A huge blaze at an oil depot in the Russian city of Bryansk, not far from the Ukrainian border was reoprted today.
Last week Russia accused Ukraine of using helicopters to strike residential buildings in the region. Ukraine denied attacking another depot earlier this month.
A video of Bryansk circulating on social media, which BBC reoprted as being authentic, shows an oil tank exploding into flames.
Regular morning air raid sirens across Ukraine lasted more than two hours, much longer than usual.
Russia struck deep into Ukraine, targeting infrastructure far from the front line, according to Ukrainian and Russian reports.
In a series of strikes on Ukraine’s railways, a Russian missile hit one facility near Krasne, outside the western city of Lviv, early Monday, sparking a fire, the region’s governor said.
A total of five railways facilities in central and western Ukraine were hit by Russian strikes, said Oleksandr Kamyshin, the head of the state-run Ukrainian Railways as reported by AP.
Russia also destroyed an oil refinery in Kremenchuk in central Ukraine, along with fuel depots there, Russian Defense Ministry spokesman Maj. Gen. Igor Konashenkov said Monday.
Britain’s Ministry of Defense said Monday that Ukrainian troops in a steel plant were tying down Russian forces, and keeping them from being added to the offensive elsewhere in the Donbas.
The ministry said in a statement posted on Twitter that, “Many Russian units remain fixed in the city and cannot be redeployed, ukraine’s defense of Mariupol has also exhausted many Russian units and reduced their combat effectiveness.”
“Without sufficient logistical and combat support enablers in place, Russia has yet to achieve a significant breakthrough,” the ministry said.
American officials pledged on Monday to supply advanced weapons to Ukraine and reopen its embassy in Kyiv soon.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken says Russia is failing in all of its war aims in Ukraine, after completing a short visit to the country.
On the diplomatic front, U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres was scheduled to travel to Turkey on Monday and then Moscow and Kyiv.
The International Criminal Court that investigates and prosecutes suspected individual war criminals who are not before the courts of individual states, will join the EU team established last month to investigate allegations of war crimes in Ukraine.
The International Atomic Energy Authority (IAEA) has said it is launching a mission to Ukraine to examine the former Chernobyl nuclear power plant, which was the scene of fierce fighting earlier in the war and raised fears of a major radiation leak.
-BBC/Reuters/Ap