A weapons factory near Kiev that manufactures Neptune missiles, which the Ukrainian army says were used to strike the Russian guided-missile cruiser Moskva, was the target of a Russian overnight strike, journalists told Agence France-Presse from the scene today.
A factory shop and an administrative building next to it in the town of Vyshneve, about 30 kilometers southwest of the Ukrainian capital, were badly damaged, AFP reported. Approximately fifty cars parked in a nearby car park had their windows broken.
A spokesman for the Russian Defense Ministry said earlier today that Russia had destroyed the anti-ship missile workshop at the Vizar cruise missile plant.
A source working at the plant said there were five strikes. He said they were in retaliation for the destruction of the cruiser Moskva, the flagship of the Russian Black Sea Fleet, which sank yesterday.
The governor of the Odessa region, Maxim Marchenko, said on the night of Wednesday to Thursday that the Neptune missiles were used by the Ukrainian army to strike the cruiser Moskva.
Vizar is one of the Ukrainian factories that made these missiles, according to UkrOboronProm, the state holding company that manages Ukrainian arms factories.
Moscow has not yet confirmed this version of the sinking, saying only that a fire broke out on board the 186-meter missile cruiser, as a result of which ammunition exploded. Then the cruiser sank when they tried to tow it to the nearest port, BTA notes.