Drone attack in Ukraine hits Russian chemical and ammunition factory

Drone strikes were launched overnight in several regions in Russia, with targets including a munitions factory, while the Ukrainian port city of Odesa suffered widespread damage from Russian strikes.

A source in Ukraine’s security service said the Russian Aleksinsky chemical plant – which produces gunpowder, ammunition and weapons in the Tula region – was targeted and hit in a nighttime drone strike.

The source told Reuters on Saturday that the attack was part of a broader strategy to target Russian munitions factories that support Moscow’s defense sector and the war effort against Ukraine.

Meanwhile, Russian air defenses intercepted and destroyed a number of Ukrainian drones over the southern Bryansk region, regional Governor Alexander Bogomaz said early Saturday morning, adding that a total of 15 drones had been downed by Russian air defense units and reporting that there were no damages or injuries related to the incidents.

The Russian Defense Ministry later said that 50 Ukrainian drones were destroyed overnight over seven Russian regions, more than half of them over the Bryansk region bordering Ukraine.

It comes after a series of Russian bombs, missiles and drone strikes hit three regions of Ukraine in targeted nighttime attacks in recent days.

Attacks in Odesa, Ukraine’s third most populous city and a major seaport, caused damage to houses, apartment buildings, administrative facilities, warehouses and vehicles on Friday night, the Odesa City Council said.

One person died and 13 others were injured in one of the city’s residential areas, local officials said Saturday.

Airstrike warnings have reportedly been issued in several regions, with the Ukrainian Air Force confirming that a group of Iranian-made Shahed drones had been fired at the southern region of Odesa.

Later there were reports that several explosions had been heard, with local media in Odesa reporting a fire in a residential complex in one of the city’s neighborhoods following an impact during the airstrike.

Another 32 Russian drones were shot down overnight over ten Ukrainian regions, while 18 were “lost,” probably because they were electronically jammed, according to the Ukrainian Air Force.

Images shared on social media showed some of the damage.

A Russian aerial bomb also hit a busy highway in the northeastern province of Kharkov overnight, Kharkov Mayor Ihor Terekohov said. No casualties have been reported.

That followed serious damage to an apartment building in Kharkiv – Ukraine’s second-largest city – by a 500kg slide bomb last night, an incident that injured at least 25 people, including a baby, according to regional governor Oleh Syniehubov.

Sliding bombs, for which Ukraine has no effective countermeasure, destroy their targets, emitting a powerful shock wave and often leaving a wide crater.

That same night, a Russian drone strike also killed one person and injured nine others in Odesa, while in the capital Kiev four people were injured by falling wreckage from intercepted missiles.

In total, Russia reportedly fired 92 drones and five missiles at Ukraine on the night of November 8, the Ukrainian Air Force said.

Four missiles and 62 drones were intercepted and 26 drones were electronically jammed, the report said.

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Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has said his country needs more help to fight back against Russia’s military might, even as uncertainty grows about what Western aid to Ukraine can expect following the election of Donald Trump as the next US president .

“It is important to act together and decisively at the international level whenever Russia tries to destroy our lives,” Zelensky wrote on Telegram. “This is the only way to achieve a just peace and stop the deaths of our people.”

Russia launched about 2,000 drones at Ukraine in October, about a third more than the previous month. This is the third month in a row that there has been a significant increase, the British Ministry of Defense said on Friday.

Russia’s fire rates have risen since the middle of the year, the report said, adding that the latest high monthly figures are likely to become the norm as the country mounts an intensified air campaign.

Since the war began nearly three years ago following Russia’s large-scale invasion of its neighbor, the Russian military has repeatedly used its superior air force to destroy civilian targets across Ukraine.

According to the United Nations, more than 10,000 Ukrainian civilians have been killed in the conflict.

The latest strikes in the early hours of Saturday came as EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell arrived in Kiev to discuss European support for Ukraine.

To ensure the country of European support, he wrote on

Additional reporting from the Press Association.