Ukraine launched an overnight drone strike that has set a Russian munitions depot ablaze near the border region of Voronezh, it has emerged.
A state of emergency was introduced in parts of Voronezh, Russia after the attack sparked a warehouse fire, local authorities said.
Regional governor Alexander Gusev said Sunday that 'several drones were detected and destroyed' by Moscow's air defence systems. He added that local residents were bring 'evacuated'.
Russia and Ukraine have used drones, including large explosive devices with a range of hundreds of kilometres, extensively since Russia launched its military operation in February 2022.
Ukraine has stepped up its attacks on Russian territory this year, targeting both energy sites it says supply the Russian army and towns and villages just across the border.
Ukraine launched an overnight drone strike that has set a Russian munitions depot ablaze near the border region of Voronezh, it has emerged
A state of emergency was introduced in parts of Voronezh, Russia after the attack sparked a warehouse fire
'Several drones were detected and destroyed overnight by air defence systems above the Voronezh region,' regional governor Alexander Gusev wrote on the Telegram messaging on Sunday.
'Their falling debris set off a fire in a depot' in the Podgorenski district where 'explosives began to detonate.'
Rescue teams were at the scene and Gusev said that some residents in the Podgorensky district of the region were being evacuated.
He added: 'There were no casualties.'
Ukraine has increased its retaliation against Putin's army and on Saturday night caused a fire in Russia's Krasnodar after carrying out a drone strike on an oil depot.
Authorities in Krasnodar province - next to Russia-annexed Crimea - reported on Saturday that several oil depots were on fire in Pavlovsky and Leningradsky districts of the region in southern Russia.
Debris from a drone strike sparked a fire at an oil depot, set fuel tanks ablaze in a separate location and damaged a cellphone tower, the reports said. There were no immediate reports of casualties.
Firefighters extinguished a blaze at an oil depot in the Pavlovsky district on Saturday. On Sunday, local authorities said on Telegram that the fire in Leningradsky had also been put out.
Regional governor Alexander Gusev said Sunday that 'several drones were detected and destroyed' by Moscow 's air defence systems. He added that local residents were bring 'evacuated'
Ukraine has stepped up its attacks on Russian territory this year, targeting both energy sites it says supply the Russian army and towns and villages just across the border. Pictured is the fire at the ammunition store in Russia's Voronezh region on Sunday
Smoke fills the air on Sunday after a Ukrainian drone strike sparked a fire at an ammunitions depot in Voronezh, Russia
The Russian military also claimed on Saturday that its air defence units had downed seven Ukrainian drones each on Saturday in the southern Belgorod and Kursk regions on the Ukrainian border.
The Russian Defence Ministry said seven drones were intercepted over Belgorod region, which is subjected to nearly daily Ukrainian attacks.
Alexei Smirnov, governor of Kursk region, further north and west, also reported seven drones had been downed over his region.
He said Ukrainian forces had shelled about 10 villages over the course of the day.
Meanwhile, Russian Iskander ballistic missiles destroyed two launchers for Patriot surface-to-air missiles systems in Ukraine's Odesa region, the Russian defence ministry said on Sunday.
The attack took place in the area of the port of Yuzhne, the ministry said in a statement on the Telegram messaging app, adding that a radar station was also destroyed.
It was no clear when the attack on the Patriot launchers took place. A video released on Telegram by the ministry shows daylight explosions on uninhabited land near a coastline, after zooming onto difficult to identify objects.
Reuters could not independently verify the Russian report. There was no immediate comment from Ukraine.
Earlier on Sunday, Ukraine's air force said that Russia attacked Ukraine with two Iskander ballistic missiles, but it did not provide further detail.
Local resident Natalia Latysheva, 60, stands inside her house destroyed by recent shelling, which local Russian-installed authorities called a Ukrainian military strike, in the course of Russia-Ukraine conflict in the town of Yasynuvata in the Donetsk region, Russian-controlled Ukraine on July 6, 2024
A Ukrainian soldier rests as Infantry secure the area for the 3rd Assault Brigade at sunset on July 1, 2024 in Kharkiv Region, Borovaya Directions, Ukraine
An expert of the Kharkiv Regional Prosecutor's Office records the destruction because of the Russian shelling on July 3, 2024 in Kharkiv, Ukraine
It comes after Russian strikes on Friday night left over 100,000 households without power in northern Ukraine and cut off the water supply to a regional capital, Ukrainian authorities reported Saturday, while civilian casualties rose sharply in the country's embattled east.
The northern Sumy region, which borders Russia, was plunged into darkness after Russian strikes late Friday damaged energy infrastructure, the Ukrainian Energy Ministry said.
Hours later, the Ukrainian public broadcaster reported that Russian drones hit the provincial capital, also called Sumy, cutting off water by hitting power lines that feed its system of pumps.
Russian state agency RIA cited a local pro-Kremlin 'underground' leader as saying that Moscow's forces overnight hit a plant producing rocket ammunition in the city, which had a pre-war population of over 256,000.
The report didn't specify what weapon was used, and the claim could not be independently verified. Explosions rocked the city during an air raid warning early Saturday, according to Ukrainian media reports.
Russia is continually targeting Ukraine's badly damaged energy infrastructure, resulting in hours of rolling blackouts across the country. Ukrainian officials have warned that the situation may worsen as winter approaches.
In the Donetsk region in the east, Russian shelling on Friday and overnight killed 11 civilians and wounded 43, local Gov. Vadym Filashkin reported on Saturday.
Five people died in the town of Selydove southeast of Pokrovsk, the eastern city that has emerged as a front-line hotspot.
The Ukrainian General Staff on Saturday morning said that Ukrainian and Russian forces clashed 45 times near Pokrovsk over the previous day.
Hours later, the Russian Ministry of Defense announced its troops had captured a village some 30 kilometers (19 miles) east of the city.
According to Filashkin, three more civilians died in Chasiv Yar, the strategically located town in Donetsk that has been reduced to rubble under a monthlong Russian assault.
A Ukrainian National Guard soldier waits for orders to fire artillery to Russian positions in Serebryansky forest of Donetsk Oblast, Ukraine, on June 26, 2024
An aerial view of the city damaged by the continuous attacks of the Russian army in the city of Toretsk, Donetsk Oblast, Ukraine on July 5, 2024
A view of the destruction of buildings by the continuous attacks of the Russian army in the city of Toretsk, Donetsk Oblast, Ukraine on July 5, 2024
Russian forces have for months tried to grind out gains in Ukraine's industrial east, in an apparent attempt to lock its defenders into a war of attrition, after Kyiv's forces thwarted a cross-border push further north that briefly threatened Ukraine's second-largest city of Kharkiv.
A Ukrainian military spokesperson on Thursday said that Ukrainian forces had retreated from a neighborhood on the outskirts of Chasiv Yar.
The town's elevated location gives it strategic importance, and military analysts say its fall would put nearby cities in jeopardy.
It could also compromise critical Ukrainian supply routes and bring Russia closer to its stated aim of seizing the entire Donetsk region.
According to the Ukrainian General Staff, Russian forces on Friday and overnight launched six rocket strikes and 55 airstrikes across Ukraine, and used more than 70 'glide bombs' - retrofitted Soviet-era weapons that have wrought devastation in the country in recent weeks.
