A RUSSIAN military base has exploded in flames as Ukraine stages another kamikaze drone attack on a key Putin gunpowder plant.
Dramatic footage showed a major fire at an army engineering barracks at Kurganinsk in Krasnodar region.
East2WestA Russian military base exploded in flames at Kurganinsk, Krasnodar region[/caption]
East2WestLt-Gen Kyrylo Budanov, chief of Ukraine’s Main Directorate of Intelligence[/caption]
East2WestRussia repeated a drone attack on a gunpowder plant in Kotovsk, in Tambov region[/caption]
The first Ukrainian drone strike on the Tambov gunpowder plant on November 11East2West
In a video recorded by a passing local, a voice is heard saying: “I was driving home and here’s the military base on fire. Holy s***!”
The base is linked to military unit No. 98547, part of 242nd Bridge Railway Battalion of the Russian Armed Forces, whose main tasks include maintaining and repairing railway bridges for military uses.
A sawmill at the facility is believed to have been destroyed in the fire.
Meanwhile, Russia has repeated a drone attack on a gunpowder plant in Kotovsk, Tambov region, which supplies Putin’s forces in Ukraine.
A drone exploded on the roof of a workshop, causing damage and sparking a fire, Russian news outlet Baza reports.
On Saturday there was a massive explosion and fire at the plant in the first Ukrainian strike.
Russian investigators blamed the first attack on the Tambov Gunpowder Factory on Ukraine, treating it as a “terrorist act”.
Today footage showed a drone buzzing the region as it headed for the plant.
There was initially no new footage of the explosion.
This came as Ukraine’s military intelligence chief Lt-Gen Kyrylo Budanov forecast the war between Russia and Ukraine could drag on for decades.
He cited the failure of the USSR – and later Russia – to sign a peace treaty with Japan signalling the end of the Second World War with an ongoing territorial dispute over the Kuril Islands.
“There are cases in history when long-standing wars between states never ended legally,” he said.
“This territorial problem is over 70 years old.
“So this same scenario is very likely here too [regarding Moscow and Kyiv] because Russia has significant territorial cravings with respect to Ukraine, not only with respect to Crimea.
“Of course, no one is going to satisfy these appetites.”
He forecast that Russia will “continue with their chaotic bombardments, but without intense hostilities” and that 2025 could be a turning point.
“War fatigue among Russians is growing rapidly, and the population is also declining rapidly,” he said.
“It is not a forecast, but an expectation, but we should not forget that the war is globalised every month and gives rise to new processes.”
These were hurting Russia’s economy, he said.
“We are witnessing a fuel crisis, a sharp rise in prices for food and other goods. This is shaking their economy and their social sphere.”