(Kyiv) Ukrainian drones have “destroyed” a warehouse containing missiles and artillery ammunition in western Russia, a source in the Ukrainian security service (SBU) told AFP on Wednesday, with Russian authorities ordering evacuations due to a “fire”.
Posted at 6:31 a.m.
Updated at 9:06 a.m.
Videos posted on social media and by Russian and Ukrainian media show impressive repeated explosions and a huge plume of smoke.
AFP is not able to confirm their authenticity at this time.
On the night of Tuesday to Wednesday, drones “literally destroyed” a warehouse located in the Tver region, in Toropets, the Ukrainian source said.
Ballistic missiles, guided aerial bombs and artillery munitions were stored there, she said.
“After the Ukrainian drone strikes, a very powerful detonation occurred,” the source added.
In 2018, Dmitry Bulgakov, then Russian deputy defense minister, said that a warehouse dedicated to storing missiles, ammunition and explosive materials would soon be put into operation in Toropets, according to the state agency Ria Novosti.
PHOTO FROM SOCIAL MEDIA, PROVIDED BY REUTERS
Ballistic missiles, guided aerial bombs and artillery ammunition were stored in the Russian warehouse targeted by the Ukrainian military, it said.
This city is located about 400 km northwest of Moscow.
The Tver regional authorities announced on Telegram that a “fire [était] being extinguished at the site of the drone debris fall” in Toropets, without mentioning a weapons warehouse.
They said air defense systems continued to “repel a massive drone attack” on the city.
“In order to ensure the safety of residents, the governor of the Tver region, Igor Rudenia, ordered a partial evacuation of the population,” the authorities said.
A few hours later, residents were allowed to “return to their homes,” Igor Roudenia said on Telegram.
“The most important thing is that our citizens were not seriously injured, there were no deaths,” he said.
Buildings were damaged by the drones, regional authorities said, adding that “in most cases, it was broken glass.”
54 drones intercepted
Ukraine regularly carries out drone strikes against Russian territory, sometimes hitting targets far from its borders.
It often claims to target military or energy infrastructure in order to disrupt the logistics of Russian troops, who invaded the country in February 2022.
Kyiv is carrying out these strikes in response to the Russian bombings that are devastating its territory on a daily basis.
The Russian army also announced on Wednesday that it had destroyed 54 Ukrainian drones overnight, half of them over the territory of the Russian region of Kursk, the scene of a major Ukrainian offensive since the beginning of August.
During the night, “anti-aircraft defense systems destroyed 54 Ukrainian aerial drones,” the Russian Defense Ministry said in a statement.
According to the Russian military, 27 drones were destroyed over the Kursk region, bordering Ukraine, with the remaining drones being shot down in the Russian regions of Bryansk (16), Smolensk (7), Belgorod (3) and Oriol (1).
In the Belgorod region, four people were injured and hospitalized as a result of a drone attack, regional governor Vyacheslav Gladkov wrote on Telegram.
