Huge fireball erupts as Russian ammo depot is destroyed as Ukraine continues counteroffensive

A huge fireball erupted in occupied Ukraine last night as a Russian ammunition depot was destroyed in a ‘monstrous explosion’, dramatic footage has shown.

Video of the depot’s destruction came after Kyiv said its counteroffensive against Vladimir Putin‘s forces has been ‘particularly fruitful’ in recent days, and as other clips from the frontlines emerged showing brutal trench combat.

A senior security official said the country’s troops are fulfilling their main tasks as they continue to fight against Moscow’s forces that have dug in across hundreds of miles of Ukrainian territory in the south and east.

The comments by Oleksiy Danilov, secretary of Ukraine’s National Security and Defence Council, were Kyiv’s latest positive assessment of the month-old counterattack – although Russia has not acknowledged Ukraine’s gains.

Kyiv has admitted that its progress has been slowed by Russian defences, with Putin’s forces laying mines across swathes of land in order to prevent Kyiv’s tanks from making the same rapid advances that were seen this time last year.

Mines are also a serious concern away from the battlefield, with Ukraine’s president Volodymyr Zelensky accusing Russia of placing the explosives at the Russian-held Zaporizhzhia nuclear power station and of plotting to stage an attack there.

Zelensky said he told his French counterpart, Emmanuel Macron, about Russian ‘dangerous provocations’ at the plant in southeastern Ukraine.

In his nightly video message, Zelensky said Russia was planning to ‘simulate an attack on the plant. Or they could have some other kind of scenario.

‘But in any case, the world sees – and cannot fail to see – that the only source of danger to the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant is Russia. And no one else.’

Russia, meanwhile, has accused Ukraine of plotting an attack on the plant, raising fears further that the Kremlin is planning to cause another disaster in the region after it was suspected of destroying the Kakhovka Dam last month – and is again laying the groundwork to blame Kyiv ahead of time.

It is believed Russia blew the dam from the inside in order to flood the region to the south, and thus prevent Ukraine from making gains in its counteroffensive in that region, which would have put even more pressure on Putin’s armies.

But it has not stopped Ukraine in continuing its advance in other sectors. 

In Makiivka, a town seven miles east of Donetsk, overnight footage showed a ‘monstrous explosion’ at a major Russian ammunition depot in the town, likely destroyed by Ukraine in a HIMARS strike.

Makiivka sits deep behind the Russian frontline. 

Russia-installed officials said one civilian died and 36 civilians were injured in the attack, according to local reports.

This was not independently confirmed.

Ukraine’s military said it had destroyed a formation of Russian forces, and that an ammunition depot had also been destroyed, according to reports.

Kyiv’s strategic communication office said: ‘As a result of precision firing by defence forces units, another formation of Russian terrorists in the temporarily occupied Makiivka ceased to exist.’

Russian pro-war outlet Readovka reported: ‘The monstrous explosion shook the whole of Donetsk. Most likely this is a Himars MLRS missile strike.’ 

The pro-Russian puppet leader of so-called Donetsk People’s Republic, Denis Pushilin, said: ‘Late in the evening, the enemy launched fierce attacks on residential areas and a hospital complex.’

Speaking on Tuesday, Ukraine’s Deputy Defence Minister, Hanna Maliar, reported gains around the shattered city of Bakhmut despite fierce Russian resistance. Russian forces had captured it in May after 10 months of brutal battles.

Russia, which began its full-scale invasion in February 2022, still holds swathes of territory in eastern and southern Ukraine but Zelensky said on Monday his troops had made progress after a ‘difficult’ week.

‘At this stage of active hostilities, Ukraine’s Defense Forces are fulfilling the number one task – the maximum destruction of manpower, equipment, fuel depots, military vehicles, command posts, artillery and air defense forces of the Russian army,’ Danilov, head of Ukraine’s National Security and Defence Council, wrote on Twitter.

‘The last few days have been particularly fruitful,’ he said, without providing any details from the battlefield.

Valeriy Shershen, spokesperson for the Tavria, or southern, military command, said Ukrainian troops had advanced by up to 1.2 miles in the Berdiansk direction of southern Ukraine, despite fierce Russian resistance.

Berdiansk itself is a port city that sits on the Azov Sea. It is believed that Ukraine is aiming to reach the sea in order to split Russia’s ‘land bridge’ that runs between its southern-most border with mainland Ukraine and to Russian-held Crimea.

