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Ukraine-Russia war escalates

Kyiv hits Russian ammo depot as Moscow advances in east
AFP, Kyiv
Ukraine’s security services yesterday said they had struck a Russian ammunition factory in a border region, as Moscow’s forces claimed yet another advance on the battlefield.
Ukraine also said it had thwarted a “massive” overnight Russian aerial attack that saw drones launched towards the capital Kyiv.
The attacks come after a week of intense Russian bombardments across Ukraine that killed at least 55 in the central city of Poltava, and seven in Lviv -- hundreds of kilometres from the frontlines and close to Ukraine’s western border with EU and Nato members.
A large fire and several explosions were reported overnight in the Russian region of Voronezh, which borders Ukraine, prompting officials to evacuate locals living near the blaze.
Russian anti-air defence systems “detected and neutralised a drone” early in the morning over the western part of the region, under 150 kilometres from Ukraine, Voronezh governor Alexander Gusev wrote on Telegram.
“No-one was injured” but when the drone fell, it sparked a large fire “that spread to explosive devices and caused them to detonate”, Gusev continued, without providing details of which facility was hit.
“A decision was taken to evacuate residents of a village” because of the blaze, he said.
Russian Telegram channels said the fire broke out in a local munitions depot.
Ukraine’s SBU security services later claimed it had hit a Russian ammunition depot.
Ukraine’s air force said Russia fired 67 drones at the country overnight, adding that it shot down 58 of them.
AFP reporters in Kyiv heard loud explosions overnight.
Debris from one downed drone landed near the Ukrainian parliament in the centre of the city.
In the east of the country, three people were killed in Russian shelling on Kostyantynivka -- in the Donetsk region where Russian troops are advancing -- the local governor said.
Russia’s military yesterday said it had seized the village of Kalynove, around 25 kilometres southeast of the key logistics hub of Pokrovsk, which Russia is seeking to capture.
Russian President Vladimir Putin said last week that Russia’s “primary objective” in the conflict was to capture the entire Donbas region -- which consists of Ukraine’s Donetsk and Lugansk regions.
Moscow claimed to have annexed them, along with the southern Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions in 2022, months after it launched its full-scale military offensive.
On the diplomatic front, Ukrainian President Volodymyr met Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni on the sidelines of an economic forum in the country yesterday.
Meloni reaffirmed her strong support for Kyiv.