MOSCOW: Russian air defense systems repelled a Ukrainian attack in which 10 missiles were fired at the Rostov region of southern Russia, local governor Yuri Slyusar said on Wednesday.
A Ukrainian official said the attack targeted a chemical plant that supplied rocket fuel to Russia’s armed forces.
Slyusar, writing on the Telegram messaging app, said air defense units downed 10 missiles in the attack. Fragments from one missile triggered a fire in a house in the village of Malenkaya Kamenka and smashed windows in others.
He said there were no casualties and emergency services were at the scene. He made no mention of any industrial target.
Slyusar later said Russian air defenses had repelled an attack by seven Ukrainian drones at around midnight (2100 GMT). According to preliminary information, there were no casualties or damage, he added.
Andriy Kovalenko, the head of Ukraine’s official Center Against Disinformation, wrote on Telegram that the initial attack focused on the Kamensky chemical plant “which produces rocket fuel specializing in solid fuel components for rocket engines.”
The plant, he said, also produced explosive materials and components for ammunition.
Kovalenko posted a brief video showing a fire and smoke outside a fenced compound.
Reuters could not independently verify accounts of the incident from either side.
Unofficial Russian and Ukrainian blogs suggested the attack might have involved Western-supplied missiles, but there was no official confirmation from either side.
In Ukraine’s southern Zaporizhzhia region, partly occupied by Russian forces, the Russia-installed governor, Yevgeny Balitsky, said air defense units had downed four Ukrainian missiles fired at occupied areas of the region.
Initial analysis, he said, showed British-supplied Storm Shadow missiles had been used.
Reuters could not independently verify his account.

LONDON: The threat of terrorism in the UK has been described as “smoldering” amid the potential fallout from the collapse this month of the Assad regime in Syria.

Counterterrorism police fear uncertainty about Syria’s future could fuel extremist attacks in the UK, and border officials are on high alert for the possibility that British Daesh members and supporters might attempt to return to the country.

Deputy Assistant Commissioner Vicki Evans, the UK’s national counterterrorism coordinator, said the current terror threat in the country is “smoldering” and has never been more complex, given the dangers posed by extremists, state-sponsored plots and planned attacks from individuals with no obvious ideology.

“Events in Syria are certainly something that are a focus and something that all of us need to think about,” she said.

“It’s that stark reminder that we need to focus on old enemies of peace and security as well as the new. History tells us that, unfortunately, any instability creates space for extremism, for violence and acts of terror.”

Although the British government has engaged diplomatically with Syria’s new de facto leader, Ahmad Al-Sharaa, Evans noted that his organization, Hayat Tahrir Al-Sham, remains a banned terrorist group under UK law and anyone who demonstrates support for it could face terror-related charges. She said no one has been arrested so far for such activity but would neither confirm nor deny whether anybody is under investigation.

Evans also revealed that counterterrorism police are increasingly finding images of extreme violence, pornography, misogyny and gore, which sometimes fuel terror plans, in the online viewing histories of suspects as young as 10 years old.

“It’s a pick-and-mix of horror. These sorts of grotesque fascinations with violence and harmful views that we’re seeing are increasingly common,” she said.

“We most definitely need to think differently about how we stop that conveyor belt of young people who are seeing and being exposed to this type of material and, unfortunately, sometimes then going on to commit horrific acts.”