Three people were lightly wounded after a drone crashed into a residential building in Voronezh, a city in southwestern Russia near the border with Ukraine, the regional governor said, Associated Press (AP) reports.
The latest drone attack to target Russian cities in recent weeks comes as Ukraine has been intensifying its efforts to expel Russian forces from a vast swath of southern and eastern Ukraine that they invaded more than 15 months ago on orders from President Vladimir Putin.
In a Telegram post, regional governor Alexander Gusev said the three Voronezh residents were hurt by shards of glass from broken windows, and received help on the spot. Russian state media published photos showing a high-rise apartment building with some windows blown out and damage to the facade.
Such drone strikes which have previously hit residential areas in southern Krasnodar and even one at the Kremlin, along with cross-border raids in southwestern Russia have exposed glaring breaches in Russian air defenses and porous border security.
Ukrainian authorities have generally denied any role in such attacks.
Separately Friday, the Ukrainian presidency’s website posted a video statement overnight from President Volodymyr Zelenskyy that alluded to the latest efforts of his country’s forces to drive out the Russian invaders, along various parts of the more than 1,000-kilometer (about 620-mile) front line.
Zelenskyy, speaking in what appeared to be a selfie video from inside a train car after visiting flood-hit southern Ukraine, said he was in touch with Ukrainian forces “in all the hottest areas” of the fight and praised an unspecified ”result” from their efforts.
Ukrainian authorities have kept generally quiet about their latest military moves, refusing to join in on rising commentary from Western military experts and others that a long-anticipated counteroffensive was under way.
Zelenskyy echoed that government stance on Friday, saying it was “not time” yet to talk about the details of the fighting.
(AP)