Uzbekistan has sent a government task force to Russia to care for injured Uzbek nationals, repatriate the victims’ bodies and support their families. 13 people have died in the Monday drone strike on Russia’s republic of Tatarstan, including eight Uzbeks.
The eight victims were Uzbek citizens employed by a construction company in the city of Nizhnekamsk, Uzbekistan’s Emergencies Ministry said in a statement on Monday. Several other workers were taken to a hospital. The new death toll revises the seven dead previously reported by Uzbekistan’s Consulate-General in Tatarstan.
A swarm of drones attacked the region earlier on Monday, and air raid sirens were heard across the republic, including in Kazan, Naberezhnye Chelny, and Nizhnekamsk. The city of 240,000 people was the prime target, with 13 people killed and 75 injured.
Later in the day, President Shavkat Mirziyoyev convened a government commission led by Deputy Prime Minister Achilbay Ramatov. The Emergencies Ministry, the Foreign Ministry, the Health Ministry, the Migration Agency and other agencies have sent officials to Nizhnekamsk.
The Emergencies Ministry said consular and migration officers were dispatched to the city to work with the Russian authorities. The task force has been assigned to establish the status of the injured citizens, provide assistance, and arrange a special flight to bring the deceased home after the procedures are completed.
Nizhnekamsk drone strike: what is known so far
Russian authorities said they put Tatarstan on drone alert on Monday at noon, introducing temporary flight restrictions at airports in Kazan, Begishevo and Bugulma. Emergency warnings were later issued to several cities, and the threat extended to Nizhnekamsk shortly after 5am local time. Strikes later hit industrial and civilian sites in the city, local media reported.
A period of mourning has been declared in Tatarstan. Russia’s Investigative Committee is treating the attack as a terrorist act.
Meanwhile, Ukrainian forces said they hit the TANECO oil refinery in Nizhnekamsk in a bid to undermine Russian energy infrastructure. President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said drone attacks on Russia will continue, saying, «There will be more Ukrainian deep strikes, which should demonstrate to Russia and the Russians that peace is necessary.»
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