MOSCOW, Oct 19 (Reuters) - Ukrainian drones attacked the

Orenburg gas processing plant, the world's largest facility of

its kind, and damaged part of it but no employees were hurt in

the attack, the region's governor said on Sunday.

The governor, Yevgeny Solntsev, said on his official

Telegram channel that the drone strike had caused a fire to

break out at a workshop at the plant which emergency services

were working to put out.

It is the first time that the plant, part of the

Orenburg gas chemical complex, which includes Gazprom's

production and processing facilities in the Orenburg region with

an annual capacity of 45 billion cubic metres of gas, has been

reported to have been hit.

The plant processes gas condensate from the Orenburg oil

and gas condensate field, as well as from Kazakhstan's

Karachaganak field.

Separately, the governor of Russia's Samara region,

Vyacheslav Fedorishchev, said on social media that air defences

had been in action overnight against Ukrainian drones and that

the local airport and mobile internet services had been

temporarily suspended.

Ukraine has previously tried to strike an oil refinery

in the Samara region.

Russia's Defence Ministry said in a statement that its

air defence forces had shot down 45 Ukrainian drones overnight,

including 12 over the Samara region, 11 over the Saratov region,

and one over the Orenburg region.

There was no immediate comment from Ukraine which has

stepped up its attacks on Russian refineries and other energy

facilities since August to try to disrupt petrol supplies and

deprive Moscow of funding.