The barrage appeared to be one of the largest recent assaults in Ukraine’s campaign to damage Russia’s war machine on its home territory.
Ukraine carried out “massive” drone strikes on several regions of Russia overnight, local officials there said on Tuesday, in what appeared to be one of the largest recent assaults in Kyiv’s campaign to cripple Russia’s war machine on its home turf.
The attacks, mostly in southwestern Russia, were the latest in a series that have demonstrated Ukraine’s ability to strike deep inside the country, even as Kyiv’s forces face setbacks on their own territory.
Blasts were reported in the border region of Bryansk, and drones also targeted regions well beyond it like Saratov and Tula in western Russia, officials in those areas said.
Russia’s Defense Ministry said on Tuesday that Ukraine had launched more than 140 drones, along with U.S.-made long-range missiles known as ATACMS and Storm Shadow missiles provided by Britain.
“These actions of the Kyiv regime, supported by Western curators, will not go unanswered,” the ministry said in a statement.
Ukraine’s military did not immediately comment on the strikes. But Ukraine’s Center for Strategic Communications and Information Security, a government agency, said seven regions of Russia had been attacked and that the targets included military production factories as well as oil and gas facilities.