Ukraine strikes industrial facility in Russia’s Volgograd

Ukraine has struck a major industrial facility in the Russian city of Volgograd, Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky said, while a Russian drone attack killed a man in Ukraine’s north-eastern Sumy region.

Ukraine has stepped up its long-range aerial attacks on Russian military industries and energy facilities, aiming to cut Moscow’s revenue for the war and make Russians feel the consequences of the invasion, now in its fifth year.

The campaign, which Mr Zelensky has said aims to bring Russian president Vladimir Putin to the negotiating table, has choked Russian fuel supplies and military deliveries, stalling Moscow’s efforts on the battlefield and heaping pressure on Mr Putin, Western officials and analysts say.

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Writing on X, Mr Zelensky said that FP-5 Flamingo missiles hit the Titan-Barrikady facility in Volgograd in south-western Russia, describing it as a “major industrial complex” where Russia “produces artillery systems and specialized military equipment, including components for missile launch systems”.

According to Ukraine’s General Staff, the facility manufactures equipment for missile systems, including self-propelled launchers and transport-loading vehicles for the Iskander-M missile system, which it said is “the same system Russia regularly uses to strike Ukrainian cities”.

Volgograd governor Andrei Bocharov confirmed an attack on a business in the region’s Krasnooktyabrsky district, saying 10 people had been injured and taken to a hospital.

He said production facilities at the site were damaged but did not identify the company.

Ukraine’s state security service said Saturday morning that Ukrainian forces also struck an oil pumping facility in Russia’s Vladimir region that supplies fuel to Moscow, for the second time this month.

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The attacks came a day after Ukraine launched what appeared to be one of Kyiv’s biggest drone assaults since the Kremlin’s full-scale invasion more than four years ago.

The major night-time attack targeted a dozen Russian regions, Russian-held Crimea and the surrounding seas, Moscow’s defence ministry said, noting that Russian air defences intercepted 660 Ukrainian drones.

Mr Zelensky said he had ordered “a 40-day influence operation,” believed to mean an escalation of attacks, aimed at “compelling (Russia) to end the war” after US peace efforts over the past year yielded no breakthrough.

Meanwhile, in Ukraine’s Sumy region, a 66-year-old man was killed in a Russian drone strike on a private residence in the region, regional head Oleh Hryhorov said.