ウクライナ、ロシア領内に「最大規模の攻撃」 工場やエネ施設標的に

【キーウＡＦＰ＝時事】ウクライナは１３日から１４日にかけての夜間に、ロシア各地に過去最大規模の攻撃を実施した。軍は、前線からロシア領内に数百キロ入った地点にある工場やエネルギー施設を標的にしたとしている。（写真はウクライナ・ドネツク州チャソフヤールへ向かう道で爆発物を除去する兵士。ウクライナ軍第２４独立機械化旅団報道局提供）
　ロシア当局者によると、中部サラトフ州で攻撃により学校が閉鎖されたほか、中・西部の少なくとも９か所の空港で一時、航空便の運航が停止された。
　ウクライナ軍参謀本部はＳＮＳに、「国境から２００～１１００キロ離れたロシア領内の軍事施設に対して最大規模の攻撃を行った」と投稿。「ブリャンスク州、サラトフ州、トゥーラ州およびタタールスタン共和国の施設を攻撃した」としている。
　攻撃では、ロシア軍向けにロケット燃料や弾薬を製造する化学工場、空軍基地近くの石油貯蔵施設、製油所が標的となった。
　サラトフ州のロマン・ブサルギン知事は、州内への攻撃が「大規模」だったと認めた。
　メディアやタタールスタン共和国政府によれば、カザン市近郊のガス貯蔵タンクがウクライナの無人機攻撃を受け、炎と黒煙が立ち上った。
　ロシア国防省は、ウクライナ軍がブリャンスク州への攻撃で発射した米国製長距離地対地ミサイル「ＡＴＡＣＭＳ （エイタクムス）」６発と、英国製の空中発射型巡航ミサイル「ストームシャドー」６発を撃ち落としたと主張した。【翻訳編集ＡＦＰＢＢＮｅｗｓ】
〔ＡＦＰ＝時事〕（2025/01/15-18:34）

Ukraine carried out its largest aerial attack on Russian territory of the nearly three-year war overnight, Kyiv said on Tuesday, hitting factories and energy hubs hundreds of miles from the frontline.
The Russian military accused Kyiv of using US- and British-supplied missiles for one of the strikes and promised it would not go unanswered.
The barrage forced schools in the southwestern Saratov region to close, while at least nine airports in central and western Russia temporarily halted traffic, according to Russian officials.
Moscow and Kyiv have increased strikes on each other ahead of US president-elect Donald Trump's inauguration next week, as both sides seek to gain the upper hand in potential negotiations aimed at settling the nearly three-year war.
The Ukrainian Defence Forces carried out the most massive strike against the occupiers' military facilities, at a distance of 200 to 1,100 kilometres (125 to 700 miles) deep into the territory of the Russian Federation, Ukraine's General Staff said in a post on social media.
Facilities in the Bryansk, Saratov, Tula regions and the Republic of Tatarstan were hit, it added.
Among the targets were a chemical factory that makes rocket fuel and ammunition for Russia's army, an oil depot near a Russian air base and an oil refinery.
The governor of Russia's Saratov region, Roman Busargin, said the scale of the attack there was massive.
Schools in the cities of Saratov and Engels were holding classes online on Tuesday because of the attacks, he added.
Firefighters had only the day before managed to put out a blaze at an oil depot in the city of Engels, which was hit by a Ukrainian drone strike on January 8.
Kyiv's army said it had hit the same site again.
- 'Successful' strike -
In the energy-rich region of Tatarstan, a Ukrainian drone struck a gas storage tank, sending flames and thick smoke billowing into the sky near the city of Kazan, according to media and the regional government.
Tatar local media said a liquefied gas storage base was hit, and published images showing flames and black smoke.
Russia's defence ministry said it had shot down six US-supplied ATACMS missiles and six British Storm Shadow cruise missiles that Ukraine had fired in the attack on the Bryansk region.
Ukraine's army had earlier claimed it had hit a chemical plant near the town of Seltso, more than 100 kilometres from the border, that makes ammunition and explosives for Russia's army.
Drones successfully distracted Russian air defences, paving the way for missiles that hit the main targets, the Ukrainian military's Unmanned Systems Forces said.
Ukraine regularly targets military and energy sites in Russia, part of what it calls fair retaliation for Russia's repeated barrages of its energy grid since Moscow invaded in February 2022.
The Ukrainian army vowed to pursue its systematic campaign against the Russian military industrial complex until Russian armed aggression against Ukraine is completely stopped.
The air force separately said that its air defence systems had downed 58 Iranian-designed drones launched by Russia, while another 21 either were destroyed with electronic interference systems or crashed.
- Russian advances -
The overnight Ukrainian attacks came at a difficult moment for Kyiv's forces along the front line, particularly in the eastern Donetsk region.
City authorities in Pokrovsk, Russia's main target in the region, repeated a call on Tuesday for remaining residents to flee. Around 60,000 people lived in the city before Russia invaded in February 2022.
Russian advances have also forced the closure and evacuation of staff from a major coal mine around Pokrovsk, its operator said on Tuesday, another signal of the dangerous proximity of Russian forces to the city.
Moscow announced on Tuesday that it had re-captured two Ukrainian villages in the eastern Donetsk region -- Neskuchne and Terny -- that Kyiv had wrested back from Russian control earlier in the conflict: symbolic blows for Kyiv's struggling army.
The Russian defence ministry said the area around Neskuchne was a strategically important logistics hub for Ukraine, and published footage showing air strikes against the shells of charred concrete buildings, already completely destroyed by previous attacks.