KYIV, Ukraine: Ukraine said on Saturday it had successfully struck two Russian weapons depots in the southern Krasnodar and western Tver regions, with Moscow announcing more than 1,000 evacuations. Kyiv regularly hits Russian infrastructure with drones as Moscow’s offensive drags on for more than two and a half years. The Ukrainian army said it had hit a depot near the city of Tikhoretsk in Krasnodar, calling it one of Moscow’s “three largest ammunition storage bases” important to the Russian army’s logistics for its Ukraine invasion. It also said it struck an arsenal in Tver region’s Oktyabrsky village, resulting in a “fire and detonation”.

The governor of the Krasnodar region, Veniamin Kondratyev, announced the evacuation of 1,200 people after a drone attack had caused a fire that “spread to explosive objects” near Tikhoretsk. Videos on social media showed a massive explosion in the dark resembling fireworks at first before blowing up loudly, with online reports that an ammunition depot was struck.

Kondratyev called it a “terrorist attack by the Kyiv regime” and said an unnamed village near the fire had been evacuated, with most people staying with relatives but others placed in temporary accommodation in Tikhoretsk. Videos on social media later showed sirens ringing around the city of some 50,000 people in the daylight, with smoke rising into the air in the distance.

AFP could not immediately verify the authenticity of the images. Krasnodar is separated from occupied Ukraine by the Azov Sea and had been relatively spared from the type of attacks on Russian border or other southern regions, but has seen increased attacks over the last year. Authorities in the western Tver region also announced a night-time drone attack near the city of Toropets, which lies in the western part of the region. Its governor Igor Rudenya said the “consequences of falling debris” from the attack were being “cleared”.

He said there was no evacuation in Toropets but announced a temporary closure of the federal M-9 highway, promising it will reopen soon. The attack also caused some disruption on passenger trains, with railway services saying a train going from Moscow to the western city of Pskov was sent on an alternative route, while another train was delayed.

Russia’s defense ministry earlier said it had downed 101 Ukrainian drones, mostly over the border Bryansk region and 18 over Krasnodar. Russia has recently announced shooting down Ukrainian drones almost daily.

The United States and Britain have not authorized Ukraine to use long-range missiles on targets inside Russia possibly fearing an “escalation”, President Volodymyr Zelensky said. Russian President Vladimir Putin has warned that firing long-range weapons into Russia would signify that NATO countries were at war with Moscow. “Neither America nor the United Kingdom gave us permission to use these weapons on the territory of Russia, on any targets, at any distance,” Zelensky told reporters late on Friday. “I think they are worried about an escalation (of hostilities),” he said. The weapons are supplied by Ukraine’s Western allies. Zelensky also said Ukraine’s allies had increased their military support to the Ukrainian army, which is struggling to stop the advance of Russian forces in the east of their country. “(Aid) accelerated in September. We are glad. We can feel the difference,” he said. Delays in the supply of weapons due to political divisions between allies left Ukrainian forces short of supplies early this year.

Kyiv is heavily dependent on this military support. Its army has fewer men and weapons than the Russian forces it has been fighting since Moscow launched a full-fledged invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.

Efforts to end the war have not yet proved successful. Zelensky dismissed a peace plan put forward in spring by China and Brazil as too nebulous. “I don’t think it was a concrete plan. I don’t see any specific action or stages in it, just generalized procedures,” he said on Friday evening. — AFP