War in Ukraine: a powerful explosion in the Tver region, an arms warehouse destroyed… an update on the situation

Every day, Midi Libre takes stock of the situation in Ukraine. This Wednesday, September 18, 2024, discover the latest news about this conflict.

Powerful explosion in the Tver region after a Ukrainian drone attack

A drone strike launched by Ukraine on Russia on Wednesday triggered a powerful explosion and prompted the partial evacuation of residents from an area near a major arsenal in the Tver region, northwest of Moscow, military bloggers and Russian media reported. Unauthenticated images and videos posted on social media showed a huge fireball rising into the sky at night as explosions echoed over a lake in the part of Russia near Belarus.

NASA satellites picked up several signals from the area overnight, while seismic stations recorded what appeared to be a small earthquake in the region. Igor Rudenia, governor of the Tver region, said on Telegram that firefighters were battling a blaze, without specifying what was burning. According to a 2018 report by the Russian news agency RIA, Russia had begun building an arsenal in Toropets, a medieval town of just over 11,000 people in the Tver region, to store missiles, munitions and explosives.

It is unclear whether the explosion reported Wednesday caused any casualties. Unverified footage posted on social media could be consistent with the detonation of 200 to 240 tons of explosives, said George William Herbert of the Middlebury Institute of International Studies in Monterey, California. The Russian Defense Ministry did not immediately respond to a request for comment. In the Zapadnodvinsky district, which borders the Toropetsky district, schools have switched to distance learning, the local administration said on the Vkontakte network. The Russian Defense Ministry, quoted by Russian news agencies, said that air defenses had destroyed 54 drones fired overnight by Ukraine at five regions in western Russia.

The governors of these regions did not report any damage from the attacks. The ministry's report, however, did not mention Tver Oblast. Ukraine did not immediately comment on the attacks. The Ukrainian military has been regularly bombing military, energy and transport infrastructure on Russian territory in an attempt to disrupt Russia's war effort, which launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.

Ukraine launched its largest drone attack on Russia last week when it struck Moscow, killing one woman and damaging dozens of apartments, while traffic at Moscow airports was suspended.

Ukraine says it has “destroyed” a weapons warehouse in western Russia

A Ukrainian drone attack has “destroyed” a warehouse where missiles and artillery ammunition were stored in the Tver region in western Russia, a source in the Ukrainian security services told AFP on Wednesday.

Drones have “literally destroyed”the warehouse in Toropets, which contained ballistic missiles and guided aerial bombs, the source said. Russian regional authorities in Tver ordered evacuations due to a "fire" caused by drone attack, without mentioning weapons warehouse.

Earthquake Triggered After Russian Missile Stockpile Explodes

According to several seismic risk tracking sites, the explosion of a missile stockpile in Russia triggered an earthquake. Ukraine claimed responsibility for a drone attack targeting the city of Toropets, the epicenter of the event. A 2.8 magnitude earthquake struck the western Russian city of Toropets 13 hours ago. Meanwhile, NASA said it had detected a 2.8 magnitude earthquake in the city of Toropets, western Russia.recorded a significant thermal anomaly in the area last night thanks to its satellites.

These disturbances did not cause major human damage, assures Igor Rudenia, governor of the Tver region on Telegram "The most important thing is that our fellow citizens were not seriously injured, there were no deaths." The area has been partially evacuated. According to regional authorities, most of the damage to buildings was caused by broken windows.