Ukraine said it hit a fertilizer plant in northwestern Russia, as the military steps up strikes on industrial facilities to curb revenue for commodity exporters.
The Apatit JSC plant, situated in Russia’s Vologda region, was attacked as it produces raw materials for TNT and other components for ammunition, Robert Brovdi, a Ukrainian drone unit commander known as Madyar, said in a Telegram post on Monday.
The claim couldn’t be independently verified and the plant’s owner, PhosAgro PJSC, declined to comment.
Ukraine has launched strikes on fertilizer plants, in addition to refineries and other oil infrastructure, to blunt benefits for Russia from higher global prices triggered by the Iran war. Brovdi said this month that drones had attacked a KuibyshevAzot facility in the Samara region.
Russia, the world’s second-largest fertilizer producer, accounts for about 20% of the global nutrient trade, and its role has grown since the Iran conflict effectively closed the Strait of Hormuz, a key route for global nitrogen and phosphate fertilizer flows.
Apatit, part of PhosAgro’s chemicals cluster in the city of Cherepovets, is one of Europe’s largest producers of phosphate-based fertilizers, as well as phosphoric and sulphuric acids, according to the company website. It has an annual capacity of 7.5 million metric tons of nutrients. Alongside the domestic market, it exports products to western Europe, Asia, Africa and the Americas.
Vologda region Governor Georgy Filimonov said earlier Monday that 13 drones had been downed approaching industrial facilities in Cherepovets, which is about 270 miles from Moscow.
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