Ukraine carried out one of its largest aerial assaults against Russia overnight on Saturday (August 15-16), with hundreds of drones targeting areas deep inside Russian territory. Russia’s Defence Ministry said Sunday that it had destroyed 822 drones, while Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin said in a Telegram post that at least 600 had been launched toward the capital.
The attack killed at least six people in Russia, according to Russian authorities. Moscow region Governor Andrei Vorobyov reported on Telegram that an 83-year-old man died after a drone crashed into a private home. Meanwhile, five others were killed in the Rostov region, according to Governor Yury Slyusar. Three additional deaths were reported in Belgorod, Kursk and Moscow, as well as three in Russian-controlled areas of Ukraine.
Vorobyov described the assault as one of the most massive in recent memory. In Podolsk, near Moscow, a drone struck a warehouse belonging to Wildberries, Russia’s largest online retailer. An employee told AFP that the site was evacuated after the attack and that many workers were left without jobs. According to Ukraine’s Defence Ministry, seven of Wildberries’ ten largest logistics hubs had already been taken out of operation.
Ukraine has repeatedly targeted Wildberries warehouses, claiming they function as military-linked logistics centres. The company and Moscow have denied the allegations.
The General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine has reported on Telegram that the recent strikes in Russia also included a factory producing rocket fuel. The attacks come after months of increasingly frequent Ukrainian strikes against Russian oil facilities, warehouses, ports and ships in the Black Sea.
Russia also carried out strikes across Ukraine. Drones and missiles killed two people and injured 14 at an ArcelorMittal steel plant in Kryvyi Rih, prompting the company to partially suspend operations. Further attacks killed people in Kryvyi Rih, Zaporizhzhia, Sumy and Donetsk.
President Volodymyr Zelensky said Ukraine had recorded more than 1,550 Russian attack drones, nearly 1,560 guided aerial bombs and 62 missiles during the previous week. He again called on Western allies to provide additional air-defence capabilities, including Patriot interceptors.
Source: commonspace.eu with Radio-Canada (Montréal), TIME (Washington DC), and agencies
