Well, let's move now to the latest on the war in Ukraine. The BBC understands that overnight a Ukrainian drone hit a warehouse storing ammunition in Russia, located in the Tver region near the border with Belarus and Latvia, and in close proximity to the Russian capital, Moscow. The source from the Ukraine's security service said that weapons like guided air missiles were stored in the depot. Following this attack...
Russian authorities have ordered a partial evacuation in the western town of Toropets. Footage shows large columns of smoke from fires in the distance. You can see that there.
Our correspondent James Waterhouse is in Kyiv. James, could you just give us an overview of what we know about this attack? Well, it's a big deal. I think we've seen Ukraine ramp up these kind of attacks. Over the past year really, with drones it makes domestically, and it's grown in confidence and ambition in doing so.
This is a long-range attack, almost 500 kilometres from the border with Ukraine, only a couple of hundred from Moscow itself. And we are talking about a large military facility worth almost £30 million, a series of warehouses which store fuel tanks. artillery shells, ballistic missiles and other types of explosives. These are all ordnance used in Russia's continued full-scale invasion of Ukraine. You just need to look at the footage of the apparent blast.
I mean, we are talking about plumes of smoke and huge fires and the force to match. I mean, it's the kind of energy generated which caused... NASA to report seeing numerous heat sources from satellite imagery.
A minor magnitude earthquake was even reported in the surrounding area, which suggests that these warehouses were full. And I think for Ukraine in a military sense, it boosts morale at a much needed time. But it also allows it to send a political message, I think, to the West, because these kind of strikes are what Ukraine has wanted to do. with Western missiles, but it doesn't have permission to do so yet because of concerns of a Russian escalation.
What we are seeing in Toropets for Ukraine is simple as far as it's concerned. It helps us defend itself, which is the argument, and it doesn't lead to an escalation. I think we will see some kind of Russian response.
We often do with widespread missile attacks, but this is certainly significant in the grand scheme of things. And James, to your point about those long-range missiles, there has been so much speculation that we could have heard something in the last few weeks. But right now, as it stands, when it comes to Western allies, what are we hearing when it comes to their position on this, on allowing President Zelensky to use long-range missiles on targets inside Russia? Well it's interesting, I think what we are hearing at the moment is that discussions are ongoing. You know the UK Prime Minister Sikir Starmer was in Washington last week.
We were told it would be on the agenda. There were media reports suggesting something would be announced and that hasn't happened. There are further conferences taking place at the United Nations. uh this week uh but if you think about it i think this kind of announcement won't come in the force of a come in the form of a press release a press conference where they will say look we've given the green light we will now see ukraine strike targets deep inside russia i suspect if confidence does grow among western allies it will simply happen there will be evidence of for example a military air bases uh inside russia being hit which is what ukraine wants to do and You know, I suspect the West will confirm it after the fact, if that happens.
Otherwise, Ukraine, I think, will say, OK, if you're not going to let us do it, we'll do it with drones we manufacture domestically. But, of course, it won't be able to carry out the number of attacks it would like without the help of the West behind it. So these are certainly interesting times as Ukraine looks to try and take the war deeper inside Russia. All right, James Waterhouse there. Thank you for that update from Kyiv.