Daijiworld Media Network – Moscow

Moscow, Jul 19: Ukrainian drone strikes targeted warehouses, an oil depot and other strategic facilities across Russia overnight and on Saturday, killing nine people and injuring more than 80, according to Russian officials.

The attacks form part of Kyiv's continuing campaign against Russian energy infrastructure and military-linked targets aimed at disrupting Moscow's war effort and bringing the impact of the conflict to Russian territory as the war enters its fifth year.

Two warehouses belonging to Russia's leading online retailer Wildberries were hit during the overnight attacks. One was located in Kotovsk in the Tambov region, around 360 km from the Ukrainian border, while the other was in Elektrostal, about 50 km east of Moscow.

A Ukrainian drone also struck an oil depot in Noginsk, north of Elektrostal, triggering a fire and forcing the evacuation of a nearby maternity hospital and a residential building, Moscow region Governor Andrei Vorobyov said. Drone debris also hit a kindergarten building, causing a fire that was later extinguished.

Tambov region Governor Yevgeny Pervyshov said seven night-shift workers were killed and 25 others injured in the warehouse strike in Kotovsk.

In the Moscow region, Vorobyov said 61 people were injured. Of them, 20 received outpatient treatment while 40 were hospitalised. One person later died from injuries sustained in the attack.

Another person was killed and one more injured in a separate Ukrainian drone strike on Russia's Belgorod region on Saturday afternoon, local authorities said.

Wildberries founder Tatyana Kim confirmed that both warehouses caught fire, adding that the blaze at the Kotovsk facility had been extinguished. Images shared by Russian media showed large flames and thick smoke rising from the Elektrostal warehouse.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said the long-range strikes hit two "significant logistical facilities" in the Moscow and Tambov regions.

"These facilities were used by the aggressor to supply sanctioned components for the production of drones and navigation equipment," Zelenskyy said on Telegram, adding that an oil facility had also been struck.

In the city of Vladimir, about 180 km east of Moscow, a Ukrainian drone hit a residential building, causing a brief fire, Governor Alexander Avdeyev said. No casualties were reported.

Zelenskyy also said Ukrainian special operations forces carried out strikes against targets in the Sea of Azov and in Russian-occupied territories.

Ukraine's General Staff said the Noginsk fuel depot supplied the Russian armed forces. It also claimed responsibility for striking two tankers, two floating cranes and a tugboat in the Black Sea and the Sea of Azov, alleging the vessels were being used to transport oil, fuel and military cargo.

The military further claimed it hit a Project 10410 Svetlyak-class patrol ship in Kerch, describing it as the second vessel of that class targeted in two days, along with a railway bridge over the Bila River near Sabivka in the occupied Luhansk region, which it said Russia uses for military logistics.

Russia's Defence Ministry said its air defence systems intercepted 379 Ukrainian drones overnight across 19 Russian regions, as well as over the annexed Crimea, the Sea of Azov and the Black Sea.