MOSCOW (Reuters) – Ukraine launched drone attacks across several regions of Russia, striking two residential houses in the Tambov region and injuring several people, Russia said on Saturday.
The regional head, Evgeny Pervyshov, said on the Telegram messaging app people were treated for injures resulting from shattered windows as drones hit two houses in the town of Kotovsk, some 480 kilometres (300 miles) southeast of Moscow.
He added that the buildings were only slightly damaged, and the inhabitants were offered temporary housings.
Separately, Russia’s defence ministry said it intercepted and destroyed 85 Ukrainian drones overnight in several regions of the country, including 31 drones over the Black Sea, 16 each in the Voronezh and Krasnodar regions and 14 over the Azov Sea.
Ukraine has not immediately commented on the incidents.
Both sides in the Ukraine conflict have turned cheap commercial drones into deadly weapons and also increased their production.
Russian and Ukrainian soldiers alike have reported a visceral fear of drones – and both sides have used video footage of fatal drone strikes in their propaganda.
On Friday, Russia accused Ukraine of carrying out a missile strike on a supermarket in the Russian-controlled city of Donetsk in eastern Ukraine.
(Reporting by Vladimir Soldatkin; editing by Barbara Lewis)
