Ukraine claims biggest aerial strike on Russian territory

KYIV, Ukraine: Ukraine carried out its largest aerial attack on Russian territory of the nearly three-year war overnight, Kyiv said on Tuesday, hitting factories and energy hubs hundreds of miles from the frontline.

The Russian military accused Kyiv of using US- and British-supplied missiles for one of the strikes and promised it would “not go unanswered”.

The barrage forced schools in the southwestern Saratov region to close, while at least nine airports in central and western Russia temporarily halted traffic, according to Russian officials.

Moscow and Kyiv have upped strikes on each other ahead of US President-elect Donald Trump´s inauguration next week, as both sides seek to gain the upper hand in potential negotiations aimed at settling the nearly three-year war.

“The Ukrainian Defence Forces carried out the most massive strike against the occupiers´ military facilities, at a distance of 200 to 1,100-kms deep into the territory of the Russian Federation,” Ukraine´s General Staff said in a post on social media.

Facilities “in the Bryansk, Saratov, Tula regions and the Republic of Tatarstan were hit,” it added.

Among the targets were a chemical factory that makes rocket fuel and ammunition for Russia´s army, an oil depot near a Russian air base and an oil refinery.

The governor of Russia´s Saratov region, Roman Busargin, said the scale of the attack there was “massive”.

Schools in the cities of Saratov and Engels were holding classes online on Tuesday because of the attacks, he added.

Firefighters had only the day before managed to put out a blaze at an oil depot in the city of Engels, which was hit by a Ukrainian drone strike on January 8.

Kyiv´s army said it had hit the same site again.

In the energy-rich region of Tatarstan, a Ukrainian drone struck a gas storage tank, sending flames and thick smoke billowing toward the sky near the city of Kazan, according to media and the regional government.