Three drones landed on the roof of a Wildberries warehouse in Yekaterinburg, according to regional governor Denis Pasler. The building caught fire. Around 800 people were evacuated, Artyom Zhoga, the Kremlin’s representative in the region, said, and nobody was hurt.
Yekaterinburg is Russia’s fourth-largest city, in the Ural Mountains, and the warehouse belongs to the country’s biggest online retailer. Ukraine put the distance from the border at more than 2,000 kilometres. Wildberries said most of the goods inside survived. That is not true of everywhere: more than a dozen other company depots hit by Ukraine in recent weeks have burned down.
The Urals and beyond
Kyiv says its long-range campaign deep inside Russia is continuing. Ukraine has regularly hit targets in the distant Urals this year, and it has struck an oil refinery in western Siberia nearly 2,500 kilometres from the border. India Today, which reported the Yekaterinburg attack, framed the strikes as proof that drone innovation sits at the center of Ukraine’s response to a much larger invader.
Kyiv officials say the effort has drawn foreign interest. Drone cooperation agreements are in place with nine countries, and talks are under way with 15 others.
Zelenskyy’s priorities
President Volodymyr Zelenskyy used the moment to press for faster weapons development, air defense and ballistic missiles above all. Russian ballistic missiles keep hitting civilian areas, he noted, while Ukraine is short of American-made Patriot interceptors. A joint European anti-ballistic program involving 10 countries is already under way.
“Ukraine is capable of producing its (anti-ballistic) missile and launcher, while our partners will provide the necessary components and critical elements — radars, sensors, and everything else required,” Zelenskyy said on social media. “An anti-ballistic program of our own — one that is truly large-scale — will greatly benefit everyone in Europe.”
Ukraine is also working on ballistic missiles of its own for use against Russia. “The tests have shown strong potential. We need to turn this into a real weapon,” he said.
The front line
None of this eased the pressure in the east. Russia’s larger army is looking for a breakthrough after months of limited gains that Western analysts and officials say have cost Moscow heavily in troops. Ukraine has been evacuating children from Kramatorsk, one of four Donetsk region cities in the so-called Fortress Belt, a heavily defended line about 50 kilometres long. Vadym Filashkin, head of the regional military administration, said more than 800 people, including 91 children, left in the previous 24 hours.
Russia’s Defence Ministry said it shot down 203 Ukrainian drones overnight. Ukraine’s air force said Russia attacked with 147 long-range strike drones. In Sumy region, a Russian drone hit a busy market on Friday morning and injured 10 people, said Oleh Hryhorov, head of the regional administration. Glide bombs and drones also struck the regional capital, injuring two more.
