Ukraine war briefing: Storm Shadow missiles ‘hit gunpowder plant in Russia’

Print

Storm Shadow missilewStorm Shadow missiles struck a Russian chemical plant making gunpowder, explosives and rocket fuel in the Bryansk region, Ukraine’s military said late on Tuesday. The French-British missiles are also known as Scalp. “A massive combined missile and airstrike was carried out, including with air-launched Storm Shadow missiles that penetrated Russia’s air defence system,” said Ukraine’s armed forces general staff. Alexander Bogomaz, the governor of Bryansk region, said on Tuesday afternoon that Ukraine attacked the region with drones and missiles. The Russian defence ministry also confirmed an attack.

Kyiv was under air attack on Tuesday night, with Russian missile attacks sparking fires and shattering windows in several districts, mayor Vitali Klitschko said. Emergency services were dispatched to several sites where the debris from the destroyed air weapons fell, but no casualties have been reported, Klitschko said on the Telegram messaging app. Other areas being hit included Zaporizhzhia, Dnipro, and the city of Izmail, a port on the Danube river.

Plans for a summit between Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin in Budapest have been shelved, Dan Sabbagh reports, after an apparently unproductive phone call between Marco Rubio and Sergei Lavrov. Their call also led to the cancellation of a meeting planned in Hungary’s capital for this Thursday between Rubio, Donald Trump’s secretary of state, and Lavrov, Vladimir Putin’s foreign minister. A senior European diplomat told Reuters the Russians “haven’t at all changed” their maximalist position of Ukraine giving up the entire Donbas region. “And I assume Lavrov gave the same spiel, and Rubio was like: ‘See you later’.” Another European diplomat thought that “it became evident for the Americans that there will be no deal for Trump in Budapest”.

More...