Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy attends a press conference with Ursula von der Leyen, President of the European Commission, in Kyiv, Ukraine, on Sept. 20, 2024.Christoph Soeder/The Associated Press
A major Ukrainian drone attack set multiple Russian arms depots ablaze, destroying what Ukraine’s General Staff said were thousands of tons of weaponry, including missiles from North Korea.
President Volodymyr Zelensky, meanwhile, appealed for quick action from the United States to send more weapons before his visit to the White House next week with a multi-point “victory plan.”
Ukraine launched more than 100 drones at Russia and the occupied Crimean Peninsula overnight, Russian news reports and the Defense Ministry said Saturday.
The strikes set an arms depot on fire just kilometres (miles) away from one struck by Ukrainian drones earlier this week, in an attack that wounded 13 people and also caused a huge blaze. Arms and ammunition depots were also hit on Saturday in Russia’s southern Krasnodar region.
The “victory plan” that Zelensky will present to U.S. President Joe Biden will include long-range strike capabilities and other weapons long sought by Kyiv, and will serve as the basis for any future negotiation with Russia, Zelensky told reporters.
Zelensky reveals scant details
Zelensky has regularly alluded to the plan’s preparation, but hasn’t publicly outlined its contents, saying only that it contains terms acceptable for Ukraine to negotiate with Russia.
“This will be the start and foundation for talking in any format with Russia. In any format, with any of its representatives, because there will be a plan and something to show,” Zelensky said in a briefing Friday.
Zelensky said he will present the plan to Biden and Kamala Harris, the U.S. vice president and presidential candidate. Zelensky said that he also plans to meet with Harris’ opponent in the November election, former President Donald Trump.
He said U.S. reluctance so far to allow Ukraine to use Western weapons to strike deep inside Russia stems from fears of escalation from Moscow, a major global nuclear power. Ukraine has had to use its own capabilities to conduct strikes inside Russian territory.
“I think that Biden is really getting information from his entourage today that there may be an escalation. But, and this is important, not everyone around him thinks so. And this is already an achievement that not all of his entourage thinks so,” Zelensky said.
But the longer Western partners wait to allow the use of long-range missiles, the more tactically obsolete their value will become, Zelensky said.
Zelensky’s remarks came shortly before he is set to kick off a busy week in the United States shoring up support for Ukraine in the war. He is expected to address the U.N. General Assembly annual gathering in New York and travel to Washington for talks on Thursday with President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris.
Ukraine’s Western backers have routinely been criticized for only helping the country to survive the invasion, rather than win, out of concern for the chaos that it might cause in Russia should Putin fall. The plan could be an attempt to change that calculus.
Beyond making demands of Biden, Ukraine is likely to seek detailed commitments from European allies as well. Zelensky said Thursday without elaborating that its success will rely on quick decisions by “a number of actors” between October and December.
Trump has said he would end the war immediately if he wins, and many in Ukraine and Europe fear that it won’t be on favourable terms for Kyiv.
Russian depots set on fire
Also on Saturday, Ukraine’s General Staff said that “at least 2,000 tons” of weaponry, including missiles supplied by North Korea, were destroyed in a nighttime drone strike that targeted depots in Russia’s south and northwest.
Russian authorities on Saturday temporarily closed a 100-kilometer (62-mile) stretch of a highway and evacuated passengers from a rail station after a blaze caused a series of explosions near the town of Toropets, in Russia’s Tver region, about 380 kilometres (240 miles) northwest of Moscow and 500 kilometres (300 miles) from the Ukrainian border.
Posts on local Telegram channels said a missile depot was struck near Toropets. Unverified images circulating on Telegram on Saturday showed a large ball of flame rising into the night sky and dozens of smoke trails from detonations.
Ukrainian drones earlier this week hit a separate military depot, in the town itself, that was described by the U.K. defense ministry as “one of Russia’s largest strategic ammunition depots directly supporting its operation in Ukraine.” In its latest intelligence update, the ministry said that strike, reported on Wednesday, likely caused “enormous losses of ordnance.” The update, posted on X, referenced reports of North Korean missiles being stored at Toropets, but didn’t independently confirm it.
An ammunition depot and missile arsenal in southwestern Russia also caught fire in a further attack Saturday in the Krasnodar region, triggering evacuations after the blaze caused a series of blasts near the town of Tikhoretsk. Videos on social media showed bright orange clouds rising over the horizon, as dull thuds of detonations sounded almost continuously. Russian state media described clouds of smoke rising from two sites near Tikhoretsk, and authorities later announced a state of emergency around the town.
Regional officials in both provinces attributed the blazes to falling shrapnel from drones downed by Russian air defence. There were no immediate reports of casualties in either region.
Russia’s Defense Ministry said early Saturday that its forces overnight shot down 101 Ukrainian drones over Russian territory and occupied Crimea.
Boy killed in Ukraine
In Ukraine, a 12-year-old boy and two older women were killed as Russian missiles overnight struck Kryvyi Rih, Zelensky’s hometown in central Ukraine, local Gov. Serhii Lysak reported Saturday.
Lysak said the missiles hit “in the middle of the night, when the city slept,” wounding three more people, destroying two buildings and damaging another 20.
In Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second city, 15 people including young teens were wounded by Russian airstrikes on Friday evening, Mayor Ihor Terekhov said, more than twice as many as initially reported. Shortly after the strike, Terekhov said that seven civilians, including three children, were hurt after Russian Su-34 fighters dropped guided precision bombs on three Kharkiv districts.
Russian drone and artillery strikes Saturday also wounded at least three civilians in Ukraine’s southern Kherson region, local officials reported, while a fourth was wounded after an airstrike hit the northern city of Sumy.