Russia said the death toll in a Ukrainian air strike that Kyiv claimed did substantial damage to a missile-components plant in the Russian border-region city of Bryansk increased to seven on March 11, and lashed out at Britain over the attack.
In a social media post a day earlier, Ukraine’s General Staff said the military had “successfully struck the Kremny El microelectronics plant” with Storm Shadow missiles, which are supplied by the United Kingdom.
The General Staff asserted that the strike caused “significant damage to production facilities” at the plant, which it said makes electronics used in weapons including Iskander missiles. It published a video clip that it said showed the plant being struck.
Ukraine has used Storm Shadows as part of its campaign targeting Russian military and energy-infrastructure sites, an effort to decrease Moscow’s revenues and undermine its ability to sustain its full-scale war against Ukraine, now in its fifth year.
Civilian casualties in the attacks are relatively rare, and Russia’s claim could not be independently verified. Russian authorities made no mention of the Kremny El plant in their accounts of the attack.
The Russian Foreign Ministry claimed without evidence that the attack targeted civilians, and President Vladimir Putin’s spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, asserted it could not have been carried out with help from “British specialists.”
He said Russia would take Britain’s alleged role “into account” but did not specify how. On March 10, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy called the attack “a completely justified response to the aggressor.”
The Bryansk attack — and what Kyiv said were multiple Russian attacks that killed at least six people in Ukraine on March 10 — came amid a hiatus in US-Ukraine-Russia negotiations aimed to end the war.
Zelenskyy and US special envoy Steve Witkoff have said the next round of trilateral talks could take place next week. Peskov said the next round could be held in Istanbul, but he gave no timeframe.
Russia’s lead negotiator, Kirill Dmitriev, met with Witkoff and other US officials in Florida on March 11, the US envoy said.
“The teams discussed a variety of topics and agreed to stay in touch,” Witkoff said on X with providing details.
Several rounds of talks have made little visible progress on key issues including territory, with Russia insisting on being handed the part of Ukraine’s Donbas that it has been unable to seize in years of heavy fighting.
Amid constant fighting along the front lines in the Donbas and elsewhere in Ukraine, Russia has unleashed daily attacks on cities, towns, and infrastructure across the country, often hitting homes and apartment buildings and killing or injuring civilians.
