Moment Putin’s lethal drone warehouse is destroyed by Ukraine’s £32m missile

In the latest of a series of successful strikes by over the last few days a major drone and ammunition warehouse has been destroyed in a giant explosion by a domestically-made Neptune missile.

Footage shows the subsonic ground-launched Neptune hitting the store – located in the village of Chaltyr, in the Rostov region in – triggering a giant fireball.

Ammunition from the store was seen exploding in the sky after the strike by the Ukrainian navy and SBU security service.

The strike was then followed by a mass drone attack to overload Vladimir air defences.

“The , together with the Ukrainian Navy, hit a crucial target – a depot containing reconnaissance drones used [in] enemy strikes on Ukrainian cities and the front lines,” said an informed source.

“Now, there will be fewer of these Russian ‘birds’ in the sky.”

The source added that operations against military targets “in enemy territory” will continue.

The long-range Neptune, made by manufacturer Luch Design Bureau, was designed as an anti-ship missile but has been adapted during the war to hit land targets.

Officially adopted in 2020, the Neptune missile cost around $40 million (£32 million) to develop.

This latest hit follows several days of successful strikes by on Russian targets.

A drone hit on an aviation fuel supply base in Engels, in the Saratov region, and burnt for four days after a brutal Ukrainian drone strike.

This has reportedly left a shortage of fuel for Putin’s nuclear strike Tu-95 and Tu-160 aircraft at the Engels-2 airbase.

Military factories disguised as civilian plants were also hit this week in Gatchina, Leningrad region, and Krym, Rostov region.

Overnight, also hit Russian military targets in occupied and several regions of .

Traffic was suspended for many hours on the Crimean Bridge linking the annexed peninsula to .