By Anjali Sharma
WASHINGTON – The Krasnodar Krai operational headquarters said on Thursday that 2 Russians were killed and 11 others injured in the most recent Ukrainian drone attack on Russia’s Sochi.
Krasnodar Krai, a Russian federal subject to which Sochi belongs, came under a mass drone attack overnight, Xinhua News Agency reported.
Krasnodar Governor Veniamin Kondratyev said on his Telegram channel that “The wreckage of a downed drone fell in the Adler district of Sochi. At the time of the fall, two women were nearby, and both died from injuries. The wreckage of the drone also hit the territory of the oil depot. As a result of the attack, 11 people were injured”.
Russian Defence Ministry in a statement said that air defence systems had intercepted 39 Ukrainian drones during five hours of the overnight strikes.
“Starting from 8:40 p.m. Moscow time (1740 GMT) on July 23 to 1:40 a.m. Moscow time (2240 GMT) on July 24, on-duty air defences intercepted and destroyed 39 Ukrainian fixed-wing drones over Russian regions, seven of them were over the territory of Krasnodar Krai,” it said.
Russia accused Ukraine of carrying out deliberate attacks targeting civilians, stated that 7 people have been killed and over 120 wounded, including 11 minors, by shelling and UAV strikes over the past week.
Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova said “On July 16, a woman was killed when an enemy drone struck a private home in the village of Smorodino; In the village of Novostroevka-Pervaya, a UAV attacked a combine harvester working in the field, injuring the driver; In the villages of Pritsepilovka and Novaya Tavolzhanka, three people were injured as a result of drone strikes.”
“Between July 17–22, drones were used against five passenger cars on the roads of the region, killing one person and injuring six civilians. On July 20, two people were injured in shelling and a UAV attack in the city of Shebekino; a woman was injured in the village of Togobiyevka. On July 22, an enemy shell completely destroyed a residential building in the village of Ilek-Penkovka, injuring a woman and two teenagers,” she added.
Zakharova noted that the Ukrainian armed forces continue to target unarmed Russian people who are engaged in their daily affairs.
“On July 22, a drone hit a private bus, leaving three civilians killed and three others injured. Three people were injured in drone strikes on civilian passenger cars in the settlements of Gladkovka and Novaya Kakhovka. Tonight, we received information about a Ukrainian drone attack on the area of Sochi. One woman was killed and at least one other was injured as a result,” she said.
“These are not strikes against the armed forces, nor are they attacks on military personnel or actions against military equipment – these are targeted terrorist attacks on civilians,” Zakharova stressed.
She insisted that schoolchildren and preschoolers are also among those targeted by the Ukrainian forces, and by pumping Ukraine with weapons its Western sponsors are categorical in their demand to tighten the mobilization, which is already at an extreme level of violence.
