KIEV (Reuters) – Ukraine claimed responsibility for two attacks on oil depots in western Russia on Saturday, the latest in Kyiv’s airstrikes against strategic targets on Russian territory.
Kiev’s General Staff said its forces attacked storage facilities in the Kaluga and Tula regions overnight. It said in a statement on each attack that the damage was still being assessed, adding that the warehouses supported Moscow’s war effort in Ukraine.
Kaluga Region Governor Vladislav Shapsha said on Telegram that the fire broke out after an attack on an industrial site in the city of Lyudinovo.
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He later said seven drones were shot down, including one that landed in a “non-residential area.”
The governor of the Tula region, Dmitry Milyaev, said on Telegram that fuel and lubricant tanks at facilities in the region caught fire as a result of a Ukrainian drone strike.
The Ukrainian army has intensified its attacks on Russia, mainly on oil depots and military production facilities, in an effort to prevent Russia from advancing steadily on the battlefield in eastern Ukraine.
Russia has also carried out regular air strikes on Ukrainian towns and on Saturday launched a missile attack in central Kiev that killed four people.
Nearly three years after Russia invaded Ukraine, both sides are seeking to improve their stance ahead of Monday’s inauguration of U.S. President-elect Donald Trump, who has said he will seek a quick end to the war.
(Reporting by Dan Pereshuk; Editing by Mark Heinrich and Susan Fenton)
