kyiv, Ukraine (AP) — A village in Russia’s western border region was evacuated Sunday following a series of explosions after debris from a downed Ukrainian drone set a nearby warehouse ablaze, local officials said.
Images posted on social media appear to show clouds of black smoke rising in the Voronezh region as loud explosions are heard in succession.
Governor Aleksandr Gusev said the falling debris triggered the “detonation of explosive objects.” No casualties were reported, but residents of a nearby village in Podgorensky District were evacuated, he added. Roads were also closed and emergency services, the military and government officials were working at the scene.
The Russian Defense Ministry did not mention the strike during its morning briefing, but said air defense systems destroyed a Ukrainian drone over the Belgorod region.
Authorities in Russia’s Krasnodar province said Saturday that a fire at an oil depot was also caused by falling drone debris. Russian emergency services said the fire had been extinguished by Sunday morning.
The strikes come after a Ukrainian military spokesman told The Associated Press on Thursday that kyiv troops withdrew from one district on the outskirts of Chasiv Yar, a strategically important town in Ukraine’s Donetsk region, which was reduced to rubble under a month-long Russian assault.
Russian forces Russian forces have been trying for months to gain ground in Ukraine’s industrial east, in an apparent attempt to lock their defenders into a war of attrition. In a joint investigation published Friday, independent Russian media outlets Meduza and Mediazona reported that Moscow’s forces were losing between 200 and 250 soldiers every day in Ukraine.
Military analysts believe that the fall of Chasiv Yar could also compromise crucial Ukrainian supply routes and endanger nearby towns, bringing Russia closer to its stated goal of seizing the entire Donetsk region.
Russia launched two ballistic missiles and 13 Shahed drones overnight Sunday into Monday, Ukrainian air force officials said. All were shot down, but officials did not specify the impact of the missiles.
Elsewhere in Ukraine, 14 people died after a bus collided with a truck, leaving only one survivor, Interior Minister Ihor Klymenko said Saturday night. Among the victims was a six-year-old child.
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