Ukraine launched drone strikes targeting industrial facilities in the western Russian city of Ryazan, triggering multiple fires and forcing leading Russian online retailer Wildberries to evacuate a local warehouse.
Ryazan Governor Pavel Malkov said 45 drones were shot down over the region overnight Tuesday local time. Falling debris caused fires at an industrial site, damaging a house and a building. Six people were hospitalized with injuries.
The report comes as Ukraine intensifies attacks on Russian industrial facilities, including those belonging to Wildberries, which Kyiv accuses of supporting logistics for the Russian military. Drones have damaged at least seven Wildberries warehouses in recent days, destroying about 10% of the company's storage capacity, disrupting operations and causing losses for tens of thousands of small businesses selling on the platform.
In a separate incident, a woman was killed and a man injured after missile debris struck an apartment building in the southern Russian city of Taganrog on the Sea of Azov. Taganrog is home to several industrial sites and a grain export terminal, according to Regional Governor Yury Slyusar.
In Kherson, Ukraine, a man was killed and three others injured in a Russian drone attack. Five people, including a child, were also wounded in the Dnipropetrovsk region of Ukraine, where Russia launched dozens of attacks using drones, bombs and heavy artillery.
Russia's Defense Ministry said its drones struck two ships carrying weapons and military equipment east of the port of Odesa, Ukraine. Both Ukraine and Russia have stepped up attacks on vessels in the Black Sea and Sea of Azov in recent weeks, leading to a decline in regional oil and grain supplies.
Ukraine's new Defense Minister Yevhenii Khmara said in an interview Wednesday that Ukraine cannot respond militarily in a "tit-for-tat" manner but must use resources carefully and act "asymmetrically." On Tuesday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy met U.S. President Donald Trump in Washington to discuss Ukraine's plan to produce Patriot interceptor missiles, a key weapon in defending against Russian airstrikes, and the possibility of resuming peace talks with Russia.
