Ukraine hits Russian weapon depots, as Zelensky prepares to present victory plan
Kyiv’s strikes on caches of missiles and guided bombs prompted Russian authorities to call for evacuations and declare a local emergency
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Saturday said Kyiv had struck two weapons depots in southern and western Russia – including a key site for Moscow’s forces – with Russian authorities announcing some evacuations and declaring a local emergency situation.
Kyiv also said Russian attacks on Zelensky’s hometown of Kryvyi Rig had killed a 12-year-old boy and two women in their 70s. A 12-year-old girl and a woman in her 20s also died in a strike on the city of Nikopol.
The attacks came ahead of an coming trip by Zelensky to the United States, where he is due to present his “victory plan” on how to end the nearly 31-month-long war.
“We have another arsenal in Russia, and it was a significant arsenal for the enemy,” Zelensky said in a daily evening address.
“These were caches of Russian tactical missiles and guided bombs – everything that Russia uses to terrorise our cities and our positions,” he added.
Kyiv’s army said it had hit an arms depot near the city of Tikhoretsk in the southern Krasnodar region, calling it one of Moscow’s “three largest ammunition storage bases” important to the Russian logistics for its Ukraine invasion. It also said it struck an arsenal in the western Tver region.