Russian Missile Strike Sparks Major Blaze at US Warehouse in Ukraine

A Russian ballistic missile hit a warehouse belonging to American tobacco manufacturer Philip Morris in eastern Ukraine on Friday causing a huge fire.

The company’s Ukrainian branch wrote on social media that emergency services were putting out the blaze and that there were no casualties as staff had been sheltering during the overnight attack on the Kharkiv region.

Ukraine’s State Emergency Service said the missile hit the warehouse sparking a fire of more than 5,000 square meters and causing major structural damage.

More than 80 firefighters and 20 units were needed to tackle the blaze, it added.

Pictures and video taken by the rescue service show firefighters battling the huge fire at an industrial facility from the firetruck’s aerial platform.

The Ukrainian Air Force on Friday said Russia had launched a ballistic missile and 111 drones in its overnight attacks on Ukraine from January 29-30.

The incident was also highlighted by President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in his nightly address, who said the “major” fire was the result of a “ballistic strike” from Russia.

Operations at Philip Morris factory in the Kharkiv region have been suspended since the start of the full-scale invasion 2022, the company said. Several hundred jobs were relocated to the western Lviv region.

Russia and Ukraine said on Friday they had halted strikes on each other’s energy infrastructure but confusion still exists over the exact time frame, Reuters news agency reported.

In recent weeks, Russian strikes on energy infrastructure in Kyiv have left hundreds of thousands of people without heating for days on end at times as temperatures have dipped below minus 15 degrees Celsius.