A few weeks before the second anniversary of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Kyiv seems to have relaunched its strategy of attacks on Russian soil.
A Ukrainian drone struck an oil storage depot in western Russia on Friday, causing a massive fire, officials said.
A sign that the Ukrainian army apparently intends to expand its attacks on Russian soil as the second anniversary of the war approaches.
In total, four oil tanks with a total capacity of 6,000 cubic meters were set on fire after the drone reached Klintsy, a town of around 70,000 located around 60 kilometers from the Ukrainian border, according to the local governor Russian.
The strike was apparently the latest in a recently intensified effort by Ukraine to disrupt Russians and undermine President Vladimir Putin’s claims that life in Russia is continuing as normal ahead of the March 17 presidential election.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has pledged to hit more targets inside Russia’s border regions this year.
Russian air defenses are concentrated in occupied regions of Ukraine, Kyiv officials say, making more distant targets in Russia more vulnerable as Ukrainian forces develop longer-range drones.
As a result of these attacks, the Russian town of Belgorod, also close to the Ukrainian border, canceled its traditional Orthodox Epiphany festivities on Friday. This is the first time that large public events have been canceled in Russia due to the drone threat.
Ukrainian national media, citing a Ukrainian intelligence official, said Friday that Ukrainian drones also attacked a gunpowder factory in Tambov, about 600 kilometers south of Moscow.
But Tambov Governor Maxim Yegorov said the plant was operating normally, according to Russian newspaper RBC. The Mash newspaper earlier reported that a Ukrainian drone fell on the factory premises on Thursday but caused no damage.
In Klintsy, air defenses electronically jammed the drone, but it dropped its explosive charge on the facility, Bryansk regional governor Alexander Bogomaz said. There were no casualties, he said.
Russian telegram channels shared videos of what they said was a fire at the depot.