KIEV (Reuters) – Russian forces fired cruise missiles to destroy a large depot containing U.S. and European weapons in western Ukraine’s Ternopil region, Interfax reported on Sunday, as street fighting raged in the eastern city of Sievierodonetsk.
The governor of the Ternopil region said a rocket attack on the city of Chortkiv fired from the Black Sea had partly destroyed a military facility, injuring 22 people.
Moscow has repeatedly slammed the United States and other nations for supplying Ukraine with weapons. President Vladimir Putin said earlier this month that Russia would strike new targets if the West supplied longer-range missiles to Ukraine for use in high-precision mobile rocket systems.
Ukrainian leaders have renewed pleas to Western countries in recent days to speed up deliveries of heavy weapons as Russian forces pound the east of the country with artillery.
Sievierodonetsk has become epicenter of the battle for control over the industrialized Donbas region in the east, made up of Luhansk and Donetsk provinces. Parts of the city have been pulverized in some of the bloodiest fighting since Moscow began its operation on Feb. 24.
It is one of the last remaining parts still under Ukrainian control.
Pro-Russia forces said 300 to 400 Ukrainian forces were trapped with hundreds of civilians at the Azot chemical plant in an industrial area in the region.
In neighboring Donetsk province to the west, a huge cloud of smoke could be seen after an explosion in the city of Avdiivka, which houses another chemical plant.
Unlike eastern and southern Ukraine, which have borne the brunt of Russian firepower since Moscow began its operation on February 24, the west of the country has only seen sporadic attacks.
Russia strikes the west to target military installations housing weapons and military equipment supplied by Western countries.