Ukrainian drones set ablaze Russian factory, infrastructure site overnight, authorities claim
Ukraine attacked six Russian regions with close to 80 drones overnight on March 13, with fires reported at an infrastructure site in Voronezh Oblast and an industrial plant in Kaluga Oblast, according to Russian authorities.
Kyiv has carried out regular long-range drone strikes against military and industrial facilities in Russia's rear, seeking to undermine its ability to wage its all-out war.
Russian air defenses downed 77 drones overnight, including 30 over Bryansk Oblast, 25 over Kaluga Oblast, six over Kursk and Voronezh oblasts each, and five over Rostov and Belgorod oblasts each, the Russian Defense Ministry claimed.
Drone wreckage set fire to a building of an industrial enterprise in Dzerzhinsky district in the northern part of Kaluga Oblast, Governor Vladislav Shapsha said. The fire has been extinguished, but one employee received a minor injury, the governor claimed.
Drone debris also reportedly damaged a cell tower and a power line in the Khvastovichsky district, the southernmost part of Kaluga Oblast.
Kaluga Oblast lies in the western part of Russia, bordering Moscow Oblast from the west.
An unspecified infrastructure facility was damaged in the evening of March 12 in Voronezh Oblast, a region bordering Ukraine's Luhansk Oblast, Governor Alexander Gusev said on his Telegram channel. No casualties were reported.
The targeted facility was part of the region's gas infrastructure, the Baza Telegram channel reported, citing residents.
A fallen drone also started a fire in the village of Kalininsky in Rostov Oblast, but the nearby industrial facility was not damaged, according to Governor Yuri Slyusar.
Airports in Penza, Saratov, and Volgograd imposed temporary flight restrictions overnight, Russia's Federal Air Transport Agency announced.
The full extent of possible damage is being determined. The Ukrainian military has not commented on the claims, which could not be independently verified.
The strikes come only two days after Ukraine launched what appears to be its largest drone strike against Russia, deploying over 330 drones across 10 different regions to attack oil facilities and other strategic sites.
Read also: Ukraine struggles to hold on in Kursk Oblast as Russia strikes back before peace talks
We've been working hard to bring you independent, locally-sourced news from Ukraine. Consider supporting the Kyiv Independent.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Los Angeles Times
28 minutes ago
- Los Angeles Times
Ukraine says Russia launched the biggest overnight drone bombardment of the war
KYIV, Ukraine — Russia launched almost 500 drones at Ukraine in the biggest overnight drone bombardment of the three-year war, the Ukrainian air force said Monday, as the Kremlin presses its summer offensive amid direct peace talks that have yet to deliver progress on stopping the fighting. As well as 479 drones, 20 missiles of various types were fired at different parts of Ukraine, according to the air force, which said the barrage targeted mainly central and western areas of Ukraine. Ukraine's air force said its air defenses destroyed 277 drones and 19 missiles in mid-flight on Sunday night, claiming that only 10 drones or missiles hit their target. Officials said one person was injured. It was not possible to independently verify the claims. A recent escalation in aerial attacks has coincided with a renewed Russian battlefield push on eastern and northeastern parts of the roughly 620-mile front line. Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky said late Sunday that in some of those areas 'the situation is very difficult.' He provided no details. Ukraine is short-handed on the front line against its bigger enemy and needs further military support from its Western partners, especially air defenses. But uncertainty about the U.S. policy on the war has fueled doubts about how much help Kyiv can count on. Ukraine has produced some stunning counter-punches, however. Its recent drone attack on distant Russian air bases was unprecedented in its scope and sophistication. The Ukrainian General Staff claimed Monday that special operations forces struck two Russian fighter jets stationed at the Savasleyka airfield in Russia's Nizhny Novgorod region located some 650 kilometers northeast from the Ukrainian border. The statement did not say how the planes were hit. There was no immediate comment on the claim from the Russian authorities. Some Russian war bloggers said there was no damage to the warplanes. Russian officials have said the recent intensified assaults are part of a series of retaliations for Ukraine's strike on air bases that were hosting nuclear-capable strategic bombers. A strike on a Ukrainian air base in Dubno, in the western Rivne region, was one such response, the Russian Defense Ministry said Monday. Two recent rounds of direct peace talks between Russian and Ukrainian delegations in Istanbul have yielded no significant breakthroughs beyond pledges to swap prisoners as well as thousands of their dead and seriously wounded troops. Russian President Vladimir Putin has indicated he will keep fighting until his conditions are met. The exchange of hundreds of soldiers and civilians has been a small sign of cooperation in otherwise failed efforts to agree on a ceasefire. More prisoners were swapped Monday in a staggered process taking place over coming days, Zelensky and the Russian Defense Ministry announced, though neither side said how many. Those swapped included wounded and seriously wounded soldiers, as well as those under 25, Zelensky said. 'The process is quite complicated, there are many sensitive details, negotiations continue virtually every day,' he added. But the two sides have disagreed over the transfer of soldiers killed in action. The Russian Defense Ministry alleged that Ukraine over the weekend failed to pick up the bodies of its fallen soldiers that Russia made available for collection. But Zelensky claimed that Moscow hadn't sent to Kyiv the names of more than 1,000 Ukrainians whose bodies are currently in Russian-controlled territories, as had been agreed. He accused Russian authorities of playing 'dirty' games. Even so, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Monday the swap is expected to go ahead, although he said there were no specific arrangements so far for the transfer. Ukraine's intelligence chief, Kyrylo Budanov, said the exchange of soldiers' bodies will begin this week. Russia has repeatedly targeted civilian areas of Ukraine with Shahed drones during the war, as happened on Sunday night. The attacks have killed more that 12,000 Ukrainian civilians, according to the United Nations. Russia says it only attacks military targets. Ukraine has developed long-range drones that continue to strike deep inside Russia. Russia's Ministry of Defense said Monday that it shot down 49 Ukrainian drones overnight over seven Russian regions. Two drones hit a plant specializing in electronic warfare equipment in the Chuvashia region, located more than 370 miles east of Moscow, local officials reported. Alexander Gusev, head of Russia's Voronezh region, said that 25 drones had been shot down there overnight, damaging a gas pipeline and sparking a small fire. Novikov writes for the Associated Press.
