MOSCOW (Reuters) – Ukraine fired six U.S.-made ATACMS ballistic missiles, six Storm Shadow cruise missiles and at least 146 drones into Russian territory, Moscow said on Tuesday, in an attack that will not remain without response, he warned.
The Russian Defense Ministry said it had shot down all missiles fired by Ukraine at the Bryansk region, as well as 146 drones outside the war zone.
The ministry added that two more Storm Shadows had been shot down over the Black Sea, and promised that “the actions of the Kyiv regime, supported by its Western patrons, will not go unanswered.”
According to Andry Kovalenko, director of the Ukrainian Center for Combating Disinformation, Ukrainian strikes hit several targets in Engels, Saratov, Kazan, Bryansk and Tula.
Weapons factories, oil refineries and warehouses were targeted, he added.
Russian officials and media said the Ukrainian strikes damaged industrial sites in at least three cities.
Roman Bousargin, the governor of the Saratov region, said the cities of Saratov and Engels, on the other bank of the Volga, had suffered a large-scale drone attack and that two industrial sites had been damaged. Schools in both cities were closed and classes taught remotely, he added.
The drone attack hit an ammunition warehouse containing guided bombs and missiles at the Engels airbase in Russia’s Saratov region and other targets, a Ukrainian security service source said on Tuesday .
The attack caused a large fire at the Aleksin chemical plant in the Tula region and a fire at the Saratov oil refinery, while the Bryansk chemical plant was also hit, the source said.
Reuters could not independently verify the reported damage.
Ukraine had already attacked this region last week by bombing the fuel depot used to supply strategic bombers at the Russian Engels air base, causing a fire which lasted five days.
Russian independent media Astra reported a fire at the industrial site in the city of Kazan, east of Moscow, following a drone attack.
Flight restrictions were imposed in Kazan, Saratov, Penza, Ulyanovsk and Nizhnekamsk, Russia’s aviation watchdog said.
On November 21, Ukraine launched British-made ATACMS and Storm Shadow missiles towards Russia for the first time. Moscow has threatened to retaliate any time Ukraine hits Russia with these weapons.
Meanwhile, the Ukrainian air force said Tuesday it had shot down 58 of the 80 drones launched by Russia into Ukraine overnight.
(Written by the Reuters offices, French version Blandine Hénault, Mara Vîlcu and Etienne Breban, edited by Augustin Turpin)
