Russia: Eight killed in Ukrainian attack on two logistics centers

A Ukrainian drone attack on two logistics centers killed at least eight people in Russia, and a fire at an oil depot in the Moscow region led to the evacuation of a maternity ward, local authorities said Saturday.

"Seven night employees were killed when enemy drones struck a logistics center of Wildberries," the Russian e-commerce giant, Governor Evgeny Pervyshov wrote on Telegram, adding that the attack, which occurred in Kotovsk (west), also injured 24 people.

Another Wildeberries warehouse located in Elektrostal, in the Moscow region, was hit by a drone crash, according to Governor Andrei Vorobiov, who added that one person died and 37 people were injured.

A fire also broke out "in an oil depot in Noginsk", he added, specifying that two people had been injured and that a nearby maternity hospital had been evacuated "for safety reasons".

An AFP journalist observed thick black smoke rising into the sky above the town on Saturday morning, and several fire trucks heading there from Moscow.

The region was targeted by more than 370 drones overnight, said Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin. "Most were shot down by air defenses while they were still far away. Sixty-four enemy drones were destroyed as they approached Moscow," he wrote on Telegram.

Ukraine is increasingly striking Russian cities far from the border in retaliation for daily strikes by Moscow as part of its offensive launched in February 2022.

"Two major logistics facilities were hit - in the Moscow and Tambov regions, more than 500 and almost 700 km from the front line," Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenky told X, claiming that these centers were used "to supply sanctioned components for the production of drones and navigation equipment."

In Ukraine, Russian airstrikes left one person dead and three injured.

In the Black Sea, a boat flying the flag of Antigua and Barbuda was hit: one person died and three were injured, according to the governor of the Odessa region, Oleg Kiper.

According to the Ministries of the Interior and Transport, as well as local authorities, a family of five in the Chernihiv region (northeast), four people on a boat flying the Marshall Islands flag and a man in Kherson (south) were also injured.