'Explosions rang out all night' — SBU conducts fresh strikes on ammunition depot and oil facility deep inside Russia
Overnight long-range strikes by the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) have successfully damaged an ammunition depot and oil facility in central Russia, a source inside the agency told the Kyiv Independent on Jan. 6.
The strikes are just the latest in an escalating Ukrainian "deep strike" campaign against Russian military targets and oil infrastructure, made possible by the growing domestic production of long-range attack drones.
According to the SBU source, long-range drones operated by the agency's Alpha special forces unit struck a large Russian arsenal near the town of Neya in Kostroma Oblast, claiming that explosions from the secondary detonations of ammunition at the depot "rang out all night."
The Neya arsenal served as a larger ammunition hub, from which artillery ammunition as well as rockets and missiles were distributed to smaller depots, said the SBU source, who spoke on the condition of anonymity.
Later in the day, Ukraine's General Staff confirmed the strikes on the depot, officially known as the 100th Arsenal of the Russian Defense Ministry's Main Missile-Artillery directive.
"The facility functions as a hub of accounting, maintenance, storage, and preparation for shipment of artillery ammunition, as well as tactical and operational-tactical level missiles," the General Staff said.
Kostroma Oblast is located northeast of Moscow, while Neya itself is over 900 kilometers from Ukrainian-held areas. Over 2025, thanks to advancements in Ukraine's deep strike program — both in terms of the drones themselves and operators such as Alpha — targets at such ranges are hit more and more frequently.
Meanwhile, a large oil facility was also allegedly struck by Alpha's drones near the city of Usman in Lipetsk Oblast, which lies south of Moscow and about 250 kilometers from Ukrainian-controlled territory.
In the morning, regional governor Igor Artamanov said that a fire had started at an "industrial facility" near Usman, while the town's municipality confirmed that the oil facility was hit, with the fire still being battled as of 2 p.m. in the afternoon.
The General Staff also confirmed the Lipetsk Oblast strike in a separate post.
The Kyiv Independent was not able to independently verify the strikes or the damage caused.
The strikes came amid a larger mass Ukrainian drone attack on Russia overnight, with the country's defense ministry reporting 129 drones shot down over a total of 21 Russian oblasts, as well as occupied Crimea.
