On Friday afternoon, two powerful explosions took place in Luhansk, located far from the front line in territory under Russian control.
Telegram channels post photos and videos of plumes of black smoke rising above the city.
The fact of the explosions is confirmed by Russian military bloggers. “Something just flew over Lugansk, it looks like an airplane, then there was a whistle and the sound of an explosion,” writing telegram channel “Older than Edda”. The main telegram channels suggest that we can talk about a strike with cruise missiles, in particular the British Storm Shadow, which Ukraine learned about the day before. Lugansk is beyond the reach of conventional MLRS.
According to reports, one of the strikes hit the factory. No casualties were reported. So far there are no official reports of explosions – neither from the Russian side nor from the Ukrainian side.
Lugansk celebrates the so-called “NRL Day” today. 9 years ago, Russian-backed separatists announced the establishment of the so-called Luhansk People’s Republic in the Luhansk region of Ukraine. The Russian-appointed head of the “LNR” Leonid Pasechnik, as well as the secretary of the General Council of the “United Russia” Andrey Turchak, laid flowers in the city earlier in the day, reports Dozhd.
Storm Shadow missiles are capable of hitting targets behind Russian lines, which could be important in disrupting Russian operations and preparing for a full-scale Ukrainian offensive. In Moscow, the receipt of such weapons by the Armed Forces of Ukraine was called the “red line”, the intersection of which will be answered.
British Defense Secretary Ben Wallace told a House of Commons meeting on May 11 that the missiles would allow Ukraine to “push Russian troops” from the country’s territory. CNN reports that the British government has obtained guarantees from Kyiv that the missiles will not attack internationally recognized Russian territory. However, we are not talking about targets in the occupied territories of Ukraine.
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