Ukraine carried out “massive” drone strikes on several regions of Russia overnight, local officials there said on Tuesday, in what appeared to be one of the largest recent assaults in a Ukrainian campaign to cripple Russia’s war machine on its home turf.
The attacks, mostly in southwestern Russia, were the latest in a series that have demonstrated Ukraine’s ability to strike deep inside the country, even as Kyiv’s forces face setbacks on their own territory.
Blasts were reported in the border region of Bryansk, and drones also targeted regions well beyond it like Saratov and Tula in western Russia, officials in those areas said.
The Ukrainian military did not immediately comment on the strikes. But Ukraine’s Center for Strategic Communications and Information Security, a government agency, said seven regions of Russia had been attacked and that the targets included military production factories, and oil and gas facilities.
The threat forced at least six cities to restrict their airspace on Tuesday morning, according to a statement from Russia’s Federal Aviation Agency. Those included the cities of Saratov and Engels, which both came under overnight attack.
Two industrial plants sustained damage, Roman V. Busargin, the governor of the Saratov region, wrote on Telegram. “Today Saratov and Engels were subjected to a massive UAV attack,” he said, using another name for drones. “Air defenses eliminated a large number of targets.”
It was the second time in a week that Engels, which is the site of an airfield for some of Russia’s long-range, nuclear-capable bombers, has been attacked. Emergency crews only recently extinguished a large fire sparked by a strike on Jan. 8.
Mr. Busargin said that schools would be closed and classes in Engels as well as Saratov city would be held remotely on Tuesday.
The authorities in the Tula region of western Russia similarly confirmed a drone attack that they also described as massive. Dmitry V. Milyaev, the regional governor, said air defenses shot down 16 drones and that falling debris had damaged some cars and buildings. There were no casualties.
And local news media in Kazan, the capital city of the republic of Tatarstan in southwestern Russia, reported that a tanker at a liquefied natural gas base was struck, igniting a large fire.
The head of the republic, Rustam N. Minnikhanov, wrote on Telegram that firefighters had put out the blaze and that there were no casualties or “significant damage.”
In the border region of Bryansk, which has come under more regular attack, powerful explosions were reported. The Russian independent media organization Astra said that a chemical plant had been struck; the report could not be independently verified.
From the start, Kyiv’s strikes inside Russia have aimed at limiting Moscow’s ability to attack Ukrainian cities. But in recent weeks they have taken on added weight: as an attempt to project strength before President-elect Donald J. Trump’s inauguration next week, amid concerns he might temper U.S. support for Ukraine.
Mr. Trump has vowed to end the war swiftly. While he has not said how, many in Ukraine fear that he could make concessions to President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia that have been red lines for Kyiv.
Ahead of Mr. Trump’s inauguration on Monday, the Russian military has also been putting on a show of force. While Kyiv’s drones were targeting regions of Russia overnight, Moscow’s forces were carrying out an aerial assault on Ukraine that put much of the country under air-raid alerts.
Ukraine’s Air Force said on Tuesday morning that nearly 80 drones were involved in the attack but that it managed to shoot down 60. Apartment buildings and cars sustained damage from downed drones in several regions, it added, but there were no casualties.
Nataliia Novosolova and Nataliya Vasilyeva contributed reporting.
