Russia’s Drone Attack Against Ukraine Starts A Fire

The health ministry of Russia reports that a large-scale Ukrainian drone attack resulted in a fire that injured thirteen persons in the Tver region.

Unverified video that appears to show a major explosion in the town has surfaced. The video, which is making the rounds on social media, shows explosions and smoke filling a wide area of the sky.

Following the strike in the wee hours of Wednesday, a partial evacuation of the area was mandated. Later, the regional governor said that all of the town’s infrastructure was operating normally once more, urging the locals to come back.

According to Ukrainian sources reported by the news agencies AFP and Reuters, an ammo depot was targeted. Ballistic missiles, explosives, fuel tanks, and artillery rounds were allegedly stored in a number of warehouses on the military complex. All of these armaments are being deployed by Russia in its continuous, all-out invasion of Ukraine.

The type of attack that Ukraine has been aiming to carry out with missiles provided by its partners in the West is this most recent one. But without permission from the US and the UK, Ukraine utilized its own drones once more.

This time, the target was important: what appears to have been a sequence of explosions has destroyed a military arsenal valued at over £30 million ($39 million). NASA reported using satellite photos to identify several heat sources. There was even a recorded light-magnitude earthquake in the vicinity of Tver.

Head of Ukraine’s Center for Countering Disinformation Andriy Kovalenko said on Telegram that Russia started stockpiling North Korean missiles at Toropets in addition to its own munitions, which included Grad rockets. The BBC has not independently verified any of these statements.

Toropets is roughly 470 km north of the Ukrainian border and 380 km (236 miles) northwest of Moscow, the capital of Russia.

Drone assaults inside Russia have increased in recent months, with Kyiv showing greater ambition and confidence. These attacks have targeted targets as far away as 1,800 km (1,118 miles) away, including a long-range radar in the city of Orsk.

Early on Wednesday morning, Toropets authorities declared that the situation in the town of roughly 13,000 people was “under control” and that busses had been ready for evacuation. The amount of people being evacuated was not stated.

Meanwhile, regional kindergartens and schools would be closed on Wednesday, according to reports from Russia’s official media.

The extent of the damage in Toropets is meant to send a political message to the West and is expected to give Ukrainian soldiers a boost in morale: attacking Russian targets allows Ukraine to defend itself without raising the stakes with Moscow.