Kyiv has hit Russian oil depots, a submarine and an airfield as the 29-month old war rages on.
President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has praised Ukrainian forces for hitting military targets inside Russia after the army reported several attacks, including on an airfield and an oil depot.
“I would like to thank each of our soldiers and all those who work in our defence industry for striking Russian airfields, oil refineries and logistics,” he said in a statement on Saturday.
Kyiv has stepped up aerial attacks on Russian territory, saying it carries out the attacks in retaliation for the bombardment Ukraine has faced since Russia invaded more than two years ago.
Earlier on Saturday, Ukraine’s military said it had sunk a submarine in Russian-controlled Sevastopol, attacked a southern Russian airfield and hit oil depots and fuel and lubricant storage facilities in Belgorod, Kursk and Rostov regions.
“A Russian submarine went to the bottom of the Black Sea,” the Ministry of Defence said in a post on X, naming the vessel as the B-237 Rostov-on-Don attack submarine.
The military’s general staff said the attack on Sevastopol port also significantly damaged four launchers of the S-400 anti-aircraft “Triumf” defence system.
The military said it hit an ammunition depot at Morozovsk airfield where Russian forces stored guided aerial bombs among other equipment and a number of oil depots and fuel storage facilities in overnight raids.
“Every strike that accurately responds to Russia’s bombs, that destroys Russian logistics, Russian bases, that makes it more difficult for the occupier to stay on our land – every such strike brings the just end of the war closer,” Zelenskyy said.
Today, I want to express my gratitude to each of our soldiers and everyone working in our defense industry for the strikes on Russian airfields, oil refineries, and logistics. These actions are most effective when the consequences of Russia’s war are brought back home to Russia,… pic.twitter.com/VnUeIHt2sL
— Volodymyr Zelenskyy / Володимир Зеленський (@ZelenskyyUa) August 3, 2024
The Ukrainian president has repeatedly called on his Western allies for permission to use their weapons for long-range attacks on Russia, in addition to striking military targets close to the border.
He said that Russian forces had used more than 600 guided aerial bombs to attack Ukraine in the past week.
Meanwhile, in Moscow, local officials reported that tanks at a fuel storage depot in the Kamensky district of Rostov region caught fire as a result of a drone attack.
The regional governor of Belgorod, near Ukraine’s border, said Kyiv-launched drones caused a fire at an oil storage depot there, adding that the fire was extinguished and no one was injured.
Ukraine has dramatically stepped up its use of long-range drones this year to attack Russian oil facilities, attempting to damage sites fueling Russian forces and the country’s economy.
Kyiv has also increasingly claimed responsibility for attacks on Russian-held territory over the course of Russia’s 29-month-old invasion of Ukraine.
