Explosions have rocked the Russian-occupied city of Luhansk in eastern Ukraine Sunday afternoon, with plumes of black smoke visible above the city.
The strikes, reportedly made with Western missiles, come amid Ukraine’s pleas for permission to strike military objects on Russian soil. While Western precision missiles have been of major use to Ukraine’s military operations inside its occupied territory, it is forced to rely on a burgeoning long-range drone program to hit major assets such as airfields in Russia proper.
According to Leonid Pasechnik, the Russian-installed head of the occupied Luhansk Oblast, Ukrainian forces launched “12 missiles of Western manufacture” at the city. Pasechnik claimed that “presumably eight ATACMS and four Storm Shadow missiles” hit “warehouse facilities where fuel tanks were located, and a residential area.”
However, Artem Lysohor, Ukraine’s head of the Luhansk Regional Military Administration in exile, provided a different account. Lysohor reported that the strikes resulted in a fire at a machinery plant where Russian forces repair and store military equipment.
“Today in the afternoon, as reported by the occupation media, 12 explosions were heard in this city,” Lysohor stated. He added that the Russian air defense system, which “only shoots down things for TV reports and Telegram channels,” allowed for what he called a “combined cotton” event to bloom, using a term often employed euphemistically for explosions.
The Russian state news agency TASS also reported powerful explosions in Donetsk and Makiivka, with preliminary information indicating smoke in the center of Makiivka.
Earlier strikes at Luhansk Oblast:
- 13 May: An alleged attack on an ammunition depot in occupied Sorokyne, Luhansk Oblast, resulted in explosions and secondary detonations. Footage showed the damage caused by the strike.
- On 8 May, Russian proxies reported that an ATACMS missile hit an oil depot in Luhansk, causing damage to power lines and gas pipelines. At least five people were reportedly injured.
- Explosions and a fire at the oil depot in temporarily occupied Luhansk overnight on 7-8 May destroyed at least three fuel storage tanks, as shown by satellite imagery.
- Satellite imagery captured the aftermath of a missile strike on a Russian military facility in occupied Luhansk on 13 April. The images revealed significant damage to the facility.