Ukraine strikes Russia's largest steel plant and major fertiliser factory in drone wave

Fires broke out at Russia's Novolipetsk Steel Plant (NLMK) and the Azot chemical plant in the Tula region overnight on 28 October following a large-scale Ukrainian drone attack, monitoring channels and regional officials reported.

Russian air-defence systems declared missile alerts in both the Lipetsk and Tula regions. Moscow claimed its air defences intercepted and destroyed 531 Ukrainian drones during the night. Kyiv has not commented on its involvement.

NLMK, Russia's largest steel plant and ranked among the 20 largest steel producers worldwide, has an annual production capacity of 17 million tonnes of liquid steel. The facility was previously targeted in an attack in July. Lipetsk Region Governor Igor Artamonov said 45 drones were shot down over the region overnight. Drone debris shattered windows in an apartment building in Lipetsk and fell near a residential building in the Dankovsky District.

Artamonov denied reports of a major fire at an industrial facility, saying debris had ignited a fire in a wooded area that was subsequently contained. Ukrainian monitoring channels reported a blaze on NLMK's premises and suggested a Russian Pantsir air-defence system may have failed to intercept an incoming target.

In Novomoskovsk in the Tula region, Tula Region Governor Dmitry Milyaev reported damage to an apartment building, private homes and adjacent industrial-zone infrastructure. He said casualty information was still being clarified. The target in Novomoskovsk was identified as the Azot chemical plant, belonging to the EuroChem group and described as one of Russia's largest producers of nitrogen fertilisers. Milyaev said environmental monitoring teams from the regional Priroda institution and Russia's Rospotrebnadzor consumer-protection agency were dispatched to the site.