Moscow/Kiev, March 25, (dpa/GNA) – Ukraine launched hundreds of drones on targets in Russia overnight, the Defence Ministry in Moscow said on Wednesday, in what was described as the heaviest Ukrainian drone assault since the war began.
A total of 398 long-distance drones were intercepted over different Russian regions, the ministry said.
The attacks come a day after Russia launched two major assaults on Ukraine, with missiles as well as a record number of nearly 950 combat drones causing death and destruction.
The latest Ukrainian attacks on Russia are the most severe ever recorded since the start of the war in February 2022, according to Russian state news agency TASS.
Russian officials on Wednesday confirmed that fires have broken out in the port of Ust-Luga, a key site for oil and gas exports on the Baltic Sea, some 100 kilometres from St Petersburg. No one was injured, it said.
The Ukrainian General Staff confirmed attacks on a liquefied natural gas terminal in Ust-Luga.
Buildings were also damaged on the Baltic island of Kotlin, home to a key navy base of Russia’s Baltic fleet.
A port in the city of Vyborg, located near the Finnish border, also came under attack and an icebreaker belonging to the Russian Border Guard Service was reportedly damaged.
Ukrainian shelling caused power cuts affecting around 450,000 people in and around the Russian city of Belgorod, close to the border with Ukraine, according to a statement by Governor Vyacheslav Gladkov on Telegram.
Meanwhile, Russia continued to attack Ukraine overnight, killing a woman in Odessa.
Power was disrupted for some 150,000 households in and around the northern city of Chernihiv.
On Tuesday, the Russian army had fired not only missiles but also a record number of almost 950 combat drones at Ukraine.
As Ukraine seeks to bring the war to Moscow’s territory, Kiev tends to target Russian oil and gas facilities as these are helping the Kremlin to fund the conflict. Such attacks rarely harm civilians.
But Russian airstrikes in Ukraine often hit residential buildings, killing or injuring civilians.
GNA