Ukraine Attacks Russian City Located 460 Kms Beyond the Border Line
Fire at an arsenal in Toporets, Russia, Sept. 17, 2024. X/ @ArturRehi
September 18, 2024 Hour: 1:52 pm
Tver region authorities ordered the evacuation of part of the population of Toporets, a city of 11,400 residents.
In the early hours of Wednesday, Ukrainian drones carried out a massive attack that hit a storage facility for missiles, ammunition, and aerial bombs in the city of Toporets, in the Tver region.
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The attack was a joint operation by the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU), Kyiv’s military intelligence, and the Army’s special forces, targeting an ammunition depot that housed Iskander and Tochka-U missiles, as well as aerial bombs and artillery ammunition.
According to the Russian Telegram channel Astra, the storage facility in question, located in the city of Toporets in the Tver region, was hit by six Ukrainian kamikaze drones around 3:30 a.m. local time. The Ukrainian portal Militarni revealed that the attacked unit is the 541690 of the Russian Main Missile and Artillery Directorate (GRAU), providing the coordinates of the targeted depot.
Meanwhile, the Russian Defense Ministry reported that its forces shot down 54 Ukrainian drones, 27 of them over the Kursk region, which has been occupied by Ukrainian troops since August 6.
Partial Evacuation of Toporets
Authorities in the Tver region ordered the evacuation of part of the population of Toporets, a city of 11,400 residents that had already been targeted by Ukrainian attacks on two previous occasions.
Access to the city was reopened on Wednesday afternoon when the evacuees were allowed to return to their homes, said Tver Governor Igor Rudenia, who confirmed that the attack caused no fatalities or serious injuries.
Ukraine has made attacks on military airfields and storage facilities for missiles and aerial bombs one of its main priorities in recent months of the war, with the aim of reducing Russia’s air superiority. Kyiv has repeatedly asked its key allies to enhance the effectiveness of its attacks by supplying long-range missiles.
Peskov Warns NATO
So far, none of the countries capable of transferring long-range missiles to Ukraine have given the green light to Kyiv’s request. However, Jens Stoltenberg, the secretary of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), views such a request favorably.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov criticized Stoltenberg for “not taking seriously” the warnings made by Russian President Vladimir Putin, who stated that a Ukrainian long-range missile attack on Russian territory would be interpreted by Moscow as NATO entering the war against Russia.
“It’s clear that soon he will no longer bear responsibility for these words, but this is an extremely provocative and dangerous stance,” Peskov said, referring to Stoltenberg, whose term as NATO Secretary General will end soon.
teleSUR/ JF Source: EFE
