Nine killed in Ukrainian drone attacks on Russian regions

Nine people have been killed and more than 60 others were wounded in Russia by overnight Ukrainian drone attacks, Russian officials said.

Kyiv’s forces are continuing their relentless aerial campaign against energy infrastructure and military targets inside Russia, aiming to undermine Moscow’s war effort and make Russians feel the consequences of the Kremlin’s all-out invasion of Ukraine that is well into its fifth year.

Two sprawling warehouses of Russia’s major online retailer Wildberries were hit by Ukrainian drones overnight, according to Russian officials: one in the town of Kotovsk in the Tambov region, some 360 kilometres (roughly 220 miles) from the border with Ukraine, and another one in the city of Elektrostal, about 50 kilometres (some 30 miles) east of Moscow.

Both caught fire, but Wildberries founder Tatyana Kim said later on Saturday morning that the fire in Kotovsk has been put out.

Images and footage released by Russian online outlets showed a fire raging at the Elektrostal facility, with massive plumes of smoke towering over it.

A Ukrainian drone also hit an oil depot in the city of Noginsk, just north of Elektrostal, sparking a fire and prompting evacuations of a nearby maternity hospital and a residential building, according to the governor of the Moscow region Andrei Vorobyov.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said in a Telegram post on Saturday that Ukrainian long-range strikes hit two “significant logistical facilities in the Moscow and Tambov regions”.

“These facilities were used by the aggressor to supply sanctioned components for the production of drones and navigation equipment,” he wrote.

An oil facility was also hit, Mr Zelensky said.

Seven night shift workers were killed at the warehouse in Kotovsk, and 25 others were wounded, Tambov regional governor Yevgeny Pervyshov said.

A total of 37 people were wounded in the Moscow region, Mr Vorobyov said, adding that one of those later died in hospital.

In Elektrostal, drone debris also hit a kindergarten building, Mr Vorobyov said, sparking a fire that has since been put out.

One more person was killed and one more was injured in a Ukrainian drone attack on Russia’s Belgorod region on Saturday afternoon, according to local authorities.

In the city of Vladimir, some 180 kilometres (more than 110 miles) east of Moscow, a Ukrainian drone hit a residential building, sparking a brief fire, Vladimir governor Alexander Avdeyev said.

There were no casualties, he added.

Ukrainian special operations also conducted strikes against targets in the Sea of Azov and in occupied territory, Mr Zelensky said.

Ukraine’s General Staff in a statement on Saturday also mentioned a strike on the fuel depot in Noginsk, which it said supplies fuel, including to the Russian armed forces.

It also reported hitting two tankers, two floating cranes and a tugboat in the Black and Azov seas, saying the vessels were used to transport oil, fuel and military cargo.

Separately, the military said it struck a Project 10410 Svetlyak patrol ship in Kerch, describing it as the second vessel of that class hit in two days, as well as a railway bridge over the Bila River near Sabivka in the occupied Luhansk region that it said Russia uses for military logistics.

Overall, the Russian Defence Ministry said its air defences overnight intercepted 379 Ukrainian drones over 19 Russian regions, as well as the illegally annexed Crimea, the Sea of Azov and the Black Sea.