Large plumes of black smoke rose high into the skies of the Moscow region on July 20 after Ukrainian drone strikes hit an oil depot and logistics facilities, wounding 10 people as Kyiv vowed to respond to deadly Russian attacks that have left several people dead.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy confirmed attacks on an oil depot and logistics facilities in the Moscow region on July 20, adding that two tankers from Russia’s shadow fleet and four cargo ships also had been hit as Ukraine launched hundreds of drones overnight.
Ukraine has stepped up its attack on Russian energy and logistics facilities in recent weeks, including at attack on a Wildberries warehouse over the weekend that killed seven people and injured dozens of others.
The online retailer, Russia’s largest, said it suspended services temporarily on July 20 as a precautionary measure, but had resumed normal operations soon afterward.
Ukraine has accused Wildberries, often referred to as Russia’s equivalent to retailer Amazon, of retailing military supplies used for Russia’s war effort, including selling dual-use goods such as body armor and surveillance technology.
“We are responding, justly, to every Russian strike against our cities and communities,” Zelenskyy said on social media in confirming the Ukrainian drone attacks targeting the Moscow region, adding that Kyiv’s “long-range sanctions have produced results against logistics facilities and an oil depot.”
The attacks came after a Russian missile strike on a ship carrying corn near Ukraine’s southern port of Odesa killed 10 people.
Ukraine’s navy said the Golden Leo — a Guinea-Bissau-flagged ship manned by a crew from India and Syria — burst into flames after being hit by three Russian cruise missiles on July 19.
Overnight search and rescue operations determined that nine crew members and one of its maritime pilots were killed, while the remaining eight of the ship’s 17 crew members were rescued.
Ukraine’s drone chief, Robert Brovdi, reported in a post on Telegram that his forces struck seven Russian vessels in the Black Sea and the Sea of Azov as well as seven energy facilities inRussian-occupied Crimea.
Brovdi said that since July 1 their operations targeted 183 Russian vessels, 103 energy facilities, and 25 air-defense elements, while reducing the Kerch ferry crossing’s capacity by 75 percent.
Meanwhile, the Ukrainian Air Force said on July 20 that Russia launched an overnight attack on Ukraine using two guided air missiles and 94 strike drones.
Russian forces attacked Pavlohrad with modernized guided aerial bombs for the first time, a regional head said on July 20.
“Pavlohrad has lived under missile and Shahed drone attacks, but it had never faced guided aerial bombs. Now the enemy is modernizing these bombs and can strike deeper. Unfortunately, this is a new reality for Pavlohrad. Therefore, I ask residents not to ignore air raid alerts,” Mykola Lukashuk wrote in a Telegram post.
In another Russian attack using guided aerial bombs on Zaporizhzhya, regional governor Ivan Fedorov reported that one person was killed and five others injured on the morning of July 20, with residential and nonresidential buildings damaged in the strike.
