(Moscow) Ukrainian drones damaged buildings on Saturday morning and caused evacuations in Kazan, a city in central Russia about 1,000 kilometers from the Ukrainian border, local officials said, indicating that no casualties were reported. hour to deplore.
Posted at 8:06 a.m.
“Today, Kazan suffered a massive drone attack,” the leader of the republic of Tatarstan where the city is located, Rustam Minnikhanov, said on Telegram.
“If earlier industrial enterprises were attacked, now the enemy attacks civilians in the morning, directly in their homes,” he wrote.
Residents were evacuated, according to local authorities, but their number is not known.
PHOTO REUTERS
A view of a residential building damaged following an alleged Ukrainian drone attack in Kazan, December 21, 2024.
Kazan town hall announced that these attacks had caused “fires” in several neighborhoods, and that firefighters were on site.
Videos, published on social networks and in Russian media, show drones hitting several tall buildings and creating impressive fireballs.
The authenticity of these images could not be verified by AFP.
Rustam Minnikhanov's press service indicated that eight drones had been recorded, and that no casualties had yet been reported.
PHOTO TAKEN FROM TELEGRAM, PROVIDED BY AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE
In this photo taken and published on the official Telegram account of Kazan City Hall on December 21, 2024, a Russian rescuer works in the courtyard of a residential building after a drone attack.
The Russian Defense Ministry accused Ukraine of having targeted “civilian infrastructure” in Kazan.
The ministry said six drones may have been neutralized or destroyed, but did not specify their total number or whether any aircraft had reached their targets.
Kazan, on the banks of the Volga, has repeatedly suffered drone attacks from Ukraine targeting industrial sites linked to the army.
The city is located about 700 kilometers east of Moscow.
Air traffic was temporarily suspended on Saturday morning at Kazan airport, according to the Russian civil aviation agency (Rosaviatsia).
The Republic of Tatarstan announced on its Telegram channel that all major public events over the weekend were canceled as a security measure in the run-up to the end-of-year holidays.
Ukraine has so far said nothing about these attacks that Russia attributes to it.
The country regularly carries out drone and missile attacks, in retaliation for the assault launched by Moscow against its territory in February 2022.
On Friday, Russian strikes left one dead and 13 injured in Kyiv, according to Ukrainian authorities.
At the end of the day, five more people died in a Ukrainian attack on the Russian border region of Kursk, according to the local governor.
Advance in Eastern Ukraine
At the same time, the Russian army is advancing in Ukraine at a pace not seen since the first months of 2022.
On Saturday, the Ministry of Defense again claimed the capture of the village of Kostiantynopolské, near the town of Kourakhové, which its troops seem close to seizing.
The Russian army brought down the Ukrainian fortresses of Avdiïvka in February and Vougledar in October and is now at the gates of several cities of military importance, such as Pokrovsk and Kupiansk.
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