Russia temporarily evacuated residents of the western town of Toropets after Ukrainian drones hit a large weapons store and caused explosions and fires that were detected by earthquake monitors and satellites.
As footage appeared online of massive blasts near Toropets in the early hours of Wednesday, unnamed sources in Kyiv’s SBU security services told Ukrainian media that the drone attack had “literally wiped from the face of the earth a large warehouse of the main missile and artillery department of the Russian defence ministry”.
“The SBU, together with comrades from the defence forces, continues methodically to reduce the enemy’s missile potential which it uses to destroy Ukrainian cities. We will work further to create similar scenes at other Russian military facilities that are working for the war against Ukraine,” an SBU source told the NV news outlet.
Military sources told Ukrainian media that more than 100 domestically-made drones had been used in the attack on Toropets, where they said Russia stored a range of its own powerful rockets along with some ballistic missiles supplied by North Korea.
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Andriy Yermak, chief of staff to Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy, posted video footage of a fireball rising above the Toropets weapons silos and the message: “The demilitarisation of Russia is essential to stop terror.”
Earthquake monitors picked up tremors near Toropets and satellites operated by US space agency Nasa detected intense heat from an area of about 14sq km near the town, some 400km west of Moscow and more than 500km north of the Ukrainian border.
Ukraine has been ramping up the scale and sophistication of its own drone production while pressing allies to allow it to fire western-supplied missiles at military sites deeper inside Russia; the Kremlin says the western states would become party to the war if they granted such permission.
Russian officials said 54 Ukrainian drones had been shot down over several regions and blamed the fires at Toropets on falling debris, without saying what was on fire near the town or why massive explosions were seen and heard.
“To ensure the safety of residents the governor of the Tver region Igor Rudenya decided to partially evacuate the population from the area where air defence is operating and the fire is being bought under control,” the local administration said.
Mr Rudenya announced later on Wednesday that residents could return to their homes if they wished, and said all basic utilities in Toropets were working normally.
Ukraine said it shot down 46 of 52 drones fired by Moscow early on Wednesday and that three Russian guided missiles had failed to hit their targets. One person was killed in a Russian drone strike on the central city of Kropyvnytskyi.
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