Moscow, July 26 (dpa/GNA) – Ukraine has once again attacked Russia with hundreds of drones, prompting Russian online retailer Wildberries to evacuate employees from a logistics centre in the city of Yekaterinburg.
Wildberries facilities have been targeted repeatedly in Ukrainian drone attacks recently. Unverified photos and videos circulating on social media on Saturday, appeared to show burning vehicles and employees being evacuated from the Yekaterinburg site.
The company confirmed that the logistics centre had been evacuated as a precaution, but said the facility was undamaged and operations were expected to resume shortly.
Denis Pasler, the governor of the Sverdlovsk region, stated on Telegram that a drone attack had been repelled. Falling drone debris reportedly sparked a fire. People were evacuated, but there were no injuries or damage to commercial facilities or infrastructure.
In the southern Rostov region, Governor Yuri Slyusar described a massive overnight air attack, saying Russian forces had intercepted drones and missiles. Slyusar reported that four men were injured in Rostov-on-Don and another person in the Krasny Sulin district. Residential buildings, warehouses and infrastructure were damaged, according to the governor.
Alexander Shuvaev, the acting governor of the Belgorod region, also spoke of a massive drone attack during the night. Writing on Telegram on Saturday, he said four people had been injured.
Russia’s Defence Ministry said its air defences intercepted 328 Ukrainian drones overnight. The figures could not be independently verified but indicate the scale of the latest Ukrainian counter-attacks. The occupying authorities in the Russian-occupied part of the southern Ukrainian region of Zaporizhzhya reported that at least 11 people, including four children, were killed in Ukrainian drone attacks overnight.
A further 16 people were injured, said Yevgeny Balitsky, the head of the administration appointed by Moscow. The attack was said to have struck a tourist facility in the village of Kyrylivka in the Melitopol district.
In Tyumen, in Western Siberia, a fire broke out on the site of an oil refinery, following a Ukrainian drone attack, according to Governor Aleksandr Moor.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, confirmed this attack on social media, as well as the attacks on the logistics facility in Yekaterinburg and a fuel and lubricants depot in Rostov-on-Don. He posted a compilation of videos showing fires and explosions.
Following a deadly Russian attack on an event on Friday featuring a planned arms exhibition in the Kiev region, the main organizer has been detained in Ukraine, according to official sources. He has been informed that he is suspected of negligence in office leading to the loss of life, Ukraine’s Prosecutor General Ruslan Kravchenko stated on Telegram.
Kravchenko said that Russia was behind the attack. However, circumstances that may have exacerbated the scale of the tragedy are currently being investigated. A Russian missile strike on the weapons exhibition west of Kiev on Friday had killed 10 people and injured around 100.
GNA