Five killed in Ukrainian drone strike in Moscow Region – governor
At least five people have been killed and ten others wounded in an overnight Ukrainian drone strike in Moscow Region, local governor Andrey Vorobyev has said.
The strike comes as Kiev has intensified long-range attacks on Russian civilian infrastructure. On Monday, a Ukrainian drone struck a crowded beach in the Black Sea resort city of Gelendzhik, killing at least seven people, including three children, and wounding dozens more.
In a post on Telegram on Tuesday morning, Vorobyev said air defenses in the region had repelled another Ukrainian drone raid.
An industrial area in the village of Novoselki near the town of Chekhov, located some 74 km south of Moscow, was affected the most as a result of the attack, he added.
“Sadly, there have been fatalities and injuries... I extend my sincere condolences to the families and loved ones of the deceased,” Vorobyev wrote.
One of the wounded remains in serious condition, with doctors describing the injuries of seven others as moderate, the governor said. Two more people declined hospitalization after being examined by doctors, he added.
The victims sustained shrapnel and blast injuries, fractures, and soft-tissue and chest wounds, Vorobyev wrote.
Fires broke out at several locations in the industrial zone, including at a warehouse, while a power substation and an administrative building were also damaged by drone debris, the governor added.
In the village of Solnyshkovo, a drone damaged a private home and a vehicle, the governor said. No one was injured, he added.
Air defenses also intercepted incoming UAVs in several other parts of Moscow Region, according to the governor.
The Russian Defense Ministry said in a statement on Tuesday morning that 320 Ukrainian fixed-wing drones had been destroyed inside Russia in the previous 12 hours. The interceptions took place in more than a dozen regions as well as in Crimea.
A total of 49 civilians have been killed and more than 340 others wounded in Ukrainian attacks inside Russia over the past week, Russian Ambassador-at-Large Rodion Miroshnik said on Tuesday. The majority of the victims – 95% – were hit by drones, he stressed. It’s not clear if the figures included the fatalities and injuries from the strike in Novoselki.
The Russian authorities have decried Kiev’s drone raids as terrorist attacks deliberately targeting civilians. One of the deadliest incidents in recent months happened in May, when several waves of Ukrainian UAVs struck a student dormitory in the Donbass town of Starobelsk, partially collapsing the five-story building and killing 21 people, mainly teenage girls.
Russia has responded to the raids by stepping up its long-range missile and drone strikes on Ukraine’s military-industrial and logistical infrastructure. Moscow maintains that it never targets civilians, only military sites and infrastructure supporting Kiev’s forces.
