Ukraine on Saturday said its forces carried out a series of long-range strikes on military and energy infrastructure inside Russia, while Moscow reported launching retaliatory attacks on Ukrainian military facilities and intercepting hundreds of drones.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Telegram that the range of Kyiv’s strikes are becoming longer-range, citing as an example a successful attack on an oil industry facility in the city of Armavir in Russia’s Krasnodar region, some 500 kilometers (311 miles) from the Ukrainian border.
Describing the attacks as part of Ukraine’s “long-range sanctions” campaign, Zelensky said Kyiv is seeking to “return the war to where it came from” and praised the Security Service of Ukraine for organizing the attack.
In a separate statement on Telegram, Ukraine’s General Staff said overnight strikes hit the Kurgannefteprodukt oil terminal in the coastal city of Taganrog, damaging a fuel storage tank.
The military also claimed strikes on two Tu-142 aircraft and a launcher of the Iskander-M tactical missile system in the Taganrog area.
The Taganrog city administration confirmed a drone attack without specifying which facilities were damaged. At the same time, it announced a decision to expand the boundaries of the state of emergency that were introduced in the municipality on May 27 following a missile strike.
For its part, Russia’s Defense Ministry said on Telegram that its forces carried out a group strike using long-range precision weapons and drones against Ukrainian military airfields and energy, fuel, and transport infrastructure supporting the Ukrainian armed forces.
“All designated targets were successfully hit,” it said.
The ministry also reported that the previous day Russian air defenses intercepted 127 Ukrainian drones overnight and shot down 352 unmanned aerial vehicles, 10 guided aerial bombs, and one HIMARS rocket.
Independent verification of the claims of both sides is challenging due to the ongoing conflict.