A Ukrainian drone triggers warehouse explosions in Russia as a war of attrition continues

Governor Alexander Gusev said falling debris had triggered the “detonation of explosive objects.” No casualties were reported, but residents of a nearby village in Podgorensky district were evacuated, he said. Roads were also closed, and emergency services, military and government officials were working at the scene.

The Russian Defense Ministry did not comment on the attack in its morning briefing, but said air defense systems had destroyed a Ukrainian drone over the Belgorod region.

Authorities in Russia’s Krasnodar province said on Saturday that a fire at an oil depot was also caused by falling drone debris. Russian 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The attacks come after a Ukrainian military spokesman told the Associated Press on Thursday that Kiev troops had withdrawn from a neighborhood on the outskirts of Chasiv Yar, a strategically important city in Ukraine’s Donetsk region that has been reduced to rubble by a months-long Russian assault.

Russian forces have been trying for months to gain a foothold in Ukraine’s industrial east, in what appears to be an attempt to draw the country’s defenders into a war of attrition. In a joint investigation published on Friday, independent Russian news agencies Meduza and Mediazona reported that Moscow’s forces in Ukraine are losing between 200 and 250 soldiers a day.

Military analysts say the fall of Khasiv Yar could also jeopardize Ukraine’s key supply routes and put nearby cities at risk, bringing Russia one step closer to its stated goal of capturing the entire Donetsk region.

Russia fired two ballistic missiles and 13 Shahed drones on Sunday night, Ukrainian Air Force officials said. All of them were shot down, but officials did not provide any further details on the missiles’ impact.

Elsewhere in Ukraine, 14 people died when a bus collided with a truck. There was only one survivor, Interior Minister Ihor Klymenko said on Saturday evening. A six-year-old child was among the victims.

Full coverage of the war in Ukraine: https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine