Editor’s note: This is a developing story and is being updated.
An electrical substation in Russia’s Ulyanovsk Oblast is in flames following a Ukrainian drone strike, Russian Telegram media channels reported on Oct. 18.
A video posted on social media appear to show drones striking the Veshkaima substation in the region overnight, leading to a fire at the site of the attack.
The Veshkaima substation is a 500-kv electrical substation owned by a subsidiary of Rosseti, Russia’s largest power transmission company.
The Kyiv Independent could not immediately verify the reports.
Ukraine has intensified long-range strikes against Russian oil, gas, and energy infrastructure, a key source of Moscow’s revenues helping to fuel its all-out invasion of Ukraine. The Veshkaima substation is located over 900 kilometers east of the Russia-Ukraine border.
Overnight on Oct. 16, Ukrainian drones struck a similar substation in Russia’s Volgograd Oblast, regional Governor Andrey Bocharov reported.
In late September, Belgorod Oblast Governor Vyacheslav Gladkov reported a strike on critical infrastructure as well as “significant power outages” after Ukrainian HIMARS rockets allegedly struck a thermal power plant.
Russia regularly launches mass aerial attacks at Ukrainian cities and has battered the country’s power grid every fall and winter of the full-scale war.
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