.

"These tankers had been actively used to transport oil – not anymore," Zelenskiy ⁠said on Telegram. "Ukraine's long-range capabilities will continue to ​be developed comprehensively – at sea, in the air, and on land."

Other Russian regions also reported drone attacks on Saturday and Sunday.

Moscow regional governor Andrei Vorobyov said on ⁠Saturday evening that a 77-year-old man had died in a village following a drone strike. And Sergei Sobyanin, the mayor of the city of Moscow, said four drones were downed on their way to the Russian capital.

Vasily Anokhin, ​the governor of the western Smolensk region, said three ⁠people, including a child, were injured on Sunday after a drone attacked an ​apartment block there.

Russian troops were, meanwhile, inching towards ‌the city of Kostiantynivka in Ukraine's eastern ​Donetsk region, Ukraine's top army official said on Saturday.

(Reporting by Reuters; Additional reporting by Olena Harmash in Kyiv; Editing by Joe Bavier)

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