KYIV, Ukraine: Ukraine´s security services said Saturday they had struck a Russian ammunition factory in a border region, as Moscow´s forces claimed yet another advance on the battlefield.
Ukraine also said it had thwarted a “massive” overnight Russian aerial attack that saw drones launched towards the capital Kyiv.
The attacks come after a week of intense Russian bombardments across Ukraine that killed at least 55 in the central city of Poltava, and seven in Lviv -- hundreds of kilometres from the frontlines and close to Ukraine´s western border with EU and NATO members. A large fire and several explosions were reported overnight in the Russian region of Voronezh, which borders Ukraine, prompting officials to evacuate locals living near the blaze.
Russian anti-air defence systems “detected and neutralised a drone” early on Saturday morning over the western part of the region, under 150 kilometres (90 miles) from Ukraine, Voronezh governor Alexander Gusev wrote on Telegram. “No-one was injured” but when the drone fell, it sparked a large fire “that spread to explosive devices and caused them to detonate”, Gusev continued, without providing details of which facility was hit.
“A decision was taken to evacuate residents of a village” because of the blaze, he said. Russian Telegram channels said the fire broke out in a local munitions depot. Ukraine´s SBU security services later claimed it had hit a Russian ammunition depot. A source in the SBU told AFP that Kyiv was targeting “military airfields, ammunition depots and infrastructure facilities” in order to “create a demilitarised zone in the regions of Russia adjacent to Ukraine.”
It called them all “legitimate targets”. Ukraine´s air force said Russia fired 67 drones at the country overnight, adding that it shot down 58 of them. AFP reporters in Kyiv heard loud explosions overnight.
“There are almost no nights when Russian attack drones do not attack the territory of Ukraine. And today was another night, massive drone attack,” the Kyiv city administration said in a social media post on Saturday.