Ukraine destroys warehouse harboring S-300s to strike Kharkiv, says Zelenskyy

By Burak Dag

ANKARA (AA) – The Ukrainian army destroyed a warehouse where Russia kept S-300 missiles to bomb the northeastern Kharkiv region, the country’s president said late Monday.

"I especially thank the warriors of one of our rocket artillery brigades who with their accurate fire destroyed the very Russian depot which the occupiers took S-300 missiles to bomb Kharkiv," Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in a video address to the nation.

Zelenskyy implied that the target was destroyed by a M270 Multiple Launch Rocket System (MLRS), saying; “MLRS is a good thing.”

Zelenskyy also urged the international community to strengthen sanctions on Russia and recognize it as “a terrorist state,” citing its treatment of Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhya nuclear power plant (ZNPP).

"Shelling the territory of the ZNPP means that the terrorist state does not care what the IAEA (International Atomic Energy Agency) says, it does not care what the international community decides …This can be corrected only by strengthening sanctions, only by officially recognizing Russia as a terrorist state – at all levels," he said.

However, in August Russia warned that the "state sponsor of terrorism" designation would be a “point of no return” leading to collateral damage to bilateral diplomatic relations.

Russian official Alexander Darchiev told news agency TASS that "the US side has been warned" on the issue.

Zelenskyy also claimed that the nuclear power plant is "one step away from a radiation disaster."

An IAEA delegation last week inspected the plant.

Under Moscow’s control since early in the Russia-Ukraine war, Europe's largest nuclear power plant has been shelled several times, raising concerns of a nuclear disaster.