Death toll rises to 38 from Russia's deadliest attack on Ukraine this year
The death toll from a Russian strike on a warehouse west of Kyiv, the war's deadliest attack so far this year, rose to 38 with four people still missing, President Zelenskyy said on social media Sunday.
The strike on Friday night on the warehouse -- an ammunition storage facility according to Ukrainian officials -- sparked massive explosions and fires that swept through dozens of nearby homes and buildings.
Emergency workers continued to extinguish fires and identify and neutralise explosive devices at the site in the village of Myla, Zelenskyy added. He said twenty people were injured, including two children.
Meanwhile, Russia's Defence Ministry said on Sunday it is preparing to launch “massive strikes” against Ukraine's energy infrastructure, following a Ukrainian drone campaign against a retailer dubbed “Russia's Amazon” as well as the country's oil and gas sector, which Kyiv says both funds and directly fuels Moscow's invasion of Ukraine.
The Russian ministry described the planned attacks as a response to Kyiv's “ongoing attacks on Russia's civilian infrastructure and fuel and energy sector.”
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov on Sunday vowed “an appropriate response” to what he said was Ukraine's “path of escalation” and targeting of Russia's civilian economy.
Peskov told Russian state media that Moscow has been launching “fairly systematic” strikes on what he called Kyiv's military and war-related infrastructure.
Ukraine launched deadly strikes in recent months on the facilities of Russia's biggest online retailer, Wildberries, saying the company sells dual-use goods that have aided the Kremlin's war effort. Ukrainian drones have also pounded Russian oil refineries and other energy infrastructure, prompting an unprecedented fuel crisis in a country that is one of the world's biggest energy producers.
During the war's previous winters, Russia systematically battered Ukraine's power grid, depriving thousands of heat and light in freezing temperatures. Ukrainian officials have repeatedly warned that the coming winter may prove the most challenging since Russia launched its full-scale invasion in February 2022.
Also on Sunday, Russia's Defence Ministry said its forces downed or neutralised almost 500 Ukrainian drones launched overnight.
Independent news channels on Russian and Ukrainian Telegram claimed the drone strikes set fire to a major oil refinery in Kirishi, southeast of St Petersburg. The facility, Kirishi Petroleum Organic Synthesis, is one of Russia's largest oil refineries and the only one in the country's northwest.
There was no immediate confirmation from authorities, but local Gov. Alexander Drozdenko on Sunday reported that a fire broke out “at Kirishi's industrial zone” following the drone strikes. He said a total of 62 drones had been shot down over the surrounding region.
Separately, at least 3 people were injured in a Russian drone strike on Kyiv late Saturday, as air raid alerts continued throughout the day.
A fire broke out between the second and fifth floor of a 12-story residential building in the Obolonskyi district, and rescue workers responded to fires in another three districts of the capital, state emergency services said Sunday. Non-residential and administrative buildings in two locations were affected, they said.
Russia on Sunday said its drones struck a Kyiv plant making asbestos and cement products, claiming the site's warehouses were being used to store explosives.
(Sourced through PTI)
