Warehouse Raids and Beach Drones: Ukraine-Russia Exchange 'Gifts' From the Sky, Again
Ukraine and Russia trade drone strikes, with warehouses and beaches as unexpected venues, and both deny targeting civilians while civilians keep getting targeted.
In the latest installment of 'Who Can Launch More Drones at Whom', at least five people were killed and ten injured when a Ukrainian drone decided to redecorate a warehouse near Moscow overnight Monday, according to the region's governor. The official didn't specify the target, but Ukrainian drones have been rather fond of Wildberries facilities lately - think 'Russian Amazon' but with more aerial surprises.
Kyiv insists these depots are secretly supplying the Russian military, a claim Moscow furiously denies while probably checking its own delivery schedules. Local officials also reported Wildberries warehouses in St Petersburg and Tver getting the same VIP treatment overnight.
Not to be outdone, Russia launched its own strikes on Ukraine, killing at least four and injuring several. Russia's defence ministry boasted it had intercepted and destroyed 320 drones overnight - a number that sounds impressive until you realize it implies a whole lot of drones were in the air.
Moscow region governor Andrei Vorobyov revealed an industrial site in Novoselki, Chekhov - just 69km south of the Kremlin, because why not - was hit. A warehouse caught fire, and an electrical substation and administration building also suffered some unplanned renovations. Seven of the ten injured are in moderate condition, one serious, so mostly minor inconveniences in the grand scheme of things.
Ukrainian media linked the warehouse to Wildberries, and Yandex confirmed it. Wildberries kept mum but did confirm its St Petersburg facility was also hit - a company-wide 'we're popular' moment.
Meanwhile, Ukraine's State Emergency Service reported an 89-year-old woman killed and two girls aged two and twelve among seven injured in a Russian strike on Mykolaiv. In Sumy, a residential area strike killed a woman and two girls aged five and ten, plus four injured. Two more injured in Bilhorod-Dnistrovskyi, and a food warehouse set ablaze in Dnipro - because food storage is apparently a military target now.
This all follows a lovely beach day in southern Russia, where a drone killed seven and injured 58. Verified BBC footage shows the drone crashing and exploding on a beach in Krasnodar region while tourists frolic nearby. Some Ukrainian Telegram channels claim electronic warfare jammed the drone's signal, while eyewitnesses report gunfire before the explosion - air defences having a go, perhaps. The regional governor called it 'a deliberate strike on civilians'; Ukraine hasn't commented. Both sides, of course, deny targeting civilians deliberately. Because that's the rulebook.
Additional reporting by Paul Brown, Fridon Kiria, and Kumar Malhotra, who presumably also wondered when this all becomes a video game.
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