Missile strikes reported across Russia as Belgorod faces blackouts and major oil pipeline hub in Tatarstan damaged

Explosions were reported overnight on Feb. 23 in Russia’s Belgorod, where officials said a large-scale missile strike caused significant damage to local infrastructure, as reports also emerged of attacks targeting energy and oil infrastructure elsewhere in Russia.

Belgorod Governor Vyacheslav Gladkov said the city is reportedly facing disruptions to electricity, water supply, and heating after damage to energy facilities.

Footage circulating on public channels showed blasts across the city, while witnesses said large parts of Belgorod were left in darkness, with light coming mainly from vehicle headlights.

Gladkov said emergency services were working at impacted sites and that the scale of the damage would be assessed later, adding that apartment buildings, a social facility, and several private homes were damaged in the attacks.

Regional authorities also reported drone strikes that damaged equipment at an industrial enterprise and injured a civilian woman in a nearby village, who was hospitalized with blast and shrapnel wounds.

Aside from Belgorod, residents in the Russian cities of Saratov and Engels also reported hearing multiple explosions overnight, according to independent Russian Telegram news channel Astra. Separately, residents in Tatarstan’s Almetyevsk reported further blasts and a fire in the city, though officials have not yet released detailed information about the incidents.

Additionally, the Kaleikino oil pumping station in Russia’s Tatarstan was reportedly attacked, according to the Exilenova+ Telegram channel. The facility belongs to Transneft–Prikamye and serves as a major hub in Russia’s trunk oil pipeline system, making it one of the key nodes in the country’s oil transport infrastructure.

The Ukrainian military has not commented on the reported strikes, and the claims could not be independently verified at the time of publication.

In September, President Volodymyr Zelensky warned that Ukraine would retaliate against Russia’s energy sector if Moscow continued to target Kyiv’s power grid.

Russia has ramped up its assault on Ukraine’s energy infrastructure in recent weeks, repeatedly targeting the country’s power grid, gas facilities, and heating systems amid constant below freezing temperatures.