Ukraine strikes key Russian explosives manufacturer, general staff says

Kyiv has also struck storage infrastructure at a military airfield, in a rare aerial attack on Russia.

Ukraine has struck a manufacturer of military explosives deep inside Russian territory overnight, as well as storage infrastructure at a military airfield in the Lipetsk region, Kyiv’s General Staff has said in a statement.

For their part, Russian air defence units downed 110 Ukrainian drones over the country, Russia’s Ministry of Defence said Sunday, including one over the Moscow region, 43 over the border region of Kursk, and 27 over the southwestern Lipetsk region.

The Russian SHOT Telegram channel reported that drones attempted to strike the Ya. M. Sverdlov State-Owned Enterprise in Dzerzhinsk city, Nizhny Novgorod region, about 400km (250 miles) east of Moscow.

The explosives plant, one of the largest manufacturers of its kind used by Russian forces in the war that Moscow launched against Ukraine in February 2022, is subject to sanctions by the United States and the European Union.

Such large-scale aerial attacks are still relatively rare on Russia.

Kyiv’s General Staff said in a post on Telegram the Sverdlov factory had been making chemical components for artillery ammunition and aerial bombs, adding that it was still assessing the damage from its attack.

It also said a drone started a fire at a military airfield in the Lipetsk region.

The Ukrainian attacks resulted in powerful explosions and white smoke in the area of the Sverdlov plant, the SHOT Telegram channel reported.

It is unclear how many people were injured in the attack, but the Nizhny Novgorod region’s governor said four firefighters had received minor shrapnel wounds in a drone attack on an industrial zone, without specifying the target of the attack.

The Russian Defence Ministry added that eight Ukrainian drones were destroyed over Nizhny Novgorod.

In Moscow, Mayor Sergei Sobyanin said debris had fallen in the Ramensky district but had left no damage or casualties.

Russian officials often do not disclose the full extent of damage inflicted by the drone attacks, especially on military, transport or energy infrastructure.

Meanwhile, in Ukraine’s Kryvyi Rih, 17 people were injured after two Russian ballistic missiles hit the city late Saturday evening, officials said Sunday. The attack damaged homes and businesses, local administration head Oleksandr Vilkul said.

Ukraine’s air force said Russia launched 49 drones and two Iskander-M ballistic missiles overnight. It said 31 of the drones were shot down over 12 regions, including the Ukrainian capital, Kyiv, while another 13 disappeared from radar – suggesting they were knocked out by electronic defences.

Kyiv has often said its air attacks target infrastructure key to Russia’s war efforts and are a response to Moscow’s continued air attacks on Ukraine.