Ukraine said on Wednesday that it had hit a big Russian ammunition depot with drones, with videos showing fireballs lighting up the night sky. The attack came just hours after the Russian military claimed to have captured the town of Ukrainsk as Moscow continues a slow but steady advance in eastern Ukraine.
The capture of Ukrainsk, confirmed by geolocated battlefield footage analyzed by independent groups, brings Russia one step closer to its long-held goal of seizing all of the eastern Donetsk region, which it already partly controls. Ukrainsk, once home to 10,000 residents, lies on the path to the city of Kurakhove, a defensive stronghold.
The capture of Ukrainsk and the Ukrainian drone strikes, which hit in the northwestern Russian town of Toropets, highlighted one of the main dynamics of the war in recent months: Russian forces are gaining ground in Ukraine, and Kyiv is trying to disrupt that progress by hitting military bases and warehouses that are key to Russia’s operations.
Igor Rudenya, governor of the western Russian region of Tver, which includes Toropets, said in a statement that the town had been targeted by a “massive drone attack” but did not mention the ammunition depot. He said that wreckage from a destroyed Ukrainian drone had sparked a fire. He did not say what was burning, but the damage was significant enough that he ordered a partial evacuation of Toropets’s residents.
An official from the Ukrainian Security Services said that drones had hit a “large warehouse” in Toropets containing weapons such as Iskander missiles and guided bombs known as KABs. The claim could not be independently verified.
NASA satellites detected multiple fires in the area, which independent analysts monitoring open-source imagery said corresponded to the location of a big ammunition storage site. Toropets is nearly 300 miles north of Ukraine and the distance of the strike would be a testament to Kyiv’s improved long-range drone capabilities.
Pasi Paroinen, an analyst for the Finland-based Black Bird Group, which analyzes satellite images and footage from the battlefield, said, “The depot did indeed blow up,” though he added that it remained unclear whether that was the direct result of a Ukrainian strike.
Russia’s Defense Ministry said that the country was attacked by dozens of Ukrainian drones overnight, adding that it had shot down 54 of them over different regions. The ministry did not mention the Tver region or the fires in Toropets in its report.
If confirmed, the Ukrainian attack would be the latest in a series of strikes on airfields, military factories and oil refineries in recent months, and would be a further attempt by Kyiv to undermine Russian military operations and disrupt Moscow’s progress on the battlefield.
Since the early months of this year, Russian forces have made steady advances in eastern Ukraine, seizing cities, towns, and villages in often bloody battles. After Russia’s push toward Pokrovsk, a strategic railway and road hub, stalled in recent days, the Russian military has shifted its focus to the south of that area, toward Kurakhove.
The Ukrainian General Staff reported on Wednesday 49 Russian assaults around Kurakhove over the past day. The 46th Airmobile Brigade of Ukraine said on Thursday that Russia had launched four waves of attacks toward the city, involving a total of 46 military vehicles, including tanks. The brigade said that the attacks had been repelled.
The recent capture of Ukrainsk, which Ukraine did not comment on, could facilitate Russia’s approach to Kurakhove from the north. Russian troops have also been advancing from the east in a pincer movement, tightening pressure on the city. In the spring, Ukrainian forces built a network of trenches and anti-tank ditches around Kurakhove, anticipating future assaults after losing nearby towns.
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