Drone attack hits Russian ammunition depot – DW – 07.07.2024

The Russian Defense Ministry said on Sunday that another village in the eastern Ukrainian region of Donetsk had been captured.

In a daily briefing via Telegram, the Russian Defense Ministry said its armed forces had “liberated Chigari (Donetsk People’s Republic) and improved the tactical situation.”

On Saturday, Russia claimed to have taken control of another village in the same region, where Ukraine says heavy fighting is currently taking place.

Since the beginning of the year, Russian forces have been slowly advancing into the Donetsk region, beginning with the capture of Avdiivka in February.

However, both sides are engaged in a bitter war of attrition in which neither side has been able to gain any significant advantages.

kb/rc (AFP, AP, dpa, Reuters)

A Russian ammunition depot was hit in a nighttime drone strike in Russia’s Voronezh region, near the border with Ukraine, according to Russian and Ukrainian officials.

“Several drones were detected and destroyed by air defense systems over the Voronezh region overnight,” regional governor Alexander Gusev wrote on Telegram.

“Their falling debris sparked a fire at a depot” in Podgorensky District, about 80 kilometers from the Ukrainian border.

“Explosives began to detonate,” Gusev said, adding that there was no indication that anyone was injured.

The AFP news agency quoted a Ukrainian military source as saying that drones hit an ammunition factory in the nighttime attack.

“The enemy stored surface-to-surface and surface-to-air missiles, shells for tanks and artillery, and boxes of ammunition” at the site, which was attacked by drones, leading to a “massive” explosion, AFP quoted the source as saying.

Both Russia and Ukraine have increasingly used drones since the start of Russia’s large-scale invasion in February 2022.

The Ukrainian Air Force reported that Russia fired two ballistic missiles and 13 Shahed drones overnight, all of which were shot down.