(Photo: Host photo agency/Evgeny Biyatov via REUTERS)
On Sunday, the Russian Defense Ministry reported that its air defenses thwarted a Ukrainian drone attack on Kireyevsk, a town located 220 km (140 miles) south of Moscow in the Tula region. The attack injured three individuals and caused damage to residential buildings.
Kyiv has not yet commented on the incident, but it has previously refuted Russia's claims of Ukrainian drones, or unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV), entering Russian territory and causing harm to civilian infrastructure.
The Russian Defense Ministry identified the UAV as a Ukrainian Tu-141 Strizh drone. According to the ministry's statement, "A Polye-21 electronic unit took action against the Ukrainian drone, and as a result, its navigation system was taken out of action. The drone lost its directional command and fell near the town of Kireyevsk in the Tula region."
Tass news agency cited local officials, stating that three individuals were injured, but no serious injuries were reported. Five private homes were damaged in the incident. A local emergency services representative informed TASS that the explosion, which happened around 3:20 pm (1220 GMT), created a large crater in the center of Kireyevsk.
Social media images and videos showed a sizable, muddy crater near a heavily damaged building, with broken glass from shattered windows scattered throughout the stairwell of an adjacent apartment block. Reuters has not yet verified the authenticity of these images.
Russia has reported drone attacks in various towns and cities, some hundreds of kilometers (miles) away from its border with Ukraine. On December 26, three Russian air force personnel were killed when a drone, believed to be of Ukrainian origin, was shot down near the city of Saratov, after flying through Russian airspace.
