Russia ‘destroys weapons depot containing F-16 ammunition’ in strikes on Ukraine

The Telegraph: Russia has claimed it destroyed weapons depots, including at least one containing ammunition for Western F-16 jets, in dozens of strikes across Ukraine.

The defence ministry in Moscow said Russia launched more than 100 missiles and 100 attack drones in the onslaught across half of Ukraine early on Monday.

“This morning, the armed forces of the Russian Federation launched a massive strike with long-range air and sea-based precision weapons, and with operational and tactical aviation and unmanned aerial vehicles against critical energy infrastructure facilities supporting the work of Ukraine’s military-industrial complex,” the ministry said.

In an apparent reference to the F-16 jets supplied by the West, it said Russia had also hit storage facilities holding aircraft ammunition transferred to Kyiv by Western countries at two airfields.

“All designated targets were hit, resulting in disruption to the electricity supply and to the transport – by rail – of weapons and ammunition to the line of contact,” the statement added.

The attacks were launched as Ukraine pushes forward with its high-stakes cross-border offensive into Russia’s Kursk region, where troops have been fighting for almost three weeks.

Denys Shmyhal, the Ukrainian prime minister, said 15 regions sustained damage from the missile and drone barrage. At least seven people were killed and Ukraine’s energy infrastructure was crippled.

“It was one of the biggest combined strikes. More than a hundred missiles of various types and about a hundred Shahed drones,” Volodymyr Zelensky, the Ukrainian president said on the Telegram messaging app.

“And like most previous Russian strikes, this one is just as sneaky, targeting critical civilian infrastructure.”

Joe Biden, the US President, called the Russian attack on energy infrastructure “outrageous” and said he had “re-prioritised US air defence exports so they are sent to Ukraine first”.

The US was “surging energy equipment to Ukraine to repair its systems and strengthen the resilience of Ukraine’s energy grid”, Mr Biden said.

Residents rushed to take shelter in metro stations in Kyiv as the sound of explosions rang out across the capital.

Local officials reported that at least seven people were confirmed dead, including a 69-year-old man in the Dnipropetrovsk region and a man in the Zaporizhzhia region.

The other fatalities occurred in the Kharkiv, Zhytomyr, and Volyn regions. At least 13 other people were seriously wounded.

People take shelter in Kyiv's Teatralna metro station during a Russian air strike - Roman Pilipey/AFP

Energy facilities across the country were targeted, including the southern Odesa region, the wider Kyiv region and the region of Lviv in the west of the country, the authorities said.

“The energy infrastructure has once again become the target of Russian terrorists. Unfortunately, there is damage in a number of regions,” said Mr Shmyhal.

Emergency services fight fires after missile strikes in Odesa - Ukrainian Emergency Service/Anadolu via Getty Images

Ukrainian anti-aircraft defence teams claimed some successes in shooting down Russian missiles, including at least one on the border between the western Zakarpattia and Lviv regions.

Andriy Yermak, Mr Zelensky’s chief of staff, said the attack showed Kyiv needed permission from the West to strike “deep into the territory of Russia with Western weapons”.

On Saturday, a British safety adviser working in eastern Ukraine was killed in a missile strike on a hotel.

Ryan Evans, part of a six-person Reuters team covering the war in Ukraine, died and two Reuters journalists were injured in a strike on the Hotel Sapphire in the eastern city of Kramatorsk, the news agency said on Sunday.

Meanwhile, Russia claimed it had downed 20 drones launched by Ukraine overnight. Nine were destroyed over the Saratov region, three over the Kursk region and two each over the Belgorod, Bryansk and Tula regions, the ministry said on Telegram.

One Ukrainian drone hit a 38-storey residential tower block in the city of Saratov, damaging a number of apartments.