Ukraine drone hits Russian high-rise 1,000 kms from frontline

MOSCOW (AFP) — Kyiv on Saturday staged a major drone attack on the Russian city of Kazan, 1,000 kilometers from the frontier, the latest in a series of escalating aerial attacks in the nearly three-year conflict.

A drone smashed into a high-rise apartment building in the city of more than 1.3 million, damaging a skyscraper but leaving no victims, local officials said.

Though attacks so far into Russian territory are rare, Kazan and the surrounding oil-rich region of Tatarstan have previously been targeted by Ukrainian drones.

Such strikes are seen as embarrassing for Russia, almost three years into its military offensive on Ukraine.

“Today Kazan suffered a massive drone attack,” Rustam Minnikhanov, the head of Tatarstan, said in a post on Telegram.

“While before industrial enterprises were attacked, now the enemy attacks civilians in the morning,” he added.

Videos on Russian social media networks showed drones hitting a high-rise building and setting off fireballs.

Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova said two drones hit a 37-story apartment block.

She said Ukraine had been targeting an unspecified industrial facility, but that it suffered no damage.

Strikes will ‘continue’

Ukraine has escalated its attacks on targets inside Russia over the last few months -- particularly after Washington last month gave Kyiv permission to use missiles to strike military targets in Russian areas close to the two countries’ shared border.

While not specifically mentioning the strike on Kazan, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Saturday: “We will definitely continue to strike at Russian military targets with drones and missiles.”

Russian civil aviation authority Rosaviatsia temporarily closed Kazan international airport, one of the country’s busiest, amid the threat posed by Ukrainian drones.

Some residents were evacuated, but authorities did not provide figures, and all major public events in the area were canceled as a precaution.

Alongside the drones that hit the apartment block, three drones were shot down and three were suppressed by air defense systems, Zakharova said.