MOSCOW, April 16 – A major Ukrainian drone attack on Russia’s Black Sea port of Tuapse killed two children and sparked a large fire, Russian officials and media reported.
Tuapse is one of Russia’s major southern ports, serving as an oil product export hub and also handles 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 two children aged 5 and 14 were killed in what he called a massive attack by Ukrainian drones on Tuapse.
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.
Sergei Boiko, the head of the Tuapse municipality, said that fragments from drones fell 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 Muralikumar Anantharaman and Raju Gopalakrishnan)
Copyright 2026 Thomson Reuters.
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