Ukraine hits Russian facilities with missiles and drones

Ukraine struck a southern Russian port on the Azov Sea with missiles and triggered a fire at an oil depot in the Bryansk region of western Russia with drones, according to officials and media reports.

The extent of the damage and the exact weapons used in the attack was unclear, though Russia has repeatedly cautioned that Ukraine's use of US ATACMS to strike sovereign Russian territory risks triggering a wider war.

Russia's defence ministry said its air defence units destroyed 14 Ukrainian drones overnight over the Bryansk region that borders Ukraine. It did not say what was hit.

Bryansk Governor Alexander Bogomaz said on his Telegram channel that a production facility caught a short-lived fire as result of the attack. He did not say what facility was damaged.

Ukraine's military claimed it had caused a "massive fire" at an oil depot with a strike on the Bryansk region.

The Soviet-built Druzhba oil pipeline, which pumps oil from the fields in western Siberia and the Caspian Sea to the markets of Europe, runs through the Bryansk region, as does the Baltic Pipeline System (BPS) which runs to the Baltic Sea.

Reuters was unable to verify if any oil infrastructure had been hit. The ASTRA Telegram channel said a refinery had been hit and showed flames leaping into the sky.

About 750km south, the Russian port of Taganrog was hit by missiles from Ukraine, damaging an industrial facility and numerous cars, the acting governor of Rostov region said.

"According to preliminary information, no one was hurt," Yuri Slyusar said on the Telegram messaging app.

Mr Slyusar said 14 cars had caught fire, but he did not disclose details on what else was hit or how big the attack was.

Reuters was not able to independently verify the reports.

Final phase?

Russia's 2022 invasion of Ukraine has left tens of thousands of dead, displaced millions and triggered the biggest crisis in relations between Russia and the West since the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis.

The war is entering what some Russian and Western officials said could be its final and most dangerous phase as Russia's forces advance at their fastest pace since the early weeks of the conflict and the West ponders how the war will end.

The conflict in eastern Ukraine began in 2014 after a pro-Russian president was toppled in Ukraine's Maidan Revolution and Russia annexed Crimea, with Russian-backed separatist forces fighting Ukraine's armed forces.

Ukraine used US ATACMS missiles in November to strike into Russia, taking advantage of newly granted permission from the administration of outgoing US President Joe Biden.

Days later, Russia fired a hypersonic intermediate-range ballistic missile at the Ukrainian city of Dnipro.

Since then, Russia reported it had shot down at least 15 ATACMS missiles.

President Vladimir Putin said Ukraine's use of Western-made missiles represented direct involvement of the West in an armed conflict with Russia.

The damaged area of Taganrog, a city of about a quarter of a million people on Russia's Black Sea coast and not far from the border with Ukraine, has been cordoned off by police, Svetlana Kambulova, the head of the city, said on Telegram.

The attack partially damaged a boiler building, cutting off heat to 27 apartment buildings, Ms Kambulova said.

Russia has an air base near the city, from which military analysts said Russia's air force operates drones, bombers and other weapons to attack Ukraine.