Vladimir Putin has been thrown into chaos after an oil depot and a Russian-controlled train was hit by huge blasts today in a “sabotage attack’. Ukrainian forces have confirmed they struck the train carrying ammunition at an oil facility in occupied Donetsk.
The base burst into flames after intense shelling, Express.co.uk understands.
The oil was intended for use by Russian troops, a military Telegram channel claimed.
In total there are believed to be four large oil tanks at the facility in the Budennovsky district.
The Telegram channel said: “It is difficult to assess the damage to the oil depot, but extensive fire indicates damage to the reservoir or underground storage.”
In a separate incident, partisans were reported to have destroyed a train being used to carry fuel and ammunition from annexed Crimea to Melitopol and Dniprorudne, both in the Zaporizhzhia region.
The Ukrainian centre of national resistance said: “On its return journey, this train was used to convey ore, grain and damaged equipment from the temporarily occupied territories. As a result of the controlled explosion, the railway and a locomotive with wagons were damaged.
“The explosion itself happened at 8am…the occupiers have surrounded the place of the explosion and are searching the surrounding area. Thanks to the heroes of the underground, the train finally completed its movement.”
Russia and Ukraine each reported dozens of attempted drone attacks in the past day, just hours after Hungary vetoed £42.5billion in European Union funding to Ukraine.
Ukraine’s air force said today that Ukrainian air defense had shot down 30 out of 31 drones launched overnight against 11 regions of the country. Russia also said Friday evening that it had thwarted a series of Ukrainian drone attacks.
Russian anti-aircraft units destroyed 32 Ukrainian drones over the Crimean Peninsula, the Russian Defense Ministry said on Telegram. Russia annexed Crimea from Ukraine in 2014, a move that most of the world considered illegal, and has used it as a staging and supply point during the war.
Earlier, Russia’s Defence Ministry said that six drones had been shot down in the Kursk region, which borders Ukraine In Ukraine’s partially occupied southern Kherson region, the Russia-installed governor, Vladimir Saldo, reported on Telegram that Russian anti-aircraft units had downed at least 15 aerial targets near the town of Henichesk.
Saldo said later Saturday that a Ukrainian missile attack on a village in the Russia-held part of the region had killed two people. Meanwhile, shelling wounded two people in Ukrainian-held parts of the Kherson region, regional Governor Oleksandr Prokudin said Saturday.
Stepped-up drone attacks over the past month come as both sides are keen to show they aren’t deadlocked as the war approaches the two-year mark. Neither side has gained much ground despite a Ukrainian counteroffensive that began in June, and analysts predict the war will be a long one.
On Friday, EU leaders sought to paper over their inability to boost Ukraine’s coffers with a promised 50 billion euros ($54.5 billion) over the next four years, saying the funds will likely arrive next month after some more haggling between the bloc’s other 26 leaders and the longtime holdout, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban.
Instead, they wanted Ukraine to revel in getting the nod to start membership talks that could mark a sea change in its fortunes — although the process could last well over a decade and be strewn with obstacles placed by any single member state.
Also today, Russia returned three Ukrainian children to their families as part of a deal brokered by Qatar, according to the head of Ukraine’s presidential office, Andriy Yermak, and Ukrainian human rights ombudsman Dmytro Lubinets.
Lubinets voiced hope last week that a coalition of countries formed to facilitate the return of Ukrainian children illegally deported by Russia – the National Coalition of Countries for the Return of Ukrainian Children — will be able to come up with a faster mechanism to repatriate them. More than 19,000 children are still believed to be in Russia or in occupied regions of Ukraine.
