MOSCOW: Russia has claimed the downing of two Ukrainian drones crossing its border regions on Sunday. The incident comes in the wake of a fatal attack involving a drone that carried explosives, resulting in the death of a man in Russia’s Belgorod region.
The recent surge in attacks against Russia, including the Moscow-annexed Crimean peninsula, has heightened concerns after Kyiv’s declaration in July of its intention to “return” the conflict to Russian territory.
Moscow’s defense ministry announced, “(During) the night and morning hours… Two unmanned aerial vehicles were detected and destroyed in flight over the territory of the Bryansk and Kursk regions.”
In a separate incident, the governor of Russia’s Kursk region disclosed that a drone had crashed into an apartment building in Kursk city, situated near the Ukrainian border. This incident resulted in windows being shattered on multiple floors of the building. However, it remains uncertain whether this drone was one of those reportedly intercepted and shot down by the Russian defense ministry earlier.
Governor Roman Starovoit shared on social media that the crash caused no fires and did not lead to any injuries among residents. He also shared an image of a charred mark on a tower block, indicating the impact of the incident.
Ukraine’s Drone Strike Kills Man in Russia
The concerning episode follows the disclosure by the governor of Russia’s neighboring Belgorod region that a drone attack in the village of Shchetinovka, located less than a mile (about two kilometers) from the Ukrainian border, had claimed the life of a man. Governor Vyacheslav Gladkov reported that the attack involved the Ukrainian armed forces dropping an explosive device from a drone while the man was on his dacha plot, resulting in his death due to shrapnel wounds.
