KYIV   -  Ukraine’s security services said Saturday they had struck a Russian ammunition factory in a border region, as Moscow’s forces claimed yet another advance on the battlefield.  Ukraine also said it had thwarted a “massive” overnight Russian aerial attack that saw drones launched towards the capital Kyiv.  The attacks come after a week of intense Russian bombardments across Ukraine that killed at least 55 in the central city of Poltava, and seven in Lviv -- hundreds of kilometres from the frontlines and close to Ukraine’s western border with EU and NATO members. A large fire and several explosions were reported overnight in the Russian region of Voronezh, which borders Ukraine, prompting officials to evacuate locals living near the blaze. Russian anti-air defence systems “detected and neutralised a drone” early on Saturday morning over the western part of the region, under 150 kilometres (90 miles) from Ukraine, Voronezh governor Alexander Gusev wrote on Telegram.

“No-one was injured” but when the drone fell, it sparked a large fire “that spread to explosive devices and caused them to detonate”, Gusev continued, without providing details of which facility was hit.  “A decision was taken to evacuate residents of a village” because of the blaze, he said.  Russian Telegram channels said the fire broke out in a local munitions depot.

Ukraine’s SBU security services later claimed it had hit a Russian ammunition depot. A source in the SBU told AFP that Kyiv was targeting “military airfields, ammunition depots and infrastructure facilities” in order to “create a demilitarised zone in the regions of Russia adjacent to Ukraine.” It called them all “legitimate targets”. In the meanwhile, Russia said on Saturday it had seized another village in eastern Ukraine, where Moscow’s troops are continuing to advance.  The defence ministry said Russian forces “have liberated the village of Kalynove” in the Donetsk region, which lies around 25 kilometres (16 miles) southeast of the key logistics hub of Pokrovsk, held by Kyiv’s forces.

Russian troops have been advancing on Pokrovsk for months and Ukraine has ordered the mandatory evacuation of children from the city. Moscow has claimed to have captured a string of villages in the area, even as it struggles to fight off a major Ukrainian counter-attack into its own western Kursk region. Russian President Vladimir Putin said Thursday that Russia’s “primary objective” in the conflict was to capture the entire Donbas region -- which consists of Ukraine’s Donetsk and Lugansk regions.

 Moscow claimed to have annexed them, along with the southern Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions in 2022, months after it launched its full-scale military offensive and despite not having full control over them.