Drone swarm blasts 'hit West weapons shipment'

EXPLOSIONS ripped through a key Ukrainian port after a series of Russian drone strikes yesterday.

- By Matthew Dooley

The burning dockside warehouse set off multiple explosions, with fireballs lighting up the night sky, leading to suspicion Moscow targeted a shipment of Western weapons and ammunition.

At least 20 Iranian-made Shahed drones struck the port of Chornomorsk, near Odesa, shortly after cargo from Turkey arrived, dealing a potentially significant blow to Ukraine's war effort.

The blasts followed promises from Vladimir Putin's war commander General Valery Gerasimov, of "targeted, massive strikes against Ukrainian military installations and military-industrial complex facilities". While pro-Russian military bloggers suggested the secondary explosions were due to "a military cargo arriving from Turkey".

Ukraine also came under attack in the border region of Sumy, where a man, aged 66, was killed by an aerial missile in Bilopillia, and a resident, 40, was killed in the Mykolaiv district.