Ukrainian long-range drones struck deep inside Russia in the early hours of 24 August, igniting fires at the Kursk Nuclear Power Plant and at Novatek PJSC’s fuel export terminal in Ust-Luga. The Kursk facility, about 60 km from the Ukrainian border, said wreckage from a downed drone damaged an auxiliary transformer, forcing reactor No. 3 to halve output. The plant reported no casualties or change in radiation levels. Around 1,000 km to the northwest, debris from at least 10 drones shot down over the Baltic port of Ust-Luga set ablaze storage units at Novatek’s gas-condensate processing complex, a key hub for Russian fuel exports. Regional governor Alexander Drozdenko said the fire was contained without injuries, while social-media footage showed a plume of black smoke rising above the terminal. Russia’s defence ministry said air defences intercepted 95 Ukrainian drones across more than a dozen regions overnight, and the civil aviation authority temporarily grounded flights at several airports, including St. Petersburg’s Pulkovo. Kursk’s acting governor Alexander Khinshtein called the drone strike a “threat to nuclear safety”, a concern echoed by the International Atomic Energy Agency, which said it was following the situation closely. The attacks coincided with Ukraine’s 34th Independence Day and underscored Kyiv’s strategy of targeting Russian energy infrastructure in response to continuing missile and drone assaults on Ukrainian cities. There was no immediate official comment from Kyiv on the overnight operations.