Drone attack by Ukraine 'destroys bombs and missiles warehouse' in Russian town forcing evacuations

EveningStandard: A “massive” Ukrainian drone attack destroyed a warehouse storing missiles, guided bombs and artillery ammunition in Russia, say security sources in Kyiv,

The air strike sparked a giant blast in the town of Toropets in the western part of Russia’s Tver region.

It also forced the partial evacuation of residents, regional authorities said on Wednesday.

Unverified video and images on social media showed a huge ball of flame blasting high into the night sky and detonations thundering across a lake in the region that lies northwest of Moscow and not far from the border with Belarus.

NASA satellites picked up several sources emanating from the site in early Wednesday hours and earthquake monitoring stations picked up what sensors thought was a minor earthquake in the area.

Security sources in Kyiv said the drone strike had destroyed an ammunition warehouse.

Firefighters were trying to contain the fire, said Igor Rudenya, the governor of the region, after the “massive” drone attack.

He added that the emergencies services were trying to "localise" the blaze believed to have been caused by falling drone wreckage.

The size of the main blast shown in the unverified social media video was consistent with 200-240 tons of high explosives detonating, according to George William Herbert of the Middlebury Institute of International Studies at Monterey in California.

Russia was reported in 2018 to be building an arsenal for the storage of missiles, ammunition and explosives in Toropets, a 1,000-year-old town, which has a population of just over 11,000.

Russian state media had suggested it was a major arsenal for conventional weapons.

There was no information about casualties as a result of the Wednesday attack on Tver.

Schools and kindergartens were moved online in the Zapadnodvinsky district, which borders the Toropetsky district, the administration of the district said on the social VKontakte network.

Russia’s air defence units destroyed 54 drones that Ukraine launched overnight targeting five western Russian regions, according to defence officials.

Regional governors reported no damages from those attacks.

But the defence ministry report did not mention the Tver region.

Kyiv has previously said its strikes on Russia target military, energy and transport infrastructure key to Moscow’s war efforts.

Russian officials rarely disclose the full extent of damage inflicted by Ukrainian attacks.

As Ukraine has ramped up its domestic drone production over the past two years, it has increased attacks on Russian territory.

Ukraine’s biggest-ever drone attack targeted the Russian capital in September, killing at least one, wrecking homes and disrupting flights at Moscow’s airports.

A residential building was also damaged following a drone attack in Ramenskoye in the Moscow region earlier this month.

Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky has been pleading with the US to allow missiles supplied by the West, including British Storm Shadows, to be fired at targets deep inside Russia.

Vladimir Putin’s regime has been unleashing waves of “glide bombs” at towns and cities in Ukraine from planes taking off from air bases far from the frontline.

But a meeting between Joe Biden and Sir Keir Starmer in Washington last week stopped short of announcing that Kyiv was being given such permission for long range attacks with missiles from the West.

Meanwhile, Russian drones attacked energy facilities in Ukraine’s northeastern city of Sumy, the regional authorities said on Wednesday.

No people were injured in the attack based on preliminary information but repeated strikes on the region’s energy facilities have strained the system, they added.

Regional authorities said that air defences shot down 16 drones over the Sumy region during the overnight attack.

The local officials said on Tuesday that Russia fired missiles at energy infrastructure in the city of Sumy after an overnight drone strike on the region reduced power in some areas and forced authorities to use back-up power systems.

Ukraine’s energy ministry said Russia’s Tuesday attacks had caused a fire at a power substation in the Sumy region and cut power to more than 281,000 consumers.