AP — Ukrainian long-range drones hit a warehouse of Russia´s biggest online retailer in the Ural Mountains, more than 2,000 kilometers (1,200 miles) from the two countries´ border, local officials and the company said Friday.
Ukraine has regularly hit targets in the distant Urals this year and has even struck a Russian oil refinery in western Siberia, nearly 2,500 kilometers (1,550 miles) from the border. The attacks are examples of how Kyiv has used drone innovation as a key part of its response to the invasion by its much bigger enemy more than four years ago.
Its successes have drawn international interest and drone cooperation agreements with nine countries, with further deals being negotiated with 15 other countries, according to Kyiv officials.
Wildberries said its warehouse in Yekaterinburg, Russia´s fourth-largest city, was set ablaze by the attack. Most merchandise wasn´t damaged, the company said, unlike at some of the more than a dozen other Wildberries depots struck by Ukraine in recent weeks that have burned down.
The regional governor, Denis Pasler, said three drones hit the warehouse´s roof. Artyom Zhoga, the Kremlin´s representative in the region, said that 800 people were evacuated from the warehouse and nobody was hurt.
Kyiv is trying to rattle the Russian public and the Kremlin with the attacks.
Russian President Vladimir Putin chaired a meeting Friday of the country´s Security Council. He said in televised opening remarks that the meeting would focus on additional measures to “strengthen … protection of infrastructure facilities” but gave no further details.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is pushing for his country to keep up the pace of technological development, especially in air defense systems to help stop Russian ballistic missiles that are exploiting Ukraine´s shortage of American-made Patriot interceptor missiles and battering civilian areas.
A joint European anti-ballistic development program is already underway, Zelenskyy said late Thursday, with 10 countries engaged in developing an anti-ballistic shield. Europe is concerned about Moscow´s ambitions on the continent beyond Ukraine.
“Ukraine is capable of producing its (anti-ballistic) missile and launcher, while our partners will provide the necessary components and critical elements – radars, sensors, and everything else required,” Zelenskyy said on social media. “An anti-ballistic program of our own – one that is truly large-scale – will greatly benefit everyone in Europe.”
At the same time, Ukraine is working on manufacturing its own ballistic missiles to use against Russia. “The tests have shown strong potential. We need to turn this into a real weapon,” Zelenskyy said.
Ukrainian front-line defenses in eastern regions, meanwhile, remain under strain as Russia´s bigger army looks for a breakthrough after months of minimal advances that Western analysts and officials say have had a high cost for Moscow in troop casualties.
Ukraine has been evacuating children from Kramatorsk, one of the four eastern Donetsk region cities that make up the Ukrainian so-called Fortress Belt. The line of four large and heavily defended cities, about 50 kilometers (30 miles) long, has been key to denying Moscow its goal of seizing Ukraine’s industrial heartland.
The head of the Donetsk region´s regional military administration, Vadym Filashkin, said Friday that more than 800 people, including 91 children, were evacuated over the previous 24 hours.
Ukraine has been deploying midrange strike drones to disrupt Russia´s supply lines and slow its advance.
Zelenskyy said that the recently appointed commander-in-chief of the Ukrainian armed forces, Maj. Gen. Mykhailo Drapatyi, reported to him Friday about the military situation in Donetsk.
He said in a social media post that they reached “an understanding of how to strengthen” Ukraine´s defenses there but gave no details.
Russia´s air defenses downed 203 Ukrainian drones from late Thursday through early Friday, the Defense Ministry in Moscow said.
Over the past week, the Russian military struck 31 bulk cargo vessels and three tugboats that operated “in the interests of the Ukrainian armed forces,” it said.
It added that late Thursday two ships were hit by Geran-4 drones in the Black Sea east and southeast of Odesa and one was struck in the Ukrainian port of Chornomorsk.
In other attacks, the ministry said that the military hit a facility assembling long-range drones in Okhtyrka in the Sumy region on Thursday. It also released a video of a train purportedly carrying military equipment struck by a Geran drone and then an Iskander ballistic missile near Vyshneve in the Dnipropetrovsk region.
Meanwhile, Russia attacked Ukraine with 147 long-range strike drones overnight, according to the Ukrainian air force.
In Ukraine´s northern Sumy region, a Russian drone struck a busy market Friday morning, wounding 10 people, authorities said.
Russia also launched glide bombs and drones of various types at the regional capital, according to the head of regional administration, Oleh Hryhorov.
The attack targeted residential buildings, transport and infrastructure, wounding two people, he said.