European Centre for Counterterrorism and Intelligence Studies, Germany & Netherlands – ECCI
Putin launches revenge strikes on Kyiv after space centre attack
Telegraph ـ Moscow has launched a wave of missile and drone strikes in a revenge attack on Kyiv after a Russian space centre was blown up on Saturday.
At least three people were injured in the barrages, which set fire to a large book market and struck several other buildings across the Ukrainian city.
The Telegraph heard at least five explosions just before 3am, followed by a second salvo just before 10am. Meanwhile, jet-powered drones swarmed the city throughout the morning, starting from 6am.
Across the country, Kryvyi Rih, Kamianske and Kremenchuk also came under fire. In Kryvyi Rih, in the Dnipropetrovsk region, one person died and more than a dozen were injured.
The sweeping strikes followed a Ukrainian attack on a space centre used in the production of Russia’s new satellite internet system on Saturday using Kyiv’s home-grown Flamingo cruise missiles.
The facility, located in Russia’s Samara region some 560 miles from the border, produces Soyuz-2 launch vehicles used to project Rassvet satellites, which Moscow hopes will replace Elon Musk’s Starlink system after its troops were cut off earlier this year.
Amid Russia’s attacks on Sunday morning, Romania’s defence ministry said that a Nato air policing mission had been forced to shoot down a drone violating the country’s national airspace, the fourth such incident this year.
The ministry did not specify the provenance of the drone, which crossed its borders through Moldova and was downed at around 5am by a Spanish F-18 fighter jet pilot on patrol.
The country’s airspace has been repeatedly breached since the start of Russia’s invasion. Last month, for the first time, its fighter jets intercepted three drones following dozens of such incursions.
On Sunday, Ukraine’s drones descended on the Moscow region, lighting a large fire at a warehouse belonging to the e-commerce giant Wildberries.
The facility, in the village of Koledino, around 40 miles south of central Moscow, is one of the company’s largest warehouses, covering 200,000 sq m.
In illicit footage posted to Telegram by locals, it was seen being consumed by flames and belching out tall plumes of smog.
Drones also struck a production and logistics complex in the city of Domodedovo, around 23 miles south of Moscow, according to local reports.
Sergei Sobyanin, the Moscow mayor, said that Kyiv had fired 600 drones at the city, 201 of which he claimed were shot down by Russian air defence in the region, with the rest intercepted on their journey to the capital.
Across the country, Russia’s defence ministry claimed its air defences had downed 822 Ukrainian drones overnight, which would amount to one of the largest drone attacks on Russian soil throughout the war so far.
On Saturday, it emerged that drones produced by British companies have begun to be deployed in Kyiv’s deep-strike campaign on Russian soil for the first time.
Oil refineries in Volgograd and Yaroslavl were among the targets of the BAE Systems Nyan jet-powered drone, which was tested by the Royal Navy, and another drone manufactured by an unnamed company, The Sunday Times reported.
A senior Ukrainian military source told the outlet that the British drones had achieved significant success in the field. “When we launch them, we always say Slava Ukraini [glory to Ukraine] and God save the King,” the source said.
Russia’s transport ministry said on Friday that it would more than double the number of prohibited flight zones across the country in an effort to protect fuel and energy facilities, defence industry buildings and transportation infrastructure from Kyiv’s intensifying drone strikes.
Eight hundred and eighteen new no-fly zones would be instated across the country, Kommersant reported.
European Centre for Counterterrorism and Intelligence Studies, Germany & Netherlands – ECCI
