Ukrainian drone attack on Russian city of Nizhnekamsk kills 12, authorities say

A Ukrainian drone attack on the Russian city of Nizhnekamsk killed 12 people and wounded 39 others on Monday, authorities in Russia's Tatarstan region said, as Kyiv continues to target facilities deep inside Russian territory.

Nizhnekamsk came under a "massive" drone attack targeting industrial and civilian facilities on Monday morning, according to the press service of Tatarstan head Rustam Minnikhanov. No further details about the damage or the circumstances of the casualties were immediately available.

Ukrainian officials did not immediately comment on the attack.

Nizhnekamsk, about 1,200 km east of the Ukrainian border, has a population of around 240,000 and is an important oil-refining hub. The city is home to two refineries and a petrochemical plant.

Ukraine has increasingly used domestically developed long-range drones to strike Russian oil facilities and other targets deep inside the country. Some Ukrainian drones have reached areas as far as Siberia, around 2,000 km from the Ukrainian border.

The attacks have contributed to fuel shortages in Russia and reduced the country's refining capacity, while also increasing pressure on the Russian government.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has described the campaign as an effort to pressure Russian President Vladimir Putin to negotiate an end to the war, which has now continued for more than four years.

"We do deliver entirely justified responses, and every Russian strike will be met with our response. Russia's war will be felt more and more at their own home – in Russia," Zelenskyy said on social media late Sunday.

"The only reason this is still continuing is Russia's unwillingness to end this war," he said.

Russia has continued to conduct regular air attacks on Ukraine using missiles, drones and powerful glide bombs, hitting civilian areas and causing thousands of civilian casualties, according to the United Nations.

Separately, the World Health Organization's European office said on Monday that one of its warehouses in Ukraine's central Dnipro region had been struck twice within less than 24 hours.

The attacks destroyed emergency medical supplies worth an estimated $500,000 that had been intended for frontline health facilities, the WHO said.

No casualties were reported in the strikes on the WHO warehouse.