Massive explosions rock Russian missile factory & gas plant after Ukrainian kamikaze drone blitz in double blow to Putin

RUSSIA has suffered a night of hell with Ukrainian kamikaze drone strikes on a major liquefied natural gas producer and a missile plant.

Two huge explosions erupted at the strategically-important Novatek plant in Ust-Luga port in Leningrad region, triggering a raging inferno.

Reuters

Firefighters extinguishing the blaze at a Russia power plant after Ukraine launched a kamikaze drone blitz[/caption]

Footage shows the facility with flames shooting into the sky.

One witness said: “When it exploded, the earth trembled.”

A Ukrainian official also claimed there was a hit on the Shcheglovsky Val defence enterprise in Tula.

It produces the Pantsir-S and Pantsir-S1 air defence missile systems used to defend key sites including Vladimir Putin’s palaces.

There were also Ukrainian strikes on Smolensk, Oryol and Bryansk regions, in one of Kyiv’s most intense nights of the war in attacking military-linked targets inside Russia.

Some 150 people were evacuated from the Kremlin-linked Novatek natural gas and coal terminal near St Petersburg as the facility was evidently hit by two incoming kamikaze drones.

These had evaded Russian air defences flying across Putin’s territory for some three hours in an astonishing lapse.

The port is some 550 miles from the nearest Ukrainian border.

“The plant is located in the coastal zone, next to a specialised terminal where products and gas condensate itself are loaded onto ships and sent for export,” reported the pro-war Two Majors Telegram channel.

“At the time of the explosion, three large tankers were at the berths, which arrived in Ust-Luga from Belgium, Oman and Libya.”

Panama-flagged ships were loading nearby, reported Fontanka.

“There are no reported casualties as a result of a fire at Novatek’s terminal in the port of Ust-Luga,” said Leningrad region governor Alexander Drozdenko.

“The personnel were evacuated, [and] a high alert regime has been introduced in the Kingisepp district.”

Major shareholder of Novatek, is Putin-friendly Leonid Mikhelson, 68, who last year saw a £2 billion-plus jump in his wealth – now standing at £21.5 billion.

Locals reported two drones in the sky ahead of the strike on the Novatek facility.

They headed towards St Petersburg before changing direction to target the Ust-Luga complex.

An eyewitness said: “****ing hell, I’ve just witnessed an explosion.

“Something serious [happened] there.”

Another video recorded an exchange saying: “Kolya, why did you decide it was a drone? Did you see it?

“I heard it!

“Ah, did you?

“Yes. I thought it was something driving, but it was a drone.

“Look, it’s getting bigger and bigger.”

Ukraine staged its first major attack of the war on port facilities around St Petersburg earlier this week, without causing significant damage.

The missile plant in Tula is some 200 miles from the Ukrainian border.

Footage showed at least one giant explosion at what was reported to be the key Russian defence facility.

Russia claimed to have downed a drone but footage showed a clear explosion on the ground.

Ukrainian official Anton Gerashchenko posted: “In Tula, according to local residents, there was a powerful visit to the Shcheglovsky Val defence enterprise, which produces the Pantsir-S and Pantsir-S1 anti-aircraft missile systems, and also modernises various armoured vehicles.”

He said of the night of attacks: “Well, it’s beautiful!”

The scale and nature of any damage was not initially clear.

The governor of Tula region is Alexey Dyumin, a former Putin bodyguard, tipped by some as a future Russian president.

During the war, Putin was seen being escorted around the plant by Dyumin, who once saved his life from an aggressive brown bear.

On Friday, amid an upsurge in Ukrainian strikes on Russia, a drone attack hit an oil depot in Russia’s western region of Bryansk which was burning for more than 24 hours.

In April 2022, multimillionaire and former Novatek deputy chairman Sergey Protosenya, 55, was found hanged in Spain, after evidently killing with an axe  his wife Natalia, 53, and their teenage daughter, Maria.

There after doubts he committed the killings of his wife and daughter.

This case is regarded as among dozens of suspicious deaths since the start of Putin’s war in Ukraine.