A Ukrainian drone night burns the largest Wildberries warehouse near Moscow
An overnight Ukrainian drone assault burned the largest Wildberries hub near Moscow. Kyiv said domestic ballistic missiles are 3 to 6 months away, while Kaja Kallas prepared the widest Russia sanctions listing for autumn.
Geopolitics··Midday
Moscow's largest warehouse goes up
Russia's defence ministry said it destroyed 1,478 Ukrainian fixed-wing drones in 24 hours, the highest figure it has claimed in the war. Ukraine's defence ministry said the strike shut a Wildberries logistics hub near Moscow. Moscow region governor Andrey Vorobyov said air defences downed or neutralised 187 drones in and around the capital, that an 83-year-old man was killed in Ramenskoye and that three people were injured in Koledino. The fire hit what Ukraine's defence ministry called Wildberries' largest warehouse by area, 250,000 square metres, and Kyiv said seven of the company's ten biggest logistics hubs are now out of operation. None of the Russian or Ukrainian figures has been independently verified.[1]
Home-made ballistic missiles, 3 to 6 months out
Mykhailo Fedorov, who ran Ukraine's drone programme until he was dismissed in July, told CBS News that Kyiv could strike Russia with domestically made ballistic missiles within 3 to 6 months. Such missiles are far harder for Russian air defences to stop than the drones and cruise missiles Ukraine relies on now, The Guardian reported. Fire Point, a Ukrainian defence manufacturer, is developing ballistic missiles and carried out a launch test in June. Fedorov said Russia is advancing quickly too, and that Ukraine needs to defeat it in every technological cycle. In the same overnight assault, Ukraine's military said it hit a plant in Russia's Rostov region that makes solid rocket propellant for multiple launch rocket systems and other missile systems.[2]
Kallas prepares the widest autumn listing
Kaja Kallas, the EU's foreign policy chief, told the German newspaper Die Welt she would put forward the most far-reaching sanctions listings since the start of the war this autumn. Once adopted, Kallas said, they would raise the number of sanctioned Russian people and entities by a third. She said existing measures had already deprived Russia's war machine of more than 1 trillion euros and that pressure must keep growing until Moscow ends its war. She gave no detail on the timing or content of the new package. The EU approved its most recent package in July, imposing curbs on Russia's banking sector and cryptocurrency networks.[3]
