KYIV (Reuters) -Ukraine’s military said on Monday it had struck one of Russia’s main factories producing explosives for a wide variety of ammunition for Russia’s army as well as an oil terminal in occupied Crimea fueling Moscow’s war effort.
Ukraine’s forces have stepped up long-range attacks on strategic Russian targets, particularly oil facilities, as diplomatic efforts to end the more than 3-1/2-year-old war have stalled.
In a statement, Ukraine’s General Staff said “numerous explosions” were reported after the strike on the Y. M. Sverdlov explosives factory in western Russia, while a fire had broken out following the attack on the oil depot in eastern Crimea’s Feodosia.
Regional governor Gleb Nikitin said air defence forces had repelled an overnight attack by 20 drones near Dzerzhinsk, where the factory is located. He said one person was injured by falling debris.
Nikitin said there was some fire damage to residential homes but “no damage was caused to industrial facilities”.
In a chat room on the social media platform VK, some residents reported hearing loud explosions in the night.
Sverdlov Plant is Russia’s only significant maker of the high explosives RDX and HMX, according to a Ukrainian intelligence official and the Council of the European Union, which sanctioned the company in 2023 for its role in the Ukraine war.
Dzerzhinsk, about 360 km east of Moscow, has been targeted by Ukraine before.
The Ukrainian General Staff statement added that Ukrainian forces had also struck an ammunition depot in occupied Crimea.
(Reporting by Yuliia Dysa; Writing by Dan Peleschuk; Editing by Gareth Jones and Hugh Lawson)
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