Ukraine targets missile warehouse in Russia

A large-scale Ukrainian drone attack on Russia triggered an earthquake-sized blast at a major arsenal in the Tver region on Wednesday, forcing the evacuation of a nearby town, war bloggers and some media reported.

Unverified video and images on social media showed a huge ball of flame blasting high into the night sky and multiple detonations thundering across a lake about 380 km west of Moscow.

NASA satellites picked up intense heat sources emanating from an area of about 14 square kilometres at the site in the early hours and earthquake monitoring stations picked up what sensors thought was a small earthquake in the area.

“The enemy hit an ammunition depot in the area of Toropets,” said Yuri Podolyaka, a Ukrainian-born, pro-Russian military blogger. “Everything that can burn is already burning there (and exploding).” Russian state media have in the past reported that a major arsenal for conventional weapons was located at the site of the blasts.

A source in Ukraine’s SBU state security service told Reuters the drone attack had destroyed a warehouse storing missiles, guided bombs and artillery ammunition. There was no immediate comment from the Ukrainian government.