Washington Post
36 minutes ago
- Washington Post
Russia launches ‘largest ever' drone strike against Ukraine
KYIV — Russia unleashed its largest overnight drone attack in the war on Monday, launching cruise and ballistic missiles as well in a barrage that lasted through the night and struck locations across Ukraine, even as Kyiv and Moscow began a days-long prisoner exchange involving hundreds of soldiers. Russian forces launched 479 self-detonating drones, of which 460 were shot down or deflected through electronic interference, Ukraine's air force said in a statement on social media. Ukraine's western Rivne region went through 'a very difficult night' and 'suffered a powerful enemy airstrike,' Oleksandr Koval, head of the regional military administration, wrote on Telegram. One person was injured, he said. He did not provide further details. Monday's attack appeared to have caused less damage than one on Friday, which Kremlin officials said was in response to an audacious Ukrainian assault on air bases inside Russia earlier in the week. In Friday's bombardment, Russian drones and missiles hammered Kyiv and cities in western Ukraine, causing extensive damage and injuring dozens. Monday's strike took place as Moscow's forces claimed to be advancing toward Ukraine's southeastern Dnipropetrovsk region — an area of the country that has been heavily bombarded but so far has avoided ground fighting. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said the offensive was in part an attempt to create a 'buffer zone.' However, Andriy Kovalenko, head of the Ukrainian military's Center for Countering Disinformation, posted on Telegram that 'all information from the Russians, including Peskov's statements, about their offensive on the Dnipropetrovsk region is NOT true.' The Russian advance could represent a further intensification of Moscow's military pressure across the front line, which has now spread to Ukraine's northeastern Sumy region. In his regular evening address, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Sunday that in 'some areas' along the front line, 'the situation is very difficult.' Fighting is underway in the Donetsk, Sumy and Kharkiv regions, he added. On Monday, Zelensky announced on Telegram the beginning of a prisoner exchange that would 'continue in several stages in the coming days.' Zelensky said he could not divulge all details but that the first group included those who were seriously wounded and under the age of 25. 'The process is quite complicated, there are many sensitive details, negotiations continue virtually every day,' Zelensky wrote.
Yahoo
an hour ago
- Yahoo
Musk's father says Trump dispute triggered by intense stress, has to end
By Guy Faulconbridge MOSCOW (Reuters) -The dispute between Donald Trump and Elon Musk was triggered by months of intense stress on both sides, and the public battle between the U.S. president and the billionaire donor needs to stop, Musk's father told Reuters on Monday. Trump and Musk began exchanging insults last week on social media, with the Tesla and SpaceX CEO describing the president's sweeping tax and spending bill as a "disgusting abomination". Asked whether he thought his son had made a mistake by engaging in a public clash with the president, Errol Musk said people were sometimes unable to think as clearly as they should "in the heat of the moment." "They've had five months of intense stress," Musk told Reuters at a conference in Moscow organised by conservative Russian tycoons. "With all the opposition cleared and two people left in the arena, all they have ever done is get rid of everything and now they are trying to get rid of each other - well that has to stop." Asked how it would end, he said: "Oh, it will end on a good note - very soon." Neither the White House nor Musk could be reached for comment outside normal U.S. business hours. Trump said on Saturday his relationship with Musk was over and that there would be "serious consequences" if the world's richest man decided to fund U.S. Democrats running against Republicans who vote for the tax and spending bill. Musk bankrolled a large part of Trump's 2024 presidential campaign. Trump named Musk to head an effort to downsize the federal workforce and slash spending. Musk's father told reporters he was standing by his son. "Elon is sticking to his principles but you cannot always stick to your principles in the real world," Musk's father said. "Sometimes you have to give and take." Speaking beside sanctioned Russian businessman Konstantin Malofeyev, Musk's father praised President Vladimir Putin as a "very stable and pleasant man." He accused "fake media" in the West of projecting "complete nonsense" about Russia and for casting it as an enemy.
