A bevy of drones struck a facility in Russia’s western Tver region, causing an enormous conflagration and forcing residents to evacuate, local officials have said. Ukraine has not claimed responsibility.
On the morning of Sept. 18, Russia’s TASS news agency reported that air defenses were “still repelling a massive drone attack in the skies over Toropets in the Tver region.”
With a population of roughly 11,000, Toropets is an ancient town in western Tver. It is located 240 miles northwest of Moscow and 300 miles from the border with Ukraine.
While not technically a border region, Tver’s westernmost point sits close to Russia’s border with Belarus, Moscow’s primary ally in Eastern Europe.
According to Russian media reports, the attack sparked a massive blaze in Toropets, which had not been extinguished as of midday.
TASS cited Tver regional governor Igor Rudenya as saying that school services had been temporarily suspended in Tver’s western Zapadnaya Dvina municipality.
Writing on the social media platform Telegram, Rudenya said he had ordered the partial evacuation of local residents from the affected area.
In subsequent remarks to the media, Rudenya said the attack had not resulted in any deaths or injuries.
Meanwhile, the target of the attack remains unclear.
In the early hours of Sept. 18, earthquake monitoring stations reportedly registered seismic activity near the site of the reported attack.
In 2018, Russian state media reported that Moscow had built a large weapons depot in Toropets for the storage of missiles and other munitions.
Russia’s defense ministry has yet to comment on the reported attack. However, according to a ministry statement carried by local media, Russian air defenses intercepted 54 incoming Ukrainian drones overnight in five western regions, including Kursk, Bryansk, Smolensk, Oryol, and Belgorod.
No casualties or material damage due to those attacks have been reported.
