MOSCOW: An explosion at a chemical plant in southern Russia has killed three people, the regional governor said Saturday without giving the cause of the blast.<\/p>\n
The Avangard factory, located in the Bashkortostan region\u2019s Sterlitamak, produces weapons and ammunition for Russia\u2019s war in Ukraine, Russian media outlets reported.<\/p>\n
Ukrainian drones targeting a major oil refinery hit the same region a month ago.<\/p>\n
Bashkortostan\u2019s governor, Radiy Khabirov, said on Telegram on Saturday that \u201ca pretty violent explosion destroyed one of the buildings\u201d at the chemical factory site, killing three women.<\/p>\n
He said another five people were wounded and hospitalized, two of them in serious condition.<\/p>\n
The factory \u201ccarries out an important state-mandated mission\u201d and \u201chandles explosive materials,\u201d Khabirov said.<\/p>\n
He said the cause of the blast was being evaluated by experts.<\/p>\n
On September 18, Ukrainian drones hit the Bashkortostan oil refinery run by state-controlled giant Gazprom, as part of a Kiev counter-offensive targeting Russian energy revenues used to fund the military.<\/p>\n
Khabirov at the time confirmed that two drones had hit the refinery.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
MOSCOW: An explosion at a chemical plant in southern Russia has killed three people, the regional governor said Saturday without giving the cause of the blast. The Avangard factory, located in the Bashkortostan region\u2019s Sterlitamak, produces weapons and ammunition for Russia\u2019s war in Ukraine, Russian media outlets reported. Ukrainian drones targeting a major oil refinery […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":509400,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-509397","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world"},"yoast_head":"\n