Ukrainian drones allegedly attacked a massive arms depot some 240 miles west of Moscow on Wednesday, causing an earthquake-sized blast and forcing the evacuation of thousands from the area.
Ukrainian officials have not yet claimed responsibility for the attack, though sources in the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) reportedly confirmed the attack to the Kyiv Independent and other reports pointed to military bloggers and local officials who said Ukrainian drones had been shot down over the Tver region in Russia, where a known military arsenal was located.
Video footage obtained by Fox News Digital depicted a huge blast erupting during the early morning hours on Wednesday, though the cause of the explosions or the targets could not be independently verified.
A cloud rises after an explosion in Toropets, Tver region, Russia, in this screen grab obtained from a social media video released on Sept. 18, 2024. (Social Media/via Reuters)
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Intense heat sources were reportedly picked up by NASA satellites emanating from an area of roughly five square miles, where a “weak” 2.8 magnitude earthquake was detected causing “light shaking near [the] epicenter” in the Tver region, just 55 miles away from the border with Belarus.
Russian state media, tightly regulated by the Kremlin, did not appear to report on the explosion as of Wednesday afternoon Moscow time.
The governor of the Tver region, Igor Rudenya, said a fire had broken out and that Ukrainian drones had been shot down, though he did not confirm what was burning, first reported Reuters.
Rudenya also said some residents had been evacuated, though reports by East2West said some 3,000 Russians had fled the area.
Fox News Digital could not immediately reach Ukraine’s military intelligence agency, GUR, for comment.
Flames rise during an explosion in Toropets, Tver region, Russia in this screen grab obtained from a social media video released on Sept. 18, 2024. (Social Media/via Reuters)
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Russian defense units were reported to have destroyed 54 drones launched across five Russian regions, though Moscow did not mention any drone strikes over the Tver region, and it is unclear where the drone strikes levied by Ukraine originated.
The explosions at the arms depot are reported to have occurred in the town of Toropets, which is nearly 480 miles from Kursk in southwest Russia, where Ukrainian forces launched an invasion last month, and roughly 400 miles from Ukraine’s northernmost border with Russia.
Ukrainian servicemen operate a Soviet-made T-72 tank in the Sumy region, near the border with Russia, on Aug. 12, 2024. (Roman Pilipey/AFP via Getty Images)
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Ukraine has ramped up its attacks against Moscow in recent months by increasingly hitting targets against its homeland, and Kyiv has called on the U.S. and NATO allies to allow it to use Western-supplied long-range missiles to hit military targets deep inside Russia.
These strike bans have not been lifted, and it is unclear how Ukraine was able to target a top military site using drones without detection hundreds of miles into Russian territory.
