First responders assist a man injured in a Russian strike on the town of Bilenke in Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia region on July 29. File Photo by Ukrainian State Emergency Service/UPI | License Photo
A “massive” Ukrainian drone strike against a strategic town in Russia’s Volgograd province in the south of the country set a railway station ablaze, causing travel disruption and suspending flights at a local airport.
Volgograd Gov. Andrei Bocharov said the drones targeted transport and energy facilities in Frolovo, 560 miles southeast of Moscow, impacting rail movements, which were restricted following the attack.
“In Frolovo, firefighters are working to extinguish a blaze at the technical building of the Archeda station. Windows were shattered in two nearby residential buildings, though the passenger infrastructure of the station remains intact,” said Bocharov.
State-run Russian Railways confirmed the suspension of services in Frolovo amid the attack on the station — a key waypoint in the supply route for the Russian presence in southern and eastern Ukraine.
Footage circulating online, which the BBC said it had verified using geolocation techniques, showed a large blaze in what appears to be a fuel freight siding and a damaged station building.
During the night, 61 Ukrainian drones were downed across Russian regions, the Russian Defense Ministry said.
Russia replied with an aerial assault involving more than 162 drones and one ballistic missile fired at eastern Ukraine, killing at least seven people and injuring 13, according to Ukrainian authorities.
The Zaporizhzhia region sustained the worst casualty toll, with three killed after 10 settlements were hit hundreds of times with air and rocket strikes and drones, while Kherson and Donetsk provinces each lost two of their own.
The Ukrainian attacks on Russia followed a drone strike on Sunday on an oil depot in Sochi, 680 miles to the southwest on the Black Sea, that sparked a huge blaze that required more than 120 firefighters to bring under control.
Ukraine has deployed long-range drones on numerous occasions to target fuel depots, rail infrastructure, and ammunition dumps far inside Russian territory as part of a military strategy to disrupt Russia’s war machine, including factories and supply chains.
