Ukraine has revealed that it launched a pair of attacks on oil depots in western Russia, the latest in Kyiv’s air assaults against strategic targets on Russian soil.
According to Kyiv’s General Staff, its forces had struck storage facilities overnight in the Kaluga and Tula regions.
It said in statements on each attack that damages were still being assessed, adding that the depots supported Moscow’s war effort in Ukraine.
Meanwhile, Kaluga’s regional governor, Vladislav Shapsha, on Telegram said that a fire had broken out after an industrial site was hit in the city of Lyudinovo.
He later said seven drones had been downed, with one landing in a non-residential area.
Both sides in Russia’s almost three-year-old invasion of Ukraine have sought to improve their positions ahead of Monday’s inauguration of U.S. President-elect Donald Trump, who has said he would seek a swift end to the war.
On his part, Tula’s regional governor, Dmitry Milyaev, via Telegram, said that a fuel and lubricant tank had caught fire at a facility in the region as a result of a Ukrainian drone attack.
Ukrainian forces have stepped up strikes inside Russia, primarily on oil depots and military production facilities, as they struggle to hold back steady Russian advances on the battlefield in eastern Ukraine.
Russia has also carried out regular air strikes on Ukrainian towns and cities, killing four people on Saturday in a missile attack on central Kyiv.