Ukraine says it struck a Russian ammo depot where North Korean weapons and devastating glide bombs were stored
The aftermath of a Ukrainian attack on another Russian ammunition depot in September.
The Ukrainian armed forces said that it carried out a drone strike on a major Russian ammunition depot overnight. The attack marks the latest in a string of attacks targeting Moscow’s arsenals.
The Ukrainian military said Wednesday that its forces caused “fire damage” at an ammunition depot near the town of Karachev in Russia’s western Bryansk region, which borders Ukraine directly to the north.
The Russian military is said to have stored missiles and artillery shells, including munitions from North Korea, and highly destructive glide bombs at the targeted arsenal. Ukraine said some of the weapons weren’t even stored inside a warehouse and were just sitting out in the open.
Video footage circulating around on social media purportedly showed explosions at the facility, but the extent of the damage wasn’t immediately clear. Russia’s defense ministry said it shot down two dozen drones over Bryansk overnight. B-17 couldn’t independently verify the video details or claims about the Ukrainian attack.
Additional footage of the massive number of secondary explosions at Russia’s burning 67th GRAU Arsenal after an overnight Ukrainian strike.
Hundreds of secondary explosions have been reported at the key Russian ammunition dump, reportedly housing North Korean munitions. https://t.co/tI1UUVCKzB pic.twitter.com/4UOBhy85Kw
— OSINTtechnical (@Osinttechnical) October 9, 2024
The Ukrainian military wrote in a statement shared to the Telegram messaging platform that “damage to such arsenals creates serious logistical problems for the Russian army, which significantly reduces the offensive potential of the occupiers in threatening areas.”
The military said that the attack was mainly carried out by its Unmanned Systems Forces, a newly created unit that specializes in drone warfare. Its establishment over the summer underscores the dominating role that drones have played during the war.
The ammunition depot struck is formally known as the 67th Arsenal of the Main Missile and Artillery Directorate, which is a department under Russia’s defense ministry. The Unmanned Systems Forces said this site is also used to store Iranian-made weapons.
Russia only maintains around two dozen of these facilities across the country, the Unmanned Systems Forces wrote on Telegram, explaining that Moscow stores thousands of tons of ammo at each of the sites.
Guess they didn’t move everything that back. The 67th GRAU arsenal in Karachev, near Bryansk, is now feeling it with secondary explosions after a successful drone attack. pic.twitter.com/KvJBo2F6nn
— Maria Avdeeva (@maria_avdv) October 9, 2024
The Bryansk attack is the latest in a series of Ukrainian strikes on key Russian ammunition depots. The campaign began in September and has seen Kyiv target multiple arsenals over the past few weeks, destroying warehouses storing missiles, bombs, and artillery.
Ukraine has relied on domestically produced long-range drones to wage this campaign because the West restricts it from using its inventory of Western-made missiles to strike military targets inside Russia. Officials in Kyiv have long tried to get their partners to drop these limitations, but it has so far been unsuccessful.
Ukraine’s recent deep strikes have exposed glaring weaknesses in Russia’s air-defense network, which has been unable to stop these long-range drone attacks from inflicting damage.
In line with Ukrainian assessments, Western intelligence has suggested that the Ukrainian strikes on the ammunition depots will cause disruption to Moscow’s munitions supplies and could force deeper logistics issues.
