Russians Evacuated as Ukraine Drone Attack Sparks Chain of Explosions

Residents in Russia's Voronezh region have been evacuated following a suspected Ukrainian drone strike on an ammunition depot, with social media channels posting images of its fiery aftermath.

The Astra Telegram channel, citing residents, reported that the attack targeted an ammunition storage site in the village of Soldatskoye, about 120 miles from the Ukrainian border.

Blasts could be heard in videos posted on social media, where users reported secondary explosions lasting hours, while satellite imagery also showed blazes burning in the area.

On Saturday, Voronezh Governor Alexander Gusev said on Telegram that overnight, debris from a drone detonated the site and that residents in several villages would be evacuated, without specifying which ones.

Gusev said that the drone was "detected and suppressed" in the Ostrogozhsky district of the region, where a state of emergency has been declared.

"A damage assessment will be carried out only after the consequences of the detonation have been completely eliminated," he said, adding that there were no casualties, although Russian authorities often play down the effect of strikes.

According to the media outlet Nexta, the Russian Defense Ministry has not referred to drones in the Voronezh region but said two drones were shot down over the Kursk and Belgorod regions overnight. Newsweek has contacted the Russian Defense Ministry for comment.

In August, Gusev reported a similar attack in the Ostrogozhsky district that caused fires and explosions that lasted for almost two days, which Russian Telegram channels later said followed a strike on an ammunition depot.

Ukraine has stepped up its campaign of drone attacks on military and infrastructure sites on Russian territory, often without directly claiming responsibility. Its targets include oil processing sites and airfields, the loss of which would hurt Moscow's military machine.

"We are also improving our drones," said Hanna Shelest, the director of security programs at the Foreign Policy Council, Ukrainian Prism.

"They were originally used close to the border, then we started to have longer-range drones, and that's why you see the longer-range strikes. It's just correlated with the capabilities," she told Newsweek.

Russia continues its missile attacks on Ukrainian territory, with debris from a Shahed-type drone found outside Ukraine's parliament on Saturday morning following an attack on the capital, Kyiv Independent reported.

Meanwhile, Ukraine's air force said that its air defenses had downed 58 of the 67 Shahed-type drones that had been launched overnight by Russia. Russian attacks across Ukraine killed at least four people and injured 97, including children, regional authorities said.

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