kyiv destroyed a warehouse with missiles and guided bombs in Tver, an attack that caused a huge explosion, a fire visible from space and an earthquake. Zelensky admired “the inspiring precision.”
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kyiv destroyed a Russian weapons supply in the Tver region in northwestern Russia on Tuesday night. The large-scale attack, carried out by drones, caused an explosion so large it was seen from space and triggered an earthquake measuring 2.8 on the Richter scale.
The attack was reported early on Wednesday by Tver regional governor Igor Rudenya. “In Toropets, the fire is being extinguished at the site of the UAV crash. The Air Force continues to repel a massive drone attack on the city“, can be read in the message shared on Telegram, in which he assured that “the situation is under control.”
Videos have been circulating on social media showing a fire, a large cloud of smoke and several explosions, over what the descriptions identify as a Russian ammunition storage facility. As a precaution, authorities have ordered the evacuation of the town of Toropets.
Russian media reports that an ammunition depot was hit by a drone in Russia’s Tver region. pic.twitter.com/pPqzDR0ZOQ
— Anton Gerashchenko (@Gerashchenko_en) September 18, 2024
Ukrainian niseechech циж өө өө ээ.
Хотод яаралтай ныүлгэн шилжүүлэлт зарлаад байна. There are also water bombs “Град”, S-300, S-400, ballistic bombs, many men… pic.twitter.com/SXD8UGPmPI— Tuul (@tuul1234) September 18, 2024
Hours later, a source in Ukraine’s security services (SBU) confirmed to CNN that the attack had been ordered by kyiv. The same source reported that the warehouse attacked contained Iskander missile systems, Tochka-U missile systems, guided aerial bombs and artillery ammunitionand added that Ukraine uses attacks like this in a “methodical” way to reduce Russia’s arsenal and that others “Similar attacks are advancing”.
Another SBU source even claimed that the attack “literally leveled [o armazém russo] off the face of the Earth,” the Washington Post quoted him as saying. A Ukrainian Defense Ministry official told the paper that they were also stored in the same location. North Korean-made KN-23 ballistic missiles and that “more than 100 drones” were involved in the attack.
Ukraine rarely claims such attacks against Russia, or is slow to do so. However, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has already thanked “the warriors who ensure Ukraine’s long-range capabilities.” “There was a significant result from last night’s attack. [terça-feira] on the territory of Russia and these are the kind of actions that weaken our enemy. I thank those involved. What inspiring precision!“he said during his daily address on Wednesday afternoon.
Moscow was the target of the largest Ukrainian air attack on Russia since the start of the war.
Attacks of this nature, in Russian territories further from the Ukrainian border, have been more frequent by kyiv in recent weeks. And Zelensky’s reference to “long-range capabilities” is loaded with meaning, as permission to use Western weapons in such attacks has been one of the issues causing the most friction between Ukraine and its allies. In opposing dependence on foreign weapons, the Ukrainian head of state highlights the “significant results” of the use of domestic drones.
But reports of the destruction of Russian weapons and explosions shared on social media are not the only records of this attack. Satellites from NASA, the US space agency, detected “intense heat sources” in an area of 14 square kilometers around the explosion, Reuters reported.
Image from NASA’s Fire Information Resource Management System
The explosion also triggered an earthquake. Ben Dando, a seismologist with the Norwegian foundation NORSAR, told CNN that its sensors “Seismic signals with a magnitude between 2.5 and 2.8 were detected in northwestern Russia which appears to be associated with the drone attack launched by Ukraine.” The same channel also shared images captured by Maxar Technologies satellites, in which a huge cloud of smoke can be seen covering the entire city and several ignition points in the forest surrounding Toropets.
#maxar показывает самую большую ртбазу Россиюшки #Toropets pic.twitter.com/ffw6RZO7SH
– Master DiVino (@DivinoMstr) September 18, 2024
The town of Toropets is located in the Tver region, 380 kilometers west of Moscow and 470 kilometers north of the border with Russia. With a population of 11,000 people, the governor did not specify how many of these people were evacuated during the evacuation process. The Russian state agency TASS reported that thirteen people were injured and had to be hospitalized, but that none were seriously injured. In addition, schools were closed in one of the affected districts.
Source: Observadora
