NICE SHOOTING: Ukrainian Drones Just Blew Up 2,000 Tons Of Ammo in Southern Russia.

The ammo dump in Toropets reportedly held large stocks of small arms rounds, mortar shells, artillery rockets and long-range ballistic missiles potentially including Russian-made Iskanders and North Korean KN-23s.

According to the Ukrainian general staff, the dump in Tikhoretsk “is one of the three largest occupying ammunition storage bases and is one of the keys in the logistical system of Russian troops.”

The general staff estimated 2,000 tons of ammo, including North Korean-made rounds, were in the Tikhoretsk dump when the drones struck. The towering fireball resulting from the impact seems to confirm that estimate. The initial Toropets raid and the later Tikhoretsk raid were both big enough to register as small earthquakes and also draw the attention of NASA’s fire-spotting satellites.

The back-to-back ammo dump raids signal a shift in Ukraine’s campaign of deep strikes targeting strategic targets inside Russia.

For many months, officials in Kyiv have pleaded with their European and American counterparts for permission to use donated long-range munitions—British Storm Shadow and French SCALP-EG cruise missiles and American Army Tactical Missile System rockets—against targets deep inside Russia, including munitions stockpiles.

But the Europeans and Americans have consistently withheld that permission.

In other words, Ukraine could have blown up those dumps long before last week if they hadn’t been forced by their friends in the West to waste time and lives jury-rigging a drone solution.