KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — A village in Russia’s western border region was evacuated Sunday after a series of explosions after debris from a downed Ukrainian drone set fire to a nearby warehouse, local officials said.
Social media images appeared to show rising clouds of black smoke in the Voronezh region, while loud explosions could be heard in succession.
Governor Aleksandr Gusev said falling debris triggered the “detonation of explosive objects.” No casualties were reported, but residents of a nearby village in Podgorensky district were evacuated, he said. working on site.
The Russian Defense Ministry did not address the attack in its morning briefing, but said air defense systems destroyed a Ukrainian drone over the Belgorod region.
Authorities in the Russian province of Krasnodar said on Saturday that a fire at an oil depot was also caused by falling drone debris. Russia’s emergency services said the fire was extinguished on Sunday morning.
The attacks come after a Ukrainian military spokesman told the Associated Press on Thursday that Kiev troops withdrew from a neighborhood on the outskirts of Chasiv Yar, a strategically important town in Ukraine’s Donetsk region that was reduced to rubble during a month-long Russian attack.
Russian forces have been trying for months to make gains in Ukraine’s industrial east, in an apparent attempt to trap their supporters in a war of attrition. In a joint investigation published Friday, Russian independent media outlets Meduza and Mediazona reported that Moscow forces were losing between 200 and 250 soldiers in Ukraine every day.
Military analysts say the fall of Chasiv Yar could also jeopardize critical Ukrainian supply routes and put nearby cities at risk, bringing Russia closer to its stated goal of seizing the entire Donetsk region.
Russia sent two ballistic missiles and 13 Shahed drones overnight, Ukrainian Air Force officials said. All were shot down, but authorities did not elaborate on the impact of the missiles.
Elsewhere in Ukraine, 14 people died after a bus collided with a cargo vehicle, leaving a single survivor, Interior Minister Ihor Klymenko said on Saturday night. The victims included a 6-year-old child.
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