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In this photo posted via Leningrad Regional Governor Alexander Drozdenko’s Telegram channel, firefighters extinguish a fireplace at Novatek, Russia’s second-largest producer of herbal fuel, in Ust-Luga, southwest of St. Petersburg, Russia. in the Russian port of Ust-Luga after two explosions, regional officials said.
KYIV, Ukraine >> Moscow-installed officials said Ukrainian shelling killed at least 27 people and wounded 25 today at a market on the outskirts of Donetsk, a Russian-occupied city in the eastern part of the country.
Among the wounded in the suburb of Tekstilshchik were two children, said Denis Pushilin, the leader.
Ukrainian officials in Kyiv have not commented on the incident and those claims may simply not be independently verified through The Associated Press. Both sides have relied on longer-range attacks this winter, while their positions on the 930-nautical-mile front line have held. Virtually unchanged in the nearly two years of war.
Artillery shells that hit the domain were fired from the Kurakhove and Krasnohorivka region in the west, Pushilin said, adding that emergency services rushed to the scene.
Donetsk is one of four regions of Ukraine that Russia illegally annexed in 2022, months after Moscow introduced its full-scale invasion.
The Russian Foreign Ministry also blamed Ukraine and the attack as a “terrorist attack. “
Also today, a fire broke out at a chemical shipping terminal in Russia’s Ust-Luga port after two explosions, regional officials said. Local media said the Baltic Sea port, about 160 kilometers southwest of St. Petersburg, was attacked by Ukrainian drones. causing a fuel tank to explode.
The fire broke out in an area controlled by Russia’s second-largest producer of natural fuels, Novatek.
In a statement to Russian media outlet RBC, the company attributed the fire to “external influences” and said operations at the port had been suspended.
Yuri Zapalatsky, head of the Kingisepp district in the Gulf of Finland where the port is located, said there were no casualties yet and the domain was on high alert.
News outlet Fontanka reported that two drones had been detected flying toward St. Petersburg this morning, but were redirected toward the Kingisepp district. AP could not independently verify the reports.
The Russian Defense Ministry did not report any drone activity in the Kingisepp region in its daily report. It says that 4 Ukrainian drones were shot down in the Russian region of Smolensk and another two were shot down in the Orel and Tula regions.
Russian officials have already shown in the past that a Ukrainian drone was shot down on Thursday outside St. Petersburg.
During the fighting on the frontline, the Russian Defense Ministry said Moscow’s forces had taken the village of Krokhmalne in Ukraine’s Kharkiv region. Ukrainian forces proved that the deal had been occupied, but described its capture as temporary.
Ukrainian Ground Forces command spokesman Volodymyr Fityo said Kyiv’s troops had been withdrawn from the village, which had around 45 inhabitants before the start of the war, to reserve positions.
“It’s five houses,” he told Ukrainian media outlet Hromadske. “Our main goal is to save the lives of Ukrainian defenders. “
Recent Russian attacks have attempted to locate gaps in Ukraine’s defenses using gigantic amounts of missiles and drones in an obvious attempt to overwhelm air defense systems.
Heavy bombing raids (more than 500 drones and missiles were fired between December 29 and January 2, according to kyiv) are also depleting Ukraine’s weapons reserves.
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