Ukraine claimed on Tuesday to have carried out during the night the “most massive” attack of the war against military and industrial installations in several regions of Russia, using, according to Moscow, Western missiles.
Ukrainian forces have increased air attacks in recent months against fuel depots, refineries and military sites in Russia to hamper the logistics of Russian forces fighting on Ukrainian territory.
Tuesday’s attack notably targeted the Republic of Tatarstan and the Saratov region, on the Volga, as well as the border region of Bryansk and that of Tula, near Moscow.
“The Ukrainian defense forces carried out the most massive strikes against military targets (…) at a distance of 200 to 1,100 kilometers deep in Russia,” welcomed the Ukrainian general staff.
According to this source, the strikes “successfully” hit an oil depot in Engels, which had already been targeted on January 8, causing a five-day fire in which two Russian firefighters died.
Another target: the Seltso chemical plant, in the Bryansk region, which according to kyiv produces components for artillery, multiple rocket launchers, aviation and missiles.
It is a “strategic installation of the Russian military-industrial complex”, affirmed the Ukrainian general staff.
According to the Russian Defense Ministry, this Ukrainian strike was carried out using six American ATACMS missiles and six British Storm Shadow missiles. He assured that all the projectiles were shot down without causing any casualties.
Refineries and factories
“Missiles directly hit the site” and caused “a major fire,” assured a source within the Ukrainian security service (SBU).
It also cited strikes on a chemical plant in the Tula region, an ammunition depot at an Engels airfield in the Saratov region, and an oil refinery in the same region.
Russia has promised a systematic response to any Western missile strike on its territory, and has threatened to target the center of kyiv or even to use its new experimental Orechnik hypersonic missile.
Local Russian authorities also reported a Ukrainian attack in the suburbs of Kazan, capital of Tatarstan, where “a gas tank caught fire (…) following a drone attack”, indicated on Telegram the local government, assuring that “no one was hurt.”
In the Saratov region, located about 700 kilometers southeast of Moscow, “two industrial enterprises were damaged” following a “massive drone attack,” regional governor Roman Boussargin wrote on Telegram.
A fire was caused by this attack on a company in Engels, he indicated, without specifying the nature of the damage caused to the second company struck, located in Saratov.
A Ukrainian official, Andriï Kovalenko, head of the center for combating disinformation, a government communications body, mocked on Telegram the “shortcomings of the Russian air defense system”.
“Oil refineries, oil depots, factories producing weapons components, so many elements without which the Russian army will not be able to fight intensively,” he assured.
Russian thrust
According to him, the strike on Kazan “damaged” the Orgsintez factory, one of the largest companies in the chemical industry in Russia.
Mr Kovalenko assured that it is a “strategic installation which is of direct importance for the Russian military-industrial complex”.
kyiv and Moscow have intensified their strikes in recent months and want to strengthen their positions before Donald Trump returns to the White House next Monday, the American president-elect having said he wants to work to stop the war as soon as he takes office.
On the ground, Russian forces continue their advance, claiming the capture of two villages in eastern Ukraine: Terny and Neskoutchné, which had been liberated by Ukrainian troops from a first Russian occupation in October 2022 and June respectively. 2023.
On the Ukrainian side, German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius arrived in kyiv on Tuesday morning, where he is due to discuss continued military support for Ukraine.
Germany is the second largest provider of military aid to Ukraine behind the United States, but the scale and nature of this support is the subject of much prevarication.
With AFP
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