Watch: Ukrainian drones blow up major Russian ammunition depot
21 September 2024 4:30pm
Ukrainian forces have blown up one of Russia’s largest ammunition storage bases in a drone attack, causing a huge explosion in the southern region of Krasnodar.
Video footage posted on social media showed the moment of the attack, on a depot near the city of Tikhoretsk, which created an enormous explosion that lit up the night sky.
Ukraine also struck a weapons depot in the western Tver region as part of its ongoing drone offensive against key Russian army infrastructure.
In a statement, the Ukrainian army said the strike in Tikhoretsk had targeted one of the “three largest ammunition storage bases” in Russia. Kyiv’s military also said it struck an arsenal in Oktyabrsky village, in the Tver region, resulting in “fire and detonation”.
Veniamin Kondratyev, the governor of the Krasnodar region, announced the evacuation of 1,200 people after a drone attack caused a fire that “spread to explosive objects” near Tikhoretsk.
Mr Kondratyev called it a “terrorist attack by the Kyiv regime” and said an unnamed village near the fire had been evacuated, with most people staying with relatives but others placed in temporary accommodation in Tikhoretsk.
Video on social media later showed smoke rising into the air in the distance as sirens wailed around Tikhoretsk, a city of some 50,000 people, in the daylight.
AFP, the news agency that first reported the images of the explosion, said they could not immediately be verified.
Krasnodar is separated from occupied Ukraine by the Azov Sea and has been largely spared from the types of attacks inflicted on other Russian border regions.
Authorities in the western Tver region also announced a night-time drone attack near the city of Toropets, which lies in the western part of the region. Its governor, Igor Rudenya, said the “consequences of falling debris” from the attack were being “cleared”.
He said there was no evacuation in Toropets but announced the temporary closure of the federal M-9 highway, promising that it would reopen soon.
The attack also caused some disruption on passenger trains, with railway officials saying a train going from Moscow to the western city of Pskov was sent on an alternative route, while another train was delayed.
Earlier, Russia’s defence ministry claimed it had downed 101 Ukrainian drones, mostly over the border Bryansk region, bringing down 18 over Krasnodar. Russia has recently claimed it is shooting down Ukrainian drones almost daily.