The depot supplied a nearby airfield that was reportedly used by aircraft which launch missiles across the border into Ukraine.
The Ukrainian military announced on Wednesday they struck a fuel storage depot in Engels, a city in Russia’s Saratov region, roughly 600 kilometres east of the Ukrainian border.
Ukraine’s General Staff said the overnight strike caused a blaze at a fuel depot that supplied an air base used by Russian planes that launch missiles across the border into Ukraine.
The strike “creates serious logistical problems for the strategic aviation of the Russian occupiers and significantly reduces their ability to strike at peaceful Ukrainian cities and civilian objects,” the Ukrainian military said in a statement on Telegram.
Russia acknowledged a major drone attack in the area, and said authorities set up an emergency command centre to fight the fire.
The governor of the Saratov region, Roman Busargin, said the falling drone debris sparked a fire and caused damage at an unspecified industrial site in Engels, which is home to many industrial plants. He added that nobody was hurt.
Russian authorities restricted flights early Wednesday at the airports of Saratov, Ulyanovsk, Kazan and Nizhnekamsk, in an apparent response to the Ukrainian attack.
Long-range weapons made in Ukraine
Late last year, Ukraine received permission to begin using US and British-supplied long-range missiles deeper into Russia. However, Ukraine has additionally been developing its domestically-produced arsenal of such weapons, as there is a restriction on the range the military can fire its Western-supplied drones and missiles.
In a post on social media platform X, advisor to President Zelenskyy Alexander Kamyshin said Ukraine used long range capabilities to strike the depot deep inside Russia. He used the hashtag #MadeInUkraine, indicating that the weapons were not supplied by the West.
In August last year, Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Kyiv had developed a weapon that could be shot at a range of 700 kilometres. Some of Ukraine’s drone attacks have hit targets more than 1,000 kilometres away.