Elsewhere, Deputy Defence Minister Maliar said Ukrainian forces were making gains every day in areas outside Bakhmut.

Footage from near the city is regularly shared on social media platforms showing Ukrainian tanks clearing Russian positions and Kyiv’s forces fighting through trenches – in fighting reminiscent of the First and Second World Wars.

In one clip filmed by a drone, two tanks are seen firing rounds into a treeline, targeting Russian defensive positions.

In another, filmed with a camera mounted on a Ukrainian soldier’s helmet, troops are seen advancing through Russian trenches and taking prisoners. The graphic clip shows the corpses of a number of Russian soldiers strewn across the ground. 

‘We are advancing on the southern flank of Bakhmut. To the north, to be honest, there is heavy fighting and so far no advance,’ Maliar told national television.

‘Our forces are encountering serious resistance. The enemy is pouring in all its forces to stop in the south and in the east.’

Russian forces, she said, were also making advances further north, near Lyman and in Svatove, where Russian troops have recently been particularly active.

Reuters news agency said it has been unable to verify the situation on the battlefield. Each side says the other is suffering heavy losses.

Accounts of frontline fighting from the Russian Defence Ministry said its forces had foiled Ukraine’s in five areas of eastern Donetsk region.

It also reported repelling attacks near Lyman and disrupting enemy operations in the Zaporizhzhia region where Ukraine says its forces have captured a cluster of villages.

The General Staff of Ukraine’s military reported success in repelling Russian attacks in Kupiansk in the north, Bakhmut and near the contested towns of Avdiivka and Maryinka to the south.

Meanwhile, Russia said on Tuesday Ukraine had attacked Moscow with at least five drones that were all shot down or jammed, though one of the capital’s airports rerouted flights for several hours.

As Ukraine continues to push forward, concerns have turned once again to the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power station, long the subject of mutual recriminations and suspicions between Ukraine and Russia.

Russian troops seized the station, Europe’s largest nuclear facility with six reactors, in the days following the Kremlin’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.

Each side has since regularly accused the other of shelling around the plant and risking a major nuclear mishap.

Renat Karchaa, an adviser to the head of Rosenergoatom, which operates Russia’s nuclear network, said Ukraine planned to drop ammunition laced with nuclear waste transported from another of the country’s five nuclear stations on the plant.

‘Under cover of darkness overnight on 5th July, the Ukrainian military will try to attack the Zaporizhzhia station using long-range precision equipment and kamikaze attack drones,’ Russian news agencies quoted Karchaa as telling Russian television.

He offered no evidence in support of his allegation.

Zelensky tweeted that he had told France’s president Macron in a telephone conversation that ‘the occupation troops are preparing dangerous provocations at the Zaporizhzhia (nuclear plant).’

He said he and Macron had ‘agreed keep the situation under maximum control together with the IAEA’, the U.N.’s International Atomic Energy Agency.

A statement issued by the Ukrainian armed forces quoted ‘operational data’ as saying that ‘explosive devices’ had been placed on the roof of the station’s third and fourth reactors on Tuesday. An attack was possible ‘in the near future’.

‘If detonated, they would not damage the reactors but would create an image of shelling from the Ukrainian side,’ the statement on Telegram said. It said the Ukrainian army stood ‘ready to act under any circumstances’.

Zelensky and the Ukrainian military also provided no evidence for their assertions.

None of the reactors at the plant is producing electricity.

The IAEA, the U.N.’s nuclear watchdog, has been trying for more than a year to clinch a deal to ensure the plant is demilitarised and reduce the risks of any nuclear accident that could make Ukraine the site of a second Chernobyl disaster.

IAEA Director General Rafael Grossi has visited the plant three times since the Russian takeover but failed to reach any agreement to keep the facility safe from shelling.

Zelensky adviser Mykhailo Podolyak told Ukrainian television that Grossi had proved ineffective in trying to uphold safety at the plant. 

‘Any disaster at Zaporizhzhia could have been prevented if (Grossi had been) clear straight away,’ Podolyak said, accusing the IAEA of flipflopping in its approach to the problem. ‘That is, instead of this clowning around that this man is doing. 

‘And when there is a disaster, he will say they had nothing to do with it and warned about the dangers.’