The Ukrainian military hit a major Russian ammunition plant, oil terminal and weapons depot on Monday using long-range drones, officials said.
Kyiv scored another blow against Moscow’s war machine overnight as its UAVs struck the Sverdlov ammunition plant in Russia’s Nizhny Novgorod region, the Ukrainian General Staff said.
The strike caused multiple explosions and a fire to break out at the plant, which allegedly supplies Russian forces with aviation and artillery ordnance, aviation bombs, and anti-aircraft and anti-tank munitions, Kyiv added.
Rescuers working at the site of a house destroyed during a Russian drone and missile strike in Lapaivka, Ukraine. REUTERSAlong with the strike on Sverdlov, Ukrainian drones also hit a key oil terminal in Crimea, causing a blaze in yet another assault against Moscow’s refineries.
The oil plants have been a key target in the latest year of the war, with Ukraine hitting more than 18 major refineries in recent months.
The assaults have resulted in fuel shortages across Russia since August, leading to headaches at the pump for consumers.
Oil terminal with large storage tanks and a cargo ship, with the Lakhta skyscraper in the background. AFP via Getty ImagesThe Ukrainian drones were also deployed overnight against a weapons cache in Crimea used by Russia’s 18th Combined Arms Army, the General Staff said.
Russian officials confirmed that Ukraine launched a wide-scale drone assault overnight, with the UAVs spotted over 14 regions.
A Russian sniper aiming a rifle with a large scope. APWhile Moscow offered few details on the extent of the damage, the Kremlin said at least 251 drones were intercepted, marking one of the largest assaults against Russia of the war.
Gleb Nikitin, the governor of the Nizhny Novgorod region, said at least 20 Ukrainian drones were intercepted during the attack on the Sverdolv ammo plant, claiming no facilities were damaged in the assault.
The overnight assault demonstrated Ukraine’s capability to swiftly develop its defense manufacturing capacity, with the country discussing a technology and production deal with the US.
Rescuers remove rubble from a house destroyed by a Russian combined attack in Lapaivka, Lviv region, Ukraine. Anastasiia Smolienko/Ukrinform/INSTARimages“Already at the front, more than 40% of the weapons used are weapons produced in Ukraine or with Ukraine,” President Volodymyr Zelensky told a defense industry forum in Kyiv on Monday.
By the end of the year, the Ukrainian president said those figures would be bumped to at least 50%.
Smoke rising from an industrial park in Lviv, Ukraine, after a Russian attack. Anastasiia Smolienko/Ukrinform/INSTARimagesUkraine produced and delivered some 2.4 million shells to the front lines in the last year alone, Zelensky added.
The mass production has led to a boom in Ukraine’s defense industry, which is allegedly already prepared to export surplus weapons production by the end of the year, Zelensky claimed.
He suggested that the revenue for selling the surplus could help Ukraine buy sophisticated weapons his country can’t make itself, such as the American-made Patriot air defense systems.
Kyiv said it has already penned agreements to start exports to Europe, the United States and the Middle East, and purchases could begin by the end of this year.
With Post wires
