Ukraine maintains tension in Russian border regions with new drone and missile attacks

The war impacts the Russian border regions with Ukraine, even with the shock absorber of the occupied areas and the Black Sea between its territory and the front. The provinces of Krasnodar and Rostov, located to the east and southeast of the Ukrainian region of Donbas, have been targeted in the early hours of this Friday by the impact of at least one missile and several drones. Two UAVs went down in residential areas with no casualties. These new attacks come amid the uproar generated by the raid earlier this week by groups of saboteurs in the neighboring Belgorod region. The authorities have acknowledged that the reported alleged deceased civilian was actually a member of the local defenses. That flank, unlike the front inside Ukraine, is hardly protected, and his governor denounces that his militias have received hardly any weapons. The Russian opponents came to enter that area up to eight kilometers.

The residents of Krasnodar claimed to have heard two explosions and captured with their cameras the flight of at least one drone over the city on Thursday night. According to the mayor, Yevgeny Naumov, a residential building and another official building were damaged in the attacks.

The local authorities reported the incidents through a statement: “At 4:17 [las 3,17 en la España peninsular] an explosion was heard at 54 Morskaya street. There was damage to the roof of a building and windows, no fire.” The same official source clarified that there were no victims, although it avoided detailing what caused the explosions.

Several Krasnodar residents took photos in the morning of the damage to the roof of the office building. In the images disseminated by the media readovka The fragments of a drone and the damage caused by its explosion can be seen, both in the roof lining and in the windows, although the antenna appears intact.

The Russian telecommunications company MTC later acknowledged that one of its offices had been affected by the attack. “Part of the roof has been slightly damaged, but neither the employees nor the structure were affected. The network operates normally,” said the communication office of the country’s main operator, whose networks have also extended to the occupied Ukrainian zone.

Likewise, a security camera recorded at 4.21 how another drone rushed into a city courtyard attached to another telecommunications antenna. From what can be seen in the images, the explosion caused a fire in the area.

The Russian Foreign Ministry has summoned the “highest-level diplomats” of the US Embassy in Moscow on Friday morning to express “their strong protest” over statements by National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan. In statements to the CNN television channel, Sullivan assured that the United States “has not imposed limitations” on Ukraine’s ability to attack on its territory “within internationally recognized borders,” reports Efe. Sullivan noted that Washington rejects kyiv using US weapons to attack Russian soil, but added: “We believe that Crimea is Ukraine.” The senior official did not mention Belgorod or other Russian regions at any time.

Shot down of a missile in the Russian region of Rostov

Hours earlier, during the early hours of Friday, another incident occurred in the neighboring Russian region of Rostov, some 150 kilometers from the occupied Ukrainian province of Lugansk. The local government announced the downing of a missile with anti-aircraft systems in the Morozovsk district, where the air base of the 559th Bomber Squadron is located. “The fragments of the rocket fell on the field, there was no damage or casualties,” the press service noted after the governor, Vasily Golubev, reported the demolition in the Morozovsk district and asked for calm through his profile on the social networks.

Other incidents were also recorded in the border regions north of Ukraine. In the village of Oktiabrski, in the oblast (province) of Belgorod, a drone dropped an explosive device on a Gazprom building on Thursday afternoon, according to the Baza channel, and in the Briansk region three drones attacked the municipality of Strativa in 15 minutes, according to the newspaper The Moscow Times.

The Ukrainian attacks have raised nervousness in the Russian border regions. The head of Krasnodar, Veniamin Kondratiev, has been the latest in a long line of governors to ask their citizens for peace of mind and trust only official statements. “Many videos and a lot of information circulate on social networks. A sincere request to all residents: remain calm and trust only reliable sources of information,” the senior official said on Telegram.

The governor of Belgorod, Viacheslav Gladkov, has taken stock of the incursion into his territory after it hit all the headlines this week. The politician has stressed that the tension still persists in the border area, where at least 14 explosions have been recorded in the last day, and has detailed the circumstances in which one of his neighbors died during the skirmishes on Monday and Tuesday.

The alleged dead civilian was the commander of one of the battalions that make up the local militias created after Russia’s autumn setbacks to protect their territory. Gladkov qualified that he did not die from shrapnel wounds, as the authorities initially reported, but from a shot to the head. “Because he is not in the military, he is not entitled to any federal pay, but we will give [a su familia] three million rubles from the regional budget [equivalente a 35.000 euros, al volátil cambio actual]like all military personnel,” the governor announced.

Gladkov denounced this Wednesday that his 3,000 volunteers have not received weapons to defend themselves in the event of an attack, despite the fact that more than 100 million euros have been spent on the border to erect a huge barrier of concrete blocks. A wall, which, however, has not prevented the entry and exit of enemy saboteurs aboard armored vehicles and tanks.

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