Ukrainian drone blast injures three in Russia

A Ukraine-operated drone has caused an explosion injuring three people and damaging three residential buildings in the centre of the Russian town of Kireyevsk, south of Moscow.

According to reports by the TASS news agency; “A Ukrainian Tu-141 Strizh UAV was the cause of an explosion in the town of Kireyevsk, Tula region.”

“The drone was packed with explosives.” TASS quoted a law enforcement agency source as saying.

None of the three people hurt in the explosion is believed to have suffered life-threatening injuries, Russian news agencies reported.

The blast, which occurred at around 3.20 pm (1220 GMT), caused a large crater in the heart of Kireyevsk, a local emergency services representative told TASS.

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Social media videos and pictures showed a muddy crater near a building with its roof and walls heavily damaged. Shards of glass from broken windows spread across the stairwell of a nearby apartment block.

Russia has previously reported drone attacks in several towns and cities, some of them hundreds of kilometres (miles) from its border with Ukraine.

Three Russian air force personnel died on Dec. 26 when a drone believed to be Ukrainian was shot down at the main base for Russia’s strategic bombers near the city of Saratov after flying hundreds of kilometres through Russian airspace.

Kyiv has denied previous Russian assertions that its drones – also known as unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) – have flown into Russian territory and caused damage to civilian infrastructure.

Zainab Sa’id