Ukraine war briefing: Wildberries warehouse struck by Kyiv’s drones more than 2,000km from Russian border
Ukrainian long-range drones hit a warehouse beloning to Russia’s biggest online retailer in the Ural Mountains, more than 2,000km (1,200 miles) from the two countries’
Ukrainian long-range drones hit a warehouse beloning to Russia’s biggest online retailer in the Ural Mountains, more than 2,000km (1,200 miles) from the two countries’ border, local officials and the company said on Friday. Wildberries said its warehouse in Ekaterinburg, Russia’s fourth-largest city, was set ablaze in the attack. Most merchandise was not damaged, the company said. More than a dozen other Wildberries depots struck by Ukraine in recent weeks have burned down. The regional governor, Denis Pasler, said three drones hit the warehouse’s roof. The Kremlin’s representative in the region, Artyom Zhoga, said 800 people were evacuated from the warehouse and nobody was hurt. Vladimir Putin chaired a meeting of Russia’s security council on Friday and said in televised opening remarks that the meeting would focus on additional measures to “strengthen … protection of infrastructure facilities” but gave no further details. Volodymyr Zelenskyy thanked the US Senate on Friday for passing a bill backing sweeping energy sanctions on Russia, saying it helped increase pressure on Moscow.
The European Commission president, Ursula von der Leyen, also welcomed the vote, saying it came on the back on the EU’s 21st sanctions package against Russia and showed that with complementary sanctions “Europe and the United States can once again show what historic partners can achieve when we act together”. The US bill, intending to punish Russia and countries that buy its petroleum exports, advances a long-delayed measure backed by the late senator Lindsey Graham. Russian strikes killed three people – including a child – and wounded three in a district north-east of Ukraine’s capital, a regional military official said on Saturday. “As of now, the consequences of the enemy attack have been recorded at three locations in Brovary district,” Kyiv’s regional military administration chief, Tymur Tkachenko, said on Telegram. On Friday Russian strikes on Ukraine’s south-eastern Dnipropetrovsk region killed two people and injured six, regional governor Oleksandr Hanzha said, amid nearly 50 attacks.
Two people were killed near the town of Nikopol on the western bank of the Dnipro River, opposite the Russian-held Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant. Russia’s defence ministry said its forces struck two more cargo vessels in the Black Sea being used in the Ukrainian military’s interests. In Russian-occupied Crimea, two people were killed after a Ukrainian drone struck an apartment building in Kerch on Friday, said the peninsula’s Russia-installed governor, Sergei Aksyonov. Zelenskyy on Friday began his first official visit to Serbia to discuss security with a European country still closely allied with Moscow. Welcomed at Belgrade airport on Friday by the energy minister, the Ukrainian president had dinner with his Serbian counterpart, Aleksandar Vučić. Zelenskyy said on X “We will discuss expanding economic ties between our countries, relations with the European Union, other areas that can benefit our nations, and security issues.” Vučić and Zelenskyy are to hold official talks on Saturday at the presidential palace and make a statement to the press, according to the Serbian presidency.
The BriefWire