LIPETSK / TULA — Explosions sounded and fires burned in the Russian city of Lipetsk late on October 27 following an attack by Ukrainian forces, the Ukrainian monitoring channel Exilenova Plus reported, in a night of drone attacks across several Russian regions that also hit a major chemical plant in the Tula region and forced restrictions at Moscow's airports.

Source: Kyiv Independent via EuropeSays

In Lipetsk, a fire broke out in the area of the Novolipetsk Metallurgical Plant after air defences were engaged, according to the monitoring channel. Local authorities had not commented on the attack, and the details could not be immediately verified by the Kyiv Independent. A 2025 investigation by Ukrainska Pravda found that the plant supplies Russian defence companies that produce air defence systems, drones, missiles and other weapons; Ukraine has sanctioned the plant, and Canada and Australia have sanctioned its owner, Russian billionaire Vladimir Lisin.

Fire at the Azot chemical plant

On the same night, authorities in the Tula region reported an attack on the Azot chemical plant in Novomoskovsk, where a fire broke out, Ukrainian news agency UNN reported, citing Petro Andriushchenko, head of the Center for the Study of the Occupation. The plant, part of the EuroChem Group, produces ammonia, ammonium nitrate, urea and methanol; according to Ukraine's Foreign Intelligence Service, it supplied nitric acid to the Sverdlov Plant in Dzerzhinsk, which specialises in explosives production.

Source: UNN via EuropeSays

UNN said the Lipetsk fire may have been caused by air defence operations or the crash of an aerial object, and that there were also unconfirmed reports of a possible strike and fire near the Lipetsk airfield. Explosions were reported in the Voronezh and Belgorod regions, with missile alerts issued twice in Voronezh.

In Moscow, Russia's aviation authority Rosaviatsiya imposed partial restrictions at Vnukovo, Domodedovo and Zhukovsky airports, with arrivals and departures permitted only with the approval of the relevant authorities, UNN reported. Missile alerts were issued in at least seven regions — Tula, Lipetsk, Voronezh, Tambov, Kaluga, Oryol and Bryansk — and a drone-attack threat was reported in the Kursk and Ryazan regions.

The other side of the same night

The overnight exchange ran both ways. A Russian drone strike injured five people in Ukraine's second city, Kharkiv, including a young child, Ukraine's emergency service said on Telegram, adding that a major fire sparked by the attack was extinguished, Reuters reported. No name or identifying detail of the child was published, and none is published here.

Source: Reuters via Devdiscourse

Ukraine regularly strikes military and war-industrial targets deep inside Russia to reduce Moscow's ability to keep waging the war, the Kyiv Independent noted — a campaign that has this month already reached a petrochemical plant and warehouse in Siberia, around 2,500 kilometres from the border, according to monitoring channels it cited. What happens next depends on confirmation: neither the scale of damage at Lipetsk or Novomoskovsk nor any official Ukrainian claim of responsibility had been established in the reports checked.