Satellite Photos Show 'Near Total Destruction' of Ammo Depot Inside Russia

New satellite imagery shows the aftermath of Ukrainian drone strikes on a Russian ammunition storage site in Russia's Voronezh region earlier this month, according to the British government.

London's Defense Ministry said on Wednesday that satellite images from July 8 showed a "destroyed" storage area and buildings at an extensive weapons and ammunition depot near the Voronezh village of Sergeevka. Newsweek has reached out to the Russian Defense Ministry for comment via email.

Ukrainian media reported earlier this month that Kyiv's SBU security service had targeted an ammunition depot close to Sergeevka with explosive drones on July 7, the site housing surface-to-surface, surface-to-air missiles, tank and artillery rounds as well as small arms ammunition for Russian troops in Ukraine.

Separately, Ukraine's GUR military intelligence agency said in late June that its forces targeted an ammunition depot in the Voronezh region, sparking a fire.

Voronezh's regional governor, Alexander Gusev, said on July 7 that a state of emergency had been declared around the area of Podgorensky, with some residents temporarily moved away from the area. Podgorensky is just west of Sergeevka.

Air defenses "destroyed several UAVs," or unmanned aerial vehicles, over the area, with the fragments causing a warehouse fire, Gusev said. Geolocated footage from July 7 showed smoke and explosions in the area, the Institute for the Study of War, a U.S. think tank, said at the time.

The Ukrainian drone attack "resulted in the near total destruction of ammunition and equipment" stored in the open and in buildings at the facility, the British government said in an intelligence update posted to X (formerly Twitter) on Wednesday.

"This is a significant loss at a depot that reportedly covered approximately 9 square kilometers," London's government said.

The success of Ukraine's drone strikes shows Russia is unable to shield its key locations from Kyiv's reach, despite a heavy air defense presence in this area around 50 miles from the Ukrainian border, the British Defense Ministry said.

"Such shortcomings will almost certainly see further losses to other well-planned Ukrainian strikes," the ministry said.

Losing access to fresh ammunition supplies will "further stretch Russia's already struggling logistics chains" and force Russia to spread out its resources to avoid further successful Ukrainian strikes, the ministry said.

Moscow is reliant on its stockpiles to prop up its attritional war in Ukraine, London said, which requires "huge amounts of ammunition."

Russia has made slow but steady gains in eastern Ukraine but at a huge cost to its personnel fighting on the front lines. Moscow is hoping to outlast Ukraine's reserves of fighters and equipment, analysts and officials say, but needs significant caches of ammunition to sustain the effort.

"Russia is now relying on its limited foreign partners for this supply," with domestic industry struggling to keep up, the British government said.

Moscow's allies, such as North Korea, China and Iran, are thought to have sent additional supplies of munitions and missiles to Russia for use in Ukraine. Beijing has repeatedly denied supplementing Moscow's stockpiles for use in Ukraine.

Ukraine has also struggled to keep up its stocks of shells and rounds for its forces as the war drags on.

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