At least 16 people were injured in a series of Ukrainian drone attacks on cities in southern Russia, authorities said Thursday morning.
In Rostov-on-Don, located around 70 kilometers (44 miles) away from the border with Ukraine, Governor Yury Slyusar said 13 people were hospitalized after a drone attack caused damage to several apartment buildings in the regional capital.
A video posted on social media showed a plane-like drone slowly descending over the city before it crashed into a building, causing a large explosion. Other footage showed a large plume of gray smoke rising into the air following the crash.
In a separate incident in the city of Belgorod earlier in the morning, three people were wounded when a Ukrainian drone crashed into a car, authorities said.
A man was hospitalized in serious condition with multiple shrapnel wounds, while his wife was taken to the same hospital with a burn to her forearm, according to Belgorod region Governor Vyacheslav Gladkov.
The third victim was hospitalized with a shrapnel wound to the leg and internal injuries from high pressure generated by the exploding drone, he added.
Security camera footage posted by Gladkov showed a fast-moving object striking a car as it drove down a city street. In the video, the car catches fire, swerves onto a sidewalk, after which two people emerge from the vehicle before it is entirely engulfed in flames.
Another video showed Russian soldiers and medics tending to a bloodied man on the sidewalk next to the burning vehicle, followed by firefighters extinguishing the blaze.
Gladkov said eight other civilians and five members of a specialized volunteer detachment in the region were wounded in a series of Ukrainian drone strikes the previous day.
Meanwhile, in the southern Volgograd region, Governor Andrei Bocharov said debris from a “large-scale” Ukrainian drone attack caused oil to “spill and catch fire” at a local oil refinery. Videos posted on Russian social media purported to show the large fire at the refinery.
Russia’s Defense Ministry said it had intercepted 44 Ukrainian drones between late Wednesday and early Thursday, including seven over annexed Crimea.
Nine drones were intercepted or destroyed over the Volgograd region and two over the Belgorod region, according the military said.
AFP contributed reporting.
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