KIEV, Ukraine (AP) – Ukraine's military said Wednesday it has attacked a fuel depot deep in Russia, causing a huge fire at a facility supplying a vital Russian air base.
Russian authorities confirmed there had been a large-scale drone attack in the area and said authorities had set up an emergency command center to extinguish the fire.
Ukraine's General Staff said the attack struck a storage facility near Engels, Russia's Saratov region, about 600 kilometers east of the Ukrainian border. The depot provided a nearby airstrip used by aircraft to launch missiles across the border into Ukraine, according to a statement on Facebook.
Ukraine has developed an arsenal of indigenous long-range missiles and drones that can reach deep behind front lines, as the country's military faces limits on the range it can fire Western-supplied missiles at Russia. I am doing it.
The attack disrupted Russia's logistics and embarrassed the Kremlin in the nearly three-year war that began on February 24, 2022.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said last year that his country had developed a weapon capable of hitting targets 700 kilometers (400 miles) away. Some Ukrainian drone attacks have hit targets more than 1,000 kilometers (600 miles) away.
Saratov region governor Roman Busargin said an unspecified industrial factory in Engels caught fire due to falling debris from the drone, but no one was injured.
Engels has a population of over 220,000 people, is located on the left bank of the Volga River, and has several industrial factories. Saratov is a major industrial city with a population of approximately 900,000 people, facing Engels across the river.
“Damage to oil bases would create serious logistical problems for the Russian occupier's strategic aviation and significantly reduce Russia's ability to attack peaceful Ukrainian cities and civilian objects.” A statement from the Ukrainian General Staff said.
Russian authorities restricted flights at airports in Saratov, Ulyanovsk, Kazan and Nizhnekamsk early Wednesday morning, apparently in response to the Ukrainian attack.
The main base for Russia's nuclear-capable strategic bombers is just outside Engels. It has been under attack by Ukrainian drones since the early stages of the war, forcing the Russian military to relocate most of its bombers to other areas.
