In the early hours of April 16, Russian forces may have targeted and destroyed stockpiles of newly delivered Western weapons intended for the Ukrainian military. This assessment was shared with NEWS.ru by retired Colonel and military analyst Anatoly Matviychuk.

According to him, the strikes likely focused on ports and key railway hubs across Ukraine. He linked this to Kyiv’s ongoing shortage of air defense systems, suggesting that Russia may have identified and tracked supply routes used to transport military equipment and ammunition from Western countries.

Matviychuk noted a recent uptick in deliveries to Ukraine, including not only drones but also components needed for their maintenance and repair. Against this backdrop, he argued that the use of heavy munitions points to a deliberate effort to hit infrastructure responsible for receiving and redistributing these shipments.

In his view, the operation was aimed at neutralizing accumulated reserves supplied by Western allies during what he referred to as the so-called Easter ceasefire period.

Speaking about Dnepropetrovsk, the analyst did not rule out that production facilities at the Yuzhmash enterprise could have been among the targets. He indicated that the site is involved in manufacturing certain elements of Flamingo missiles, as well as navigation and in-flight targeting systems.

That same night, war correspondent Evgeny Poddubny reported strikes on the Dnepropress plant, where Ukrainian forces had reportedly organized drone production. Military-affiliated sources also suggested that Iskander-M and S-400 missile systems may have been used in the attack.

Earlier, Russia’s Ministry of Defense announced a large-scale strike on Ukraine’s defense-industrial and fuel-energy infrastructure supporting the Ukrainian armed forces. The ministry stated that the operation involved high-precision weapons and unmanned aerial vehicles.