Russian Military officials have confirmed that blasts were recorded in the city of Rostov, near the headquarters of the southern military district command, which plays a key role in Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Reports released late Wednesday, September 6, 2023, said the area where the blasts occurred is one of the sites seized by late Wagner leader, Yevgeny Viktorovich Prigozhin during his aborted mutiny in June.
Regional Governor Vasily Golubev said on Telegram that at least three buildings and several cars had been damaged while one person was injured after Russian air defences shot down two Ukrainian drones targeting the city, about 100km east of the border with Ukraine.
Golubev said the remains of one drone fell outside the city, while the other fell “in the city centre, in the area of 42 Pushkinskaya Street”.
Rostov is the largest city in southern Russia and is the capital of the Rostov region that adjoins parts of eastern Ukraine where the war is raging.
According to the Institute for the Study of War (ISW) think tank, Rostov is home to the Russian southern military district command, whose 58th Combined Arms Army is fighting against Kyiv’s counteroffensive in southern Ukraine.
The area also houses the command centre for the Russian joint group of forces in Ukraine as a whole and is therefore a critical logistical hub for the Russian Military..
Meanwhile, Ukraine officials have reported that Port infrastructures were damaged in a Russian drone attack on the Izmail region.
Governor of the Region, Oleg Kiper said in a Telegram post that the damage occurred during a three-hour Russian drone attack on the Danube port of Izmail.
Kiper said the attack was the fourth on the port, in the south of the Odesa region, in five days, adding that civilian and port infrastructure, a grain silo and an administrative building were damaged while a truck driver sustained a minor leg injury.
Reports indicate that Russia has increased its attacks on Ukrainian ports since July when it pulled out of a deal that had allowed Kyiv to export its grain via its Black Sea ports.
In another development, the United States Secretary of State, Anthony Blinken, who is currently in Kyiv on a previously unannounced visit, has confirmed new aid to Ukraine worth about $1 billion.
Controversially, this also includes the supply of uranium-depleted munitions, which are valued for their armour-piercing abilities but which critics say carry health and other risks.
Russian officials said the development comes against the backdrop of Ukrainian drones being shot down by air defences in the Moscow region and the Bryansk region that borders northern Ukraine.
The Ria news agency said one drone was shot down in the Ramensky district south-east of Moscow and that according to preliminary information, there was “no destruction or casualties as a result of falling debris”.
Another drone was shot down over Bryansk, the Regional Governor, Alexander Bogomaz, said on Telegram, adding that; “There were no casualties or damage”. – With The Guardian report
