Kyiv, Ukraine: Ukraine claimed Tuesday it hit an ammunition depot inside Russian territory after the local governor reported explosions at a munitions site in the Voronezh region, which borders Ukraine.
Kyiv has stepped up its attacks on Russian energy and military targets in what it says is retaliation for barrages of Russian strikes that have battered its own power grid throughout the two-year war.
Footage shared on local state media showed a fire raging and several loud explosions ringing out from a site surrounded by fields and trees.
“A field ammunition depot of the Russian aggressor army was hit in the Olkhovatsky district of Russia’s Voronezh region,” the main directorate of intelligence at Kyiv’s defence ministry said.
The claimed location is around 50 kilometres (30 miles) from Russia’s border with Ukraine.
Voronezh Governor Alexander Gusev said there had been “a detonation of explosive objects in the Olkhovatsky district,” after he reported two districts had been “attacked by Ukraine overnight.”
In an earlier post on Telegram he said Ukraine fired two drones at his region, with debris from one of them falling onto an unspecified industrial site, where it triggered a fire.
He said no civilians were injured.
Kyiv has for months fired explosive-packed drones at Russian energy and military sites in overnight attacks in a bid to hit Moscow’s military capacity.
Moscow’s defence ministry said it downed 30 Ukrainian drones overnight, including one over the Voronezh region.
Russia has fired drones and missiles at Ukraine on a daily basis since it launched its invasion in February 2022, inflicting severe damage on the country’s energy network that has forced Kyiv to introduce blackouts and ration energy supplies.
The Russian governor of the Belgorod region also said four people were wounded in overnight Ukrainian drone attacks.
“The night in Belgorod region was unsettling. Four people were wounded after attacks by Ukraine’s armed forces. In total over the last 24 hours, 15 civilians have been injured,” Belgorod governor Vyacheslav Gladkov said in a video message posted on Telegram.
The region comes under frequent attack and Russian President Vladimir Putin said he ordered a major ground offensive on Ukraine’s northeastern Kharkiv region last month to create a buffer zone.
Gladkov also reported the body of an elderly woman, killed by a strike, had been discovered by emergency services on a round of routine inspections, though he did not say when the hit occurred.