A Ukrainian drone attack has destroyed a Russian ammunition depot near the village of Markine in the Russian-occupied Donetsk region, a source in the SBU state security service of Ukraine said.
The depot stored thousands of ammunition rounds for armoured personnel carriers and tanks, anti-tank guided missiles, mines and grenades, plus millions of rounds of ammunition for guns of various calibres, the source said.
According to the source, the attack also destroyed the nearby fuel storage facility.
As the full-scale war approaches its 34th month, Russia is inching forward in Ukraine’s east with the most intense fighting taking place on the Kurakhove and Pokrovsk fronts in the Donetsk region.
Ukraine relies on long-range drones to damage Russian strategic and military targets far beyond the front lines, including attacks on ammunition depots and oil facilities.
Ukraine has stepped up its use of drones this year to attack Russian oil facilities, which it deems legitimate military targets that are aiding Russian troops in their nearly 34-month-old invasion. Moscow calls the attacks “terrorist acts”.
A Ukrainian drone attack started a fire at an oil depot in the Kamensky district in Rostov region in southern Russia in late August. That attack had come just days after an attack on fuel storage tanks at another oil depot in Rostov’s Proletarsk district.
Rostec, a Russian state-owned corporation, stated earlier this year that it has successfully conducted trials of armoured plating for key infrastructure projects. The armour is specifically designed to protect against drone attacks, grenades and gunfire.
Rostec said each plate weighed 30 kilogrammes and that such plates could be fitted in oil and gas storage facilities, ammo depots, and energy infrastructure.
Russian companies have been working to devise ways of protecting infrastructure from such drone attacks and, in some cases, say they have deployed giant meshed metal nets to cover oil refineries. A Russian energy ministry official told a parliament meeting in March there were also plans to defend oil and gas facilities with missile systems.
Team Bharatshakti
(With inputs from Reuters)
