MOSCOW: Russia on Saturday introduced a “local emergency situation” in the southern city of Tikhoretsk after ordering evacuations following a Ukrainian drone attack that Kyiv said hit an arms depot.

Krasnodar region governor Veniamin Kondratyev said on social media that a “local emergency situation regime has been introduced to organise assistance to people and promptly resolve all issues related to the incident”.

Ukraine said on Saturday it had hit two Russian munition depots overnight, in attacks that illustrated its growing capability to strike targets deep inside Russia. A statement by Ukraine’s military general staff said the munitions depots were at Tikhoretsk in southern Russia and Oktyabrsky in the western region of Tver.

“The (Tikhoretsk) facility is in the top three largest munitions storages of the occupiers, and is one of the key points in the Russian military logistical system,” the general staff wrote in a statement on Telegram. It said Ukraine had information that a train carrying 2,000 tonnes of munitions, including from North Korea, had been on the territory of the depot at the time of the strike.

A Ukrainian security source said drones were used in the attacks. The source said Ukraine’s domestic SBU intelligence service hit the deport in Tikhoretsk in a joint operation with the Ukrainian military, while the SBU hit the target in Oktyabrsky on its own.

Published in Dawn, September 22nd, 2024