KYIV, Ukraine (AP) – Ukraine’s military said Wednesday it attacked a fuel depot inside Russia, sparking a massive fire at a facility that supplies a key Russian air base.
Russian officials acknowledged that there had been a major drone strike in the area, and said authorities had set up an emergency center to fight the fire.
Ukraine’s General Staff said the attack hit a warehouse near Engels, in Russia’s Saratov region, about 600 kilometers (370 miles) east of the Ukrainian border. The depot provided a nearby airfield used by planes launching missiles across the border into Ukraine, the statement on Facebook said.
Trusted and exciting news every day, right in your inbox
See for yourself — Yodel is your go-to source for daily news, entertainment and exciting news.
Ukraine has been developing its arsenal of long-range ballistic missiles and home-grown drones that can reach deep behind the front line as it faces limits on the range at which its military can fire its Western-supplied missiles at Russia.
The attack disrupted Russia’s nearly three-year war, which began on February 24, 2022, and embarrassed the Kremlin.
The President of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, last year said that his country has developed a weapon that can strike at a distance of 700 kilometers (400 miles). Some Ukrainian drone strikes have hit targets more than 1,000 kilometers (600 miles) away.
The governor of Saratov region, Roman Busargin, said that an unnamed industrial plant in Engels was damaged by falling drone debris that caused a fire, but no one was injured.
Engels, with a population of over 220,000, is on the left bank of the Volga River, and is home to many industrial plants. Saratov, a large industrial city of about 900,000 people, faces Engels across the river.
“The damage to the oil field creates serious problems for Russian civilian aircraft and significantly reduces their ability to strike peaceful Ukrainian cities and non-civilian objects. It will continue,” said the statement of the General Staff of Ukraine.
Russian authorities restricted flights early Wednesday at the airports of Saratov, Ulyanovsk, Kazan and Nizhnekamsk, in an apparent response to the attack on Ukraine.
The main base of Russian nuclear bombs is located just outside Engels. It has come under Ukrainian drone attacks since the start of the war, forcing the Russian military to move most of its bombers to other locations.
_____
Follow AP’s coverage of the war in Ukraine at
Source link
