A facility in Ukraine“>Russia‘s Tver region was hit by a swarm of drones, causing a massive fire and prompting the evacuation of residents, according to local officials. Ukraine has not claimed responsibility for the attack. On September 18, Russia’s TASS news agency reported that air defenses were still fending off a large-scale drone attack over Toropets in the Tver region. Toropets is an ancient town with a population of around 11,000 located about 240 miles northwest of Moscow and 300 miles from the Ukrainian border. Although not directly on the border, Tver’s westernmost point is close to Belarus, Moscow’s main ally in Eastern Europe.
Russian media reports indicate that the attack ignited a huge blaze in Toropets that was still ongoing at midday. The governor of Tver region, Igor Rudenya, stated that school services had been temporarily suspended in Zapadnaya Dvina municipality due to the incident. He also ordered partial evacuation of residents from the affected area.
Rudenya later confirmed that there were no casualties or injuries resulting from the attack. However, it remains unclear what specific target was being aimed at during this incident.
In addition to this drone strike, seismic activity near the site was reportedly detected by earthquake monitoring stations during early hours on September 18. In 2018, Russian state media disclosed that Moscow had constructed a large weapons depot in Toropets for storing missiles and other munitions.
The Russian defense ministry has yet to comment on this reported attack; however local media carried a statement from them stating that Russian air defenses intercepted 54 Ukrainian drones overnight across five western regions including Kursk, Bryansk Smolensk Oryol and Belgorod. No casualties or material damage have been reported as a result of these interceptions.
(Reuters contributed to this report.)
