Ukraine has launched fresh attacks deep inside Russian territory, striking a military airfield and a rocket centre that supports Moscow’s satellite internet network, while the Kremlin presses Washington and Ankara over a potential weapons transfer to Kyiv.
President Volodymyr Zelenskyy announced on Saturday that Ukrainian forces used domestically produced Flamingo cruise missiles to hit the Progress Centre, a rocket facility operated by Russia’s space agency Roscosmos. He said the site is a critical part of Russia’s war effort because it produces rocket technology and electronics. The facility lies about 900km (560 miles) from Ukraine’s border, a distance that highlights Kyiv’s growing capacity to strike targets far from the front line.
Zelenskyy added that Ukrainian forces also successfully targeted Savasleyka air base, located roughly 700km (430 miles) from the border.
“Our plan of long-range sanctions against Russia for this war is being implemented, and it is important that Russia’s war potential be reduced. Peace is needed, and this must be evident in Russia – through concrete damage to specific facilities,” Zelenskyy said.
Russian local officials acknowledged the scale of the attacks. Samara mayor Ivan Noskov said air defences had repelled what he called a “massive” Ukrainian strike and confirmed that some industrial sites in the region were damaged. In the Moscow region, a drone hit a house in the town of Shatura, injuring two people, one of them a child aged nine. Governor Andrey Vorobyov said the child’s condition had stabilised.
Russia also carried out attacks on Ukraine on Saturday. Local officials said an apartment block in the southeastern town of Marhanets was struck, killing a baby three months old.
On the diplomatic front, Moscow said it wants clarification from the United States and Turkiye about a possible weapons transfer to Kyiv. The Russian Foreign Ministry is seeking details on reports, said to originate from Turkiye, describing a “substantial arsenal” of US weapons and ammunition. Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova warned that any such transfer would cause “serious harm” to Russia’s relations with both countries.
The strikes and the arms transfer dispute illustrate the widening reach of Ukraine’s attacks and the mounting diplomatic tensions over Western military assistance.
