Ukraine on Sunday said it sent more than 100 drones deep inside Russia to hit a major weapons depot, as it stepped up attacks further inside Russian territory.
Also Sunday Denmark announced it was providing 1.3 billion kroner ($194 million) to help Ukraine bolster its under-pressure arsenal against Russia’s invasion.
“Defence forces struck the Kotluban military depot” in the Volgograd region, hundreds of kilometres from the Ukrainian border, a day after a shipment of Iranian weapons reportedly arrived at the site, Ukraine’s military general staff wrote on Telegram.
“A fire and ammunition detonation were observed on the depot’s territory,” said the post, adding that the facility was being used for storage and the modernisation of missiles and artillery.
Russia did not confirm the strike, reporting only that it had destroyed 67 drones overnight over the Volgograd region.
But a Ukrainian defence sector source told media that 120 drones had flown more than 600 kilometres (370 miles) to target the depot early Sunday.
“As a result of the hit, ammunition and missile storage sites were damaged, which will lead to a shortage of ammunition for units of Russia’s occupation army,” the source said.
Western governments have accused Iran of supplying both drones and missiles to Moscow for its war on Ukraine, a charge Tehran has repeatedly denied.
“Several explosions were recorded in the area of Kotluban, the location of a depot of the defence ministry’s main missile and artillery directorate,” Russian military blogger Rybar wrote, adding that “serious destruction” had been avoided.
Volgograd governor Andrei Bocharov said falling debris from the drones had sparked grass fires but had not caused casualties or damage.
– Two-hour drone attack –
Volgograd news sites cited locals as saying the drone attack lasted around two hours, prompted some residents to flee their homes, and that it was not the first time the area had been targeted in this way.
Russia’s defence ministry on Sunday said its air defences had destroyed and intercepted a total of 125 Ukrainian drones over its territory overnight.
This was the largest Ukrainian drone attack since President Vladimir Putin last week announced changes to the country’s nuclear doctrine to allow a nuclear response to a massive cross-border drone attack.
The governors in the Russian regions of Voronezh and Rostov reported some damage but no casualties from the attack.
The defence ministry said unmanned aerial vehicles had also been intercepted over the Bryansk and Kursk regions, the Krasnodar region close to Crimea and over the Sea of Azov.
Moscow recently announced it had been shooting down Ukrainian drones almost daily in response to what Kyiv says are retaliatory strikes for the offensive Russia launched in February 2022.
Denmark’s announcement of extra funding specified that it would go towards arms and equipment produced in Ukraine but financed by Danish money and frozen Russian assets.
“Wars are not only won on the battlefield, but also in industry,” Trade and Industry Minister Morten Bodskov said in a statement.
Meanwhile, Ukraine’s President Volodomyr Zelensky on Sunday marked the 83rd anniversary of a Nazi massacre of more than 30,000 Jewish people at the Babyn Yar ravine near Kyiv in 1941.
It was the largest massacre by the Germans and their local collaborators of Jewish people in Ukraine during World War II.
“Babyn Yar is a terrifying symbol, showing that the most heinous crimes occur when the world chooses to ignore, remain silent, stay indifferent, and lacks the determination to stand up against evil,” Zelensky, who is himself Jewish, said on social media site X.
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