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The capture of Ukrainsk underscored Russia’s steady advances in the Donetsk region. Ukraine is trying to counter with strikes on Russian military infrastructure.
Sept. 18, 2024, 5:53 a.m. ET
Ukraine said on Wednesday that it had hit a big Russian ammunition depot with drones, with videos showing fireballs lighting up the night sky. The attack came just hours after the Russian military claimed to have captured the town of Ukrainsk as Moscow continues a slow but steady advance in eastern Ukraine.
The capture of Ukrainsk, confirmed by geolocated battlefield footage analyzed by independent groups, brings Russia one step closer to its long-held goal of seizing all of the eastern Donetsk region, which it already partly controls. Ukrainsk, once home to 10,000 residents, lies on the path to the city of Kurakhove, a defensive stronghold.
The capture of Ukrainsk and the Ukrainian drone strikes, which hit in the northwestern Russian town of Toropets, highlighted one of the main dynamics of the war in recent months: Russian forces are gaining ground in Ukraine, and Kyiv is trying to disrupt that progress by hitting military bases and warehouses that are key to Russia’s operations.
Igor Rudenya, governor of the western Russian region of Tver, which includes Toropets, said in a statement that the town had been targeted by a “massive drone attack” but did not mention the ammunition depot. He said that wreckage from a destroyed Ukrainian drone had sparked a fire. He did not say what was burning, but the damage was significant enough that he ordered a partial evacuation of Toropets’s residents.
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An official from the Ukrainian Security Services said that drones had hit a “large warehouse” in Toropets containing weapons such as Iskander missiles and guided bombs known as KABs. The claim could not be independently verified.
