Russia-Ukraine war – live: Russia ‘loses 20 armoured vehicles’ as Kyiv fends off tank assault

Ukrainian drones attacked industrial facilities in the province of Tatarstan, Russian authorities said Tuesday, in what would be Kyiv’s deepest strike inside Russian territory since the war began more than two years ago.

Seven people were injured in the attack on facilities near the cities of Yelabuga and Nizhnekamsk, located some 1,200 kilometers (745 miles) east of Ukraine, Russian regional authorities said.

The strike damaged a hostel for students and workers in a free economic zone where a factory manufacturing Iranian-designed drones is reportedly located, other media reports said. Tatarstan is known for its high level of industrialization.

Russia’s top security agency said Monday it has broken up what it called a “terrorist cell” in southern Russia whose members had provided weapons and cash to suspected attackers of the Moscow concert hall.

The Federal Security Service, or FSB, said that on Sunday it detained four suspected members of the cell in the Russian province of Dagestan in the North Caucasus.

The agency alleged that the suspects detained in Dagestan were involved in channeling funds and providing weapons to the gunmen who attacked the concert hall on Moscow’s western edge on March 22, killing 144 people in the deadliest attack on Russian soil in two decades.

A court in Russia on Monday ordered a detained Russian-American journalist to be held in jail for two more months pending investigation and trial, in a further step in the Kremlin’s crackdown on dissent and free speech.

Alsu Kurmasheva, an editor for the U.S. government-funded Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty’s Tatar-Bashkir service, was taken into custody on Oct. 18 and charged with failing to register as a foreign agent while collecting information about the Russian military. Later, she was also charged with spreading “false information” about the Russian military.

A court in Tatarstan Monday ordered her to remain behind bars at least until June 5.

Millions of people from former Soviet republics in Central Asia have flocked to Russia‘s biggest cities over the past few decades, supporting a blossoming 24-hour consumer society by working as taxi drivers, cleaners, barbers or beauticians.

With Russia‘s 147 million population forecast to fall over future decades, migrants play an vital role in the economy, also working in heavy industry and farming.

“It is necessary to ensure the interests and security of the state and society, to conserve and preserve interethnic and interreligious harmony, our cultural and linguistic identity, all that is Russia‘s strength,” Putin said.

At least 277 languages and dialects are spoken in Russia. About 10% to 15% of Russia‘s population are Muslims.

Tajik officials have said they have seen a rise in Tajiks leaving Russia since the attack, and Russian media have reported police raids against unregistered migrants.

A blast ripped through a Central Asian-themed cafe in the southern Russian city of Voronezh in the early hours of Monday, when no one was on the premises.

Russian President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday called for a new approach to migration after Tajiks living in Russia were detained for a deadly attack on a concert hall outside Moscow that killed at least 144 people and wounded 551 more.

Islamic State, the militant group that once sought control over swathes of Iraq and Syria, claimed responsibility for the mass shooting. Russia has said it suspects Ukraine was linked to the attack, a claim denied by Kyiv and dismissed by Washington.

At least 12 people – including four accused gunmen – have been detained in Russia in connection with the attack. Most are Tajiks who had lived and worked in Russia.

Putin told police chiefs that the attack was aimed at sowing discord, xenophobia and Islamophobia inside Russia. But he said that migration systems needed improvement, as it was clear that work permits were sometimes being issued to people with serious criminal records.

“We need to deeply and radically update our approaches to migration policy,” Putin said, adding that some people with almost no knowledge of Russian or Russian culture were being allowed to work without proper checks.

“The decisive principle should be that only those who respect our traditions, language, culture, and history can come to live and work in Russia.”

France will propose EU-wide level sanctions on those behind spreading disinformation amid what Paris sees as growing efforts by Russia to destabilise the bloc, Foreign Minister Stephane Sejourne on Tuesday.

“Russia resorts … to lies and manipulation of our public opinions, in particular by financing interference, promoting false media, and accusing Ukraine,” Sejourne said at a press conference in Paris with U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken.

Labelling as “crude” Russia‘s efforts to blame Ukraine for an attack in Moscow that was claimed by a branch of Islamic State, he said Europe was determined to stop Russian efforts to destabilise the bloc.

“I will propose a sanctions regime against those who support disinformation and destabilisation in or country and Europe as a whole,” Sejourne said.

A Russian missile attack on Tuesday damaged an educational facility in Ukraine‘s city of Dnipro and injured 13 people, local authorities said.

Five children were among the injured, Serhiy Lysak, the regional governor, said on Telegram.

“Eight wounded were hospitalized,” he added, describing the scale of injuries as moderate.

Russia has recently stepped up its attacks on Ukraine, carrying out the largest strike on grid infrastructure during the two-year-old war on March 22. It has also increased usage of harder-to-intercept ballistic missiles.

Russia denies deliberately targeting civilians, though the war that began with its full-scale invasion in February 2022 has resulted in the deaths of thousands of people, the uprooting of millions and the destruction of Ukrainian towns and cities.

Ukrainian drones attacked one of Russia‘s biggest oil refineries and a drone factory in the Russian province of Tatarstan, officials said on Tuesday, in what appeared to be Kyiv’s deepest strike inside Russian territory since the war began more than two years ago.

The attack on facilities near the cities of Yelabuga and Nizhnekamsk, located some 1,200 kilometers (745 miles) east of Ukraine, injured 12 people, Russian regional authorities said.

In recent months, Russian refineries and oil terminals have become priority targets of Ukrainian drone attacks, part of stepped-up assaults on Russian territory.

Ukrainian security and intelligence officials said they targeted a “drone-production site” in Yelabuga, Tatarstan, using Ukrainian-produced long-range drones. Tatarstan is known for its high level of industrialization, and a factory near Yelabuga has reportedly built Iranian-designed Shahed exploding drones.

The Ukrainian officials also said that intelligence services were involved in an overnight attack on the Nizhnekamsk oil refinery.

A Russian missile attack on Tuesday damaged an educational facility in Ukraine‘s city of Dnipro and injured five people, local authorities said.

“Fortunately, at the time of the strike, all children were in a shelter,” Serhiy Lysak, the regional governor, said on Telegram.

Russia has recently stepped up its attacks on Ukraine, carrying out the largest strike on grid infrastructure during the two-year-old war on March 22. It has also increased usage of harder-to-intercept ballistic missiles.

In a separate message, Lysak said five people were wounded, according to preliminary information.

Russian President Vladimir Putin vowed Tuesday to track down the masterminds of the Moscow concert hall attack that left 144 people dead in the worst assault on Russian soil in two decades, and urged the country’s law enforcement agencies to tighten security at mass gatherings.

Putin has repeatedly sought to link the March 22 attack to Ukraine and the West despite the Islamic State group’s claim of responsibility and Kyiv‘s vehement denial.

Speaking at a meeting with top officials of the Interior Ministry that oversees the nation’s police force, Putin said it is important to determine “not only the perpetrators of this outrage, but all links in the chain and its beneficiaries.”