Russia launches missile to destroy weapons depot in Ukraine

Department of Defense Russia reported on May 1 that attacked an arms depot at a military airport near the Ukrainian port of Odessa in the Black Sea.

The Supersonic Oniks missile destroyed an aircraft hangar with “weapons and ammunition received from the United States and European countries”, RT quoted Russian Defense Ministry spokesman Major General Igor Konashenkov as saying at a press conference. daily. Mr. Konashenkov added that an airstrip was also destroyed.

The Russian Defense Ministry released a video of what it said was the missile launch. The exact date of the event is not known, but the Governor of the Odessa region, Maxim Marchenko, announced on April 30 that a Russian “Bastion missile, launched from Crimea” had destroyed the runway at a newly built Odessa airport. build.

Spokesman Konashenkov also said that the air strikes hit seven Ukrainian military targets, including two batteries of anti-aircraft missiles. S-300 near the cities of Zaporozhye and Artemovsk.

Last week, Russia announced it had destroyed a logistics center in Odessa where a shipment of foreign weapons was being stored. However, Ukraine insists that some Russian missiles hit residential buildings, killing civilians. Both Russia and Ukraine deny attacking civilian targets and accuse each other of war crimes.

In another development, the Governor of Russia’s Belgorod Region, Vyacheslav Gladkov, said that a fire broke out on May 1 at a Russian military site in Belgorod, bordering Ukraine.

“A fire broke out on the territory of one of the sites of the Russian Defense Ministry,” the governor wrote on social media. He added that officials were determining the damage and confirmed one civilian suffered minor injuries.

Photos and videos posted on social media showed a large plume of smoke in the area.

The governor said emergency services have been deployed to the site. The Russian Defense Ministry was not immediately available for comment.

Earlier, on April 27, a fire also broke out at an armory in the same area. Russia accuses Ukraine of cross-border shelling since it launched a military operation on February 24.

On April 1, Russian officials alleged that two Ukrainian helicopters launched missiles at an oil depot in Belgorod. Two weeks later, the village of Zhuravlevka was shelled and two people were wounded.

Ukraine has so far not claimed responsibility for the attacks on Russian soil.

Russia conducts military operation in Ukraine in late February, after accusing Kiev of failing to implement the terms of the Minsk agreement, first signed in 2014 and eventually Moscow’s recognition of the self-proclaimed Donbass republics of Donetsk and Lugansk. The Minsk agreement brokered by Germany and France was designed to give the breakaway regions special status in Ukraine.

The Kremlin has since demanded that Ukraine officially declare itself a neutral country and will never join the US-led NATO military bloc. Kiev insists the Russian attack is completely unprovoked and rejects claims it is planning to retake the two republics in the Donbass by force.