Ukrainian drones strike deep into Russian territory, hundreds of miles from the front line
KYIV, Ukraine — Ukraine brought the war into the heart of Russia on Saturday with drone attacks that local authorities said damaged residential buildings in the city of Kazan in the Tatarstan region, over 600 miles from the front line.
The press service of Tatarstan’s governor, Rustam Minnikhanov, said that eight drones attacked the city. Six hit residential buildings, one hit an industrial facility and one was shot down over a river, the statement said.
A video posted on local Telegram news channel Astra, verified by the Associated Press, shows a drone flying into the upper floors of a high-rise building.
Local authorities said there were no casualties. Flights were halted at Kazan’s airport, and all mass gatherings canceled on Saturday and Sunday.
The attacks, which Ukraine didn’t acknowledge in keeping with its security policy, comes after a Ukrainian attack Friday on a town in Russia’s Kursk border region using U.S.-supplied missiles killed six people, including a child.
Moscow sent 113 drones into Ukraine overnight into Saturday, Ukrainian officials said. According to Ukraine’s Air Force, 57 drones were shot down during the attacks. A further 56 drones were “lost,” likely having been electronically jammed.
The brazen street bombing of a top Russian general could reflect Ukraine’s wish to hit Moscow hard before Donald Trump takes office and any negotiations begin.
The governor of Ukraine’s Kharkiv region, Oleh Syniehubov, said eight people were wounded Friday night in drone attacks on the regional capital, also called Kharkiv.
In the city of Zaporizhzhia, four people were wounded when a nine-story residential building was damaged by falling drone debris on Friday night, regional Gov. Ivan Fedorov said.
The day before, a Russian ballistic missile attack on Ukraine’s capital, Kyiv, killed at least one person and wounded 13 others, officials said. Ukraine’s air force said that it intercepted five Iskander short-range ballistic missiles fired at the city. The attack knocked out heating to 630 residential buildings, 16 medical facilities and 30 schools and kindergartens, the city administration said. Falling missile debris caused damage and sparked fires in three districts.
During the almost three years since Moscow’s full invasion of Ukraine began, Russia has regularly bombarded civilian areas, often in an attempt to cripple the power grid and unnerve Ukrainians. Ukraine, struggling to hold back Russia’s bigger army on the front line, has attempted to strike Russian infrastructure supporting the country’s war effort.
President Biden last month authorized Ukraine to use U.S.-supplied missiles to strike deeper inside Russia, easing limitations on the longer-range weapons. The move was a response to Russia deploying thousands of North Korean troops to reinforce its war effort, officials said.
Moscow’s troops also continue to slowly advance in eastern Ukraine. Russia’s Defense Ministry said Saturday that its forces had taken control of the village of Kostiantynopolske in Ukraine’s Donetsk province, just six miles from the besieged city of Kurakhove, which they are trying to encircle.
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