Ukraine uses domestic missiles to hit Russia: Zelenskiy

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Russian authorities say Ukrainian drone attacks were regsitered over 14 Russian regions and Crimea.
Russian authorities say Ukrainian drone attacks were regsitered over 14 Russian regions and Crimea.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy says recent attacks by Ukraine’s military on Russian infrastructure include domestically produced missiles.

“It’s important to understand that in recent days Ukraine has been using exclusively Ukrainian products (and) not just drones,” he said at a briefing in Kyiv, when asked whether Ukraine has fired its new long-range Flamingo missile against Russian targets.

“And judging by the strikes, I think it’s clear to people where drones were used and where drones were not used.”

Zelenskiy added that the supply of US-produced weapons to Ukraine has not been affected by the ongoing United States government shutdown.

The Ukrainian military said on Monday that its long-range drones hit a major Russian ammunition plant, a key oil terminal and an important weapons depot behind the front line.

The Ukrainian General Staff said it struck the Sverdlov ammunition plant in the Nizhny Novgorod region of western Russia overnight, causing multiple explosions and a fire. 

It said the plant supplies Russian forces with aviation and artillery ordnance, aviation bombs as well as anti-aircraft and anti-tank munitions.

Ukrainian drones also hit an oil terminal in Crimea, starting a blaze, and an ammunition depot of Russia’s 18th Combined Arms Army, the General Staff said.

Russian authorities acknowledged a major Ukrainian drone attack over 14 Russian regions as well as the annexed Ukrainian peninsula of Crimea and around the Black Sea and the Sea of Azov.

But they gave few details beyond claiming that air defences shot down 251 Ukrainian drones – making it one of the biggest Ukrainian barrages of Russian territory since the war began more than three years ago.

Gleb Nikitin, the governor of the Nizhny Novgorod region, said that air defences fended off an attack by 20 Ukrainian drones on a local industrial zone that includes the ammo plant and that no facilities were damaged.

Ukraine’s long-range attacks on refineries and other oil facilities contributed to Russian fuel shortages at the pump in August.

with AP

Reuters