MOSCOW/KYIV (Reuters) - A&nbsp;Ukrainian&nbsp;drone&nbsp;sparked a&nbsp;fire&nbsp;at an oil&nbsp;refinery&nbsp;in southern Russia and shelling hit a&nbsp;Russian&nbsp;town close to the border for the third time in a week, damaging buildings and vehicles and injuring four people,&nbsp;Russian&nbsp;officials said on Wednesday.
A day after Russia accused Ukraine of sending&nbsp;drones to attack buildings in Moscow,&nbsp;Ukrainian&nbsp;artillery struck the&nbsp;Russian&nbsp;town of Shebekino about 7 km (4.5 miles) north of the border with Ukraine's Kharkiv region, regional&nbsp;Governor&nbsp;Vyacheslav Gladkov said on the Telegram messaging app.
Two people were hospitalised and the shelling smashed windows and damaged roofs of an eight-storey apartment building, four homes, a school and other places, he said.
The&nbsp;governor&nbsp;of Russia's southern Krasnodar region said a&nbsp;drone&nbsp;was the likely cause of a&nbsp;fire&nbsp;that broke out at the Afipsky oil&nbsp;refinery.
The&nbsp;fire&nbsp;was soon put out and there were no casualties,&nbsp;Governor&nbsp;Veniamin Kondratyev said on Telegram. The Afipsky&nbsp;refinery&nbsp;is not far from the Black Sea port of Novorossiisk, near another&nbsp;refinery&nbsp;that has been attacked several times this month.
There was no immediate information on who launched the&nbsp;drone&nbsp;but Moscow has accused Kyiv of increased attacks inside Russia in recent weeks, while Russia has repeatedly pounded&nbsp;Ukrainian&nbsp;cities with&nbsp;drones and missiles.
Reuters was not able to independently verify the reports.
The skies over Ukraine were relatively quiet on Tuesday night, with no major air raids reported.&nbsp;Russian&nbsp;drone&nbsp;attacks killed one person and wounded four in Kyiv on Tuesday, according to&nbsp;Ukrainian&nbsp;officials.
The attacks inside Russia come as Ukraine prepares a counter-offensive to drive&nbsp;Russian&nbsp;forces out of territory they have occupied since their full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
Ukraine almost never publicly claims responsibility for attacks in Russia or on&nbsp;Russian-controlled territory in Ukraine.
DRONE&nbsp;WAR
Ukrainian&nbsp;drones struck wealthy districts of Moscow on Tuesday, Russia said, in what one politician called the most dangerous attack on the capital since World War Two. Kyiv was also hit from the air for the third time in 24 hours.
Air attacks by both sides have intensified as a stalemate endures on the ground with&nbsp;Russian&nbsp;forces entrenched along an extended line in Ukraine's east and south.
The&nbsp;Russian&nbsp;defence ministry said eight&nbsp;drones sent to Moscow by Ukraine and targeting civilians were shot down or diverted with electronic jammers, though Baza, a Telegram channel with links to the security services, said there were more than 25.
Mykhailo Podolyak, a&nbsp;Ukrainian&nbsp;presidential aide, denied Kyiv was directly involved but said "we are pleased to watch events" and forecast more such strikes.
Two people were injured while some apartment blocks were briefly evacuated, according to Moscow's mayor. Residents said they heard loud bangs followed by the smell of petrol. Some filmed a&nbsp;drone&nbsp;being shot down and a plume of smoke.
The&nbsp;drones targeted some of Moscow's most prestigious districts including where&nbsp;Russian&nbsp;President Vladimir Putin and other members of the elite have homes.
Putin said Ukraine's biggest&nbsp;drone&nbsp;strike on Moscow was an attempt to frighten and provoke Russia, and that air defences around the capital would be strengthened.
Civilian targets in Kyiv and other&nbsp;Ukrainian&nbsp;cities have since the earliest days of the war been struck repeatedly by&nbsp;Russian&nbsp;drones and missiles.
But Tuesday marked only the second time Moscow had come under direct&nbsp;fire.
In Washington, the White House said it was gathering information on the reports of&nbsp;drone&nbsp;strikes in Moscow.
"We do not support attacks inside of Russia. That's it. Period," White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said at a briefing.
Washington is a major supplier of weaponry to Ukraine on the condition it uses it to defend itself and to retake&nbsp;Ukrainian&nbsp;territory occupied by&nbsp;Russian&nbsp;forces.
Russia's ambassador to the United States accused Washington of encouraging "terrorists" in Kyiv by publicly ignoring the&nbsp;drone&nbsp;attack.
NUCLEAR PLANT RISK
One of the southern places&nbsp;Russian&nbsp;forces have controlled since just after the beginning of the invasion is the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, and on Tuesday the chief of the U.N. nuclear watchdog asked Ukraine and Russia to respect five principles to safeguard it. Neither Ukraine nor Russia have committed to respect the principles.
International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) chief Rafael Grossi has been trying for months to secure an agreement to reduce the risk of a nuclear accident from military activity like shelling at Zaporizhzhia, Europe's biggest nuclear power plant.
In a briefing to the U.N. Security Council, Grossi said the principles included that there should be no attack on or from the plant and that it not be used as a base for heavy weapons and other military equipment. He called for off-site power to the plant to remain available and secure.
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(Reporting by David Ljunggren, Guy Faulconbridge, Max Hunder, Olena Harmash, Pavel Polityuk, Valentyn Ogirenko, Gleb Garanich, Lidia Kelly, Trevor Hunnicutt and Steve Holland; Writing by Stephen Coates; Editing by Robert Birsel)

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Ukrainian drone sparks fire at Russian refinery - governor