Ukraine launched more than 300 drones into Russia on Saturday, hitting as far as the Urals city of Yekaterinburg and killing at least two people near the border, Moscow said. Kyiv has intensified its retaliatory strikes deep inside Russia in recent months, causing fuel shortages and disrupting ordinary life more than at any point during Moscow's over four-year offensive.
Russia's defence ministry said it had intercepted 328 drones, including over the Moscow region and regions as far as Bashkortostan and the Chuvash Republic. The acting head of Russia's Belgorod region, Alexander Shuvayev, said two people were killed in border areas.
In the Urals city of Yekaterinburg, Russia's online retail giant Wildberries said it had evacuated staff after a drone attack. Wildberries confirmed that its facility was not damaged but had suspended work at its logistics facility in the city.
The attacks come a day after a Ukrainian strike on a factory in Russia's city of Kirov, hundreds of miles east of Moscow, killed several people, with authorities declaring three days of mourning in the region. The head of the Sverdlovsk region, Denis Pasler, confirmed that Yekaterinburg had been attacked, with no casualties reported but a fire caused at a parking lot.
In the Kirov region, local governor Alexander Sokolov said he was strengthening security measures after a deadly attack on a factory. Sokolov corrected the death toll from Friday's attack to five, after a man previously believed to be dead was found alive.
