Ukraine Strikes Russian Rocket Plant, Air Base With Flamingo Missiles

KYIV, Ukraine —

Ukraine carried out long-range strikes deep inside Russia on Saturday, hitting a rocket facility tied to the country's space program and a military air base, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said. The attacks came as Russia's Foreign Ministry demanded that Washington and Ankara clarify reports of a planned weapons shipment to Kyiv.

Zelenskyy said Ukrainian forces used domestically built Flamingo cruise missiles to hit the Progress Center, a facility in Russia's Samara region that operates under the state space agency Roscosmos, about 900 kilometers (560 miles) from the Ukrainian border. He said the site plays a role in Russia's war effort by producing rocket technology and electronics. Ukrainian forces also struck the Savasleyka air base, roughly 700 kilometers (430 miles) from the border, according to Zelenskyy.

"Our plan of long-range sanctions against Russia for this war is being implemented, and it is important that Russia's war potential be reduced," Zelenskyy said, adding that peace "must be evident in Russia, through concrete damage to specific facilities."

A Deep Strike Into Russia's Space Program

The Progress Center assembles the Soyuz-2 rocket, Russia's primary launch vehicle for both civilian and military missions, including crewed flights to the International Space Station, according to Ars Technica. The outlet reported that more than 85 percent of Russian rocket launches since 2020 have used Soyuz-2 variants, and that Russian space officials had already said demand for the rockets was outpacing production capacity before the strike. It was not immediately clear which buildings at the sprawling site were damaged, though some reports pointed to a structure housing electronics assembly, Ars Technica reported.

Ivan Noskov, the mayor of the regional capital, Samara, said air defenses repelled what he called a "massive" attack and confirmed localized damage to industrial sites in the city.

Russia also struck Ukraine on Saturday. An attack on an apartment building in the southeastern town of Marhanets killed a three-month-old baby and wounded 11 people, according to local officials cited by France 24. A day earlier, a Russian airstrike using guided bombs on Kramatorsk killed one person and injured 17, according to Ukraine's State Emergency Service, and Donetsk regional prosecutors opened a war crimes investigation into that attack, Euronews reported.

Moscow Presses Washington And Ankara

Russia's Foreign Ministry said Saturday it was seeking clarification from the United States and Turkey over reports that Turkey could send Ukraine a "substantial arsenal" of American-made weapons and ammunition. Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said that if the transfer goes forward, it would cause "serious harm" to Russia's relations with both countries.

Separately, a Ukrainian drone struck a home in Shatura, in Russia's Moscow region, injuring two people including a nine-year-old child whose condition later stabilized, regional Governor Andrey Vorobyov said.