Ukraine says it hit a Tolyatti chemical plant and an aircraft at Yeysk airfield as drones reach Omsk; Russia says it downed 616 drones

Neither side’s battlefield claims can be independently confirmed.

Ukraine’s General Staff said on Saturday 24 October that its forces struck the Tolyattikauchuk plant in Tolyatti, Samara region, recording an explosion and a fire, and hit an aircraft at the Yeysk airfield in Russia’s Krasnodar region. It did not give the aircraft type or the extent of the damage. The General Staff said the plant makes synthetic rubbers used in solid fuel for tactical and ballistic missiles.

Later on Saturday, Omsk regional governor Vitaliy Khotsenko said a drone hit a logistics hub in the Siberian city of Omsk, about 2,500 km from Ukraine, and that staff were evacuated. He also said air defences were repelling an attack on the city’s northern industrial cluster, TASS reported. The Ukrainian monitoring channel Exilenova Plus reported a fire at the Omsky Kauchuk petrochemical plant and a hit on a warehouse of the online retailer Ozon, the Kyiv Independent reported.

Russia’s Defence Ministry said air defences destroyed 616 Ukrainian drones between 5pm GMT on 23 October and 5am GMT on 24 October over 22 regions, including Samara, Krasnodar and Crimea, and over the Azov and Black seas. Crimea’s Moscow-backed head, Sergey Aksyonov, said power and water restrictions were introduced after drone strikes caused outages, the BBC reported.

Ukraine’s Air Force said Russia launched 126 drones overnight, 61 of them jet-powered, and that 101 were downed. A drone hit a residential building in Kyiv’s Obolon district, injuring two people, the Kyiv City Military Administration said. Russian attacks killed four people and injured 78 across Ukraine over the past day, according to regional authorities cited by the Kyiv Independent.

Background: Ukraine has repeatedly struck Russian refineries and industrial sites; its General Staff says such strikes are self-defence under Article 51 of the UN Charter. The US is seeking to restart three-way talks with Russia and Ukraine. See also: Kremlin says Abu Dhabi talks will start as Russia-US-Ukraine only and Russian drone attack on Ukraine’s energy system leaves more than 500,000 without power.