Ukrainian long-range drones hit a warehouse beloning to Russia’s biggest online retailer in the Ural Mountains, more than 2,000km (1,200 miles) from the two countries’ border, local officials and the company said on Friday. Wildberries said its warehouse in Ekaterinburg, Russia’s fourth-largest city, was set ablaze in the attack. Most merchandise was not damaged, the company said. More than a dozen other Wildberries depots struck by Ukraine in recent weeks have burned down. The regional governor, Denis Pasler, said three drones hit the warehouse’s roof. The Kremlin’s representative in the region, Artyom Zhoga, said 800 people were evacuated from the warehouse and nobody was hurt. Vladimir Putin chaired a meeting of Russia’s security council on Friday and said in televised opening remarks that the meeting would focus on additional measures to “strengthen … protection of infrastructure facilities” but gave no further details.
Volodymyr Zelenskyy thanked the US Senate on Friday for passing a bill backing sweeping energy sanctions on Russia, saying it helped increase pressure on Moscow. The European Commission president, Ursula von der Leyen, also welcomed the vote, saying it came on the back on the EU’s 21st sanctions package against Russia and showed that with complementary sanctions “Europe and the United States can once again show what historic partners can achieve when we act together”. The US bill, intending to punish Russia and countries that buy its petroleum exports, advances a long-delayed measure backed by the late senator Lindsey Graham.
