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Ukraine said it carried out a drone strike on a Russian ammunition depot over the weekend.
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Kiev said Iranian missiles arrived at the site shortly before the attack.
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Russia received a number of short-range ballistic missiles from Iran earlier this month.
Ukrainian forces used long-range drones to attack a ammunition depot in Russia shortly after a shipment of Iranian missiles arrived at the facility.
Ukraine’s military said Sunday its drone strike caused damage to an arsenal in Kotluban, a small settlement in Russia’s southeastern Volgograd region, in what appears to be Kiev’s latest long-range attack on a key weapons cache.
“According to available information, on the eve of the attack, an echelon of Iranian missiles arrived at the arsenal,” the Ukrainian military said in a statement on the Telegram messaging platform.
Russia received shipments from short range ballistic missiles from Iran earlier this month, sparking unrest among the U.S. and its European allies, who have long repeatedly expressed concerns about deepening military cooperation between Moscow and Tehran.
US officials warned at the time that Russia would likely use this are new Iranian missiles Ukraine within weeks, so the weapons could have been a high-priority target for Kiev.
The Ukrainian military said that while electronic warfare and anti-aircraft defenses protected the Russian arsenal in Kotluban, its units had “successfully completed the combat mission.” Kiev added that the attack caused a fire and ammunition detonated at the scene.
It is unclear exactly how many Ukrainian drones were used in the attack. The Russian Defense Ministry said on Sunday it intercepted 125 unmanned systems overnight, including 67 over the Volgograd region.
“Defense forces continue to undermine the enemy’s military potential,” the Ukrainian army said in a statement.
Sunday’s operation appears to be the latest in a series of successful Ukrainian operations attacks on Russian ammunition depots. Kiev hit multiple locations across the country earlier in September, causing major damage to the facilities and destroying a huge amount of weapons.
The British Ministry of Defense said this on Sunday intelligence update that attacks on Russian ammunition depots “will almost certainly cause disruption at least in the short term” to Moscow’s supply of weapons such as artillery and small arms ammunition.
The attacks on ammunition depots underline Ukraine’s ability to strike main military facilities consistently deep in Russia. Kiev has relied on home-made long-range drones for this campaign, as it is prohibited from using its inventory of Western-supplied missiles to attack Russian territory.
Ukrainian officials have repeatedly urged the West to drop these restrictions, arguing that it hampers Kiev’s ability to effectively counter Russia.
Read the original article Business insider