A Russian drone attack hit a bus carrying workers in the Ukrainian town of Marhanets in the Dnipropetrovsk region, killing at least nine people and injuring dozens of others, local authorities said.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy condemned the attack, saying that Russian first-person view (FPV) drone attacks on civilians are 'commonplace' in the Dnipropetrovsk and Kherson regions, as well as the frontline cities of Kupyansk and Pokrovsk.
"Russians struck a bus which was transporting workers of a mining and processing plant. An ordinary bus," Zelenskyy said.
Early on April 23, Serhiy Lysak, the governor of the Dnipropetrovsk region, said the number of casualties was "constantly growing."
Your browser doesn’t support HTML5
Wave Of Russian Strikes Kills 9 In Marhanets, Injures Dozens
Zelenskyy said more than 40 people were injured in the strike with some receiving 'very severe wounds.'
"War evolves over time, and the longer it lasts, the more, unfortunately, the methods of killing and cruelty can be modernized," he added.
Speaking at a meeting of the State Military-Industrial Commission on April 23, Russian President Vladimir Putin said that more than 1.5 million drones of various types had been produced in Russia last year.
Putin added that this amount included about 4,000 FPV drones.
A wave of Russia's attacks also targeted civilian infrastructure across other Ukrainian regions. At least five people were reported injured in the Ukrainian cities of Poltava and Odesa.
"Residential buildings, business facilities, warehouses, and garages have been damaged," Ukraine's emergency service said.
Large-scale fires had also broken out in Ukraine's second-largest city, Kharkiv, Mayor Ihor Terekhov said. The emergency service said the attack targeted 'solely the city's civilian infrastructure.'
Meanwhile, in the Yelabuga district of Russia’s Tatarstan region, two fires broke out following a reported drone attack, local authorities confirmed on April 23.
The Russian Defense Ministry reported earlier in the day that a Ukrainian fixed-wing unmanned aerial vehicle was shot down over Tatarstan by air defense systems on duty. Officials have not released further details on the type of drone or its intended target.
Rustem Nuriyev, head of the Yelabuga district administration, said in a statement that there were no casualties or injuries as a result of the incident.
In response to the drone activity, temporary flight restrictions were imposed on Kazan and Nizhnekamsk airports.
Kyiv has not commented on the incident.
Also, a fire that had been burning at an ammunition depot on a military base -- where a large explosion occurred a day earlier -- in the Kirzhach district of Russia's Vladimir region, northeast of Moscow, has been “gradually ending,” regional Governor Aleksandr Avdeyev said.
Four people were injured when ammunition exploded, prompting an evacuation order, Avdeyev said, adding that ammunition caught fire and shells exploded in the storage area.
The Russian Defense Ministry said earlier that the fire had been caused by a breach of safety protocols and had resulted in the detonation of ammunition stored in a warehouse.
"As a result of a fire on the territory of a military unit in the Vladimir region, ammunition stored in a warehouse detonated," the Defense Ministry said. "According to preliminary information...the cause of the fire was a violation of safety standards in work with explosive materials."
A state of emergency was declared in the Kirzhach district, which is about 130 kilometers northeast of the Russian capital. The base was evacuated along with about 450 people from at least seven nearby settlements, the governor said.
The ammunition depot is one of the largest of the Russian armed forces. It is more than 500 kilometers from the border with Ukraine. There had been no reports of drone attacks in the Vladimir region prior to the explosion.
Yan Matveyev, a Russian military analyst, told Current Time that the ammunition stored at the depot could range from typical 155-millimeter artillery shells to Iskander-M missiles.
"This depot is close to the capital, close to Moscow, so it's easy to transport all this [ammunition] around the country," Matveyev said.
Unverified video published earlier on Telegram channels showed a huge fire ball, a loud blast, and clouds of thick smoke rising into the sky.
Baza, a Telegram channel close to security services, said 10 to 11 explosions had occurred and firefighters from neighboring regions had been called in to contain the blaze.
It said a special commission has been set up to investigate the cause of the fire.