Overnight air strikes injured at least eight people in Ukraine’s capital Kiev, while attacks in Russia targeted a logistics centre in Saratov region belonging to an e-commerce retailer, local authorities said.
Saratov Governor Roman Busargin said in a statement on Telegram on Friday that overnight Ukrainian air strikes caused damage to civilian infrastructure in the regional capital, noting all emergency services were working at the scene.
“Preliminary reports indicate there are no casualties,” Busargin said, without providing further details on the infrastructure targeted in the attack.
Russian online retailer Ozon declared that its logistics centre and delivery hub in Saratov was hit by a drone attack, resulting in a fire.
“We are removing the goods stored at the facility from the storefront; they will no longer be available for order. Some orders will be cancelled, while others will be fulfilled from different logistics centres,” the statement said.
It added that the acceptance and delivery of new orders for customers in Saratov and the surrounding region were temporarily suspended.
The Russian defence ministry claimed that its air defences shot down 777 Ukrainian drones across 16 regions, as well as over the Black Sea, the Caspian Sea, and Crimea, which Moscow illegally annexed in 2014.
Ukraine has intensified drone strikes on Russian logistics facilities in a campaign that began in mid-July and has spread across a number of Russian regions.
Since July, Ukrainian drones have targeted logistics centres of Russia's largest e-commerce retailer Wildberries in multiple regions, and strikes have expanded to facilities belonging to Ozon since last month.
Kiev has alleged that both retailers are playing a role in Moscow’s military supply chain, while Moscow and the two companies maintain the facilities are commercial.
Strikes in Ukraine
In Ukraine, the Kiev City Military Administration (KMVA) said eight people were injured following an attack on a nine-story residential building.
The KMVA added that a fire broke out in the building situated in Kiev's Dniprovskyi district, while the State Emergency Service (DSNS) reported a fire in a warehouse in Obolonskyi district.
"The fire was extinguished at 11.53 pm local time (2053GMT). No one was injured," the DSNS noted, referring to the warehouse fire.
Ukraine's Air Force claimed air defences downed 138 out of 161 drones launched by Russia overnight.
The Russian defence ministry confirmed launching overnight attacks in Ukraine, claiming it hit "Ukrainian military-industrial facilities and logistics centres involved in the production and storage of unmanned aerial vehicles."
It claimed to have hit data centres in the capital and in the Kiev, Khmelnytskyi, and Dnipropetrovsk regions, as well as targeting port infrastructure facilities in the Odessa region "used for unloading and storing cargo intended for the Armed Forces of Ukraine."
Independent verification of the claims is difficult due to the ongoing war.
