July 29 (Reuters) – Ukrainian drones hit oil refineries and logistics facilities in the Russian cities of Perm, Ryazan and Taganrog, as well as the Crimean peninsula overnight, with the country’s top online retailer Wildberries evacuating its Ryazan warehouse.
While Ukraine’s air defences are running low on interceptors like Patriot missiles, leaving it more exposed to Russian strikes, its own deep-strike drone production has outpaced Russia’s, enabling it to hit Russian oil refineries and infrastructure and cause fuel shortages across its 11 time zones.
Drone strikes have damaged at least seven Wildberries warehouses in the past few days, destroying around 10% of the company’s storage capacity and inflicting losses on tens of thousands of small businesses that sell goods and services via the platform, according to the company and local authorities.
In a statement, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said his forces had struck oil refineries in Perm and Ryazan, a logistics centre in Ryazan, an export terminal and military plant in the Rostov region, as well as a naval base in Crimea.
Local Russian officials confirmed the strikes.
RYAZAN WILDBERRIES WAREHOUSE ABLAZE
In Ryazan, south of Moscow and around 500 km (310 miles) from Ukrainian-held territory, Governor Pavel Malkov said industrial sites had caught fire and six people were seeking medical help. Wildberries said its Ryazan site had been evacuated and had stopped accepting deliveries of goods. Video footage on social media, verified by Reuters, showed a large blaze at Wildberries’ Ryazan facility.
Russian business daily Kommersant reported on Wednesday that Wildberries is seeking 100,000 square metres of storage space in neighbouring Kazakhstan to protect its goods from Ukrainian strikes.
In the Urals city of Perm, around 1,600 km from Ukrainian-held territory, Governor Dmitry Makhonin said Ukrainian drones had hit an industrial facility but caused no casualties. He did not name the facility.
In the southern Rostov region, Governor Yuri Slyusar said that a woman was killed and a man injured after missile debris hit an apartment building in the port city of Taganrog on the Sea of Azov, home to various industrial facilities and a grain terminal.
On the Crimean peninsula, seized from Ukraine by Russia in 2014, Moscow-backed governor Sergei Aksyonov said that two people had been killed and five injured in overnight drone strikes.
On the Ukrainian side of the front line, a man was killed and another three people injured in a Russian drone attack on the city of Kherson, local authorities said on Telegram.
Russia’s Defence Ministry said its drones hit two vessels carrying weapons and military equipment east of the Ukrainian port of Odesa.
Ukraine and Russia have stepped up strikes on vessels in the Black Sea and Sea of Azov in recent weeks, leading to a fall in oil and grain supplies in the region.
Reuters could not independently verify all the reports. Both Russia and Ukraine deny targeting civilians in the war launched by Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
(Reporting by Jekaterīna Golubkova in Tokyo and Felix Light in Almaty; Editing by Kate Mayberry, Raju Gopalakrishnan and Hugh Lawson)
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