By Anjali Sharma
WASHINGTON – Russia’s Kursk regional governor Alexander Khinshtein said on his Telegram channel on Friday that 1 person was killed and 10 others were injured in a Ukrainian drone strike on a residential building.
The drone hit a building in the city’s Railway District, igniting a fire that engulfed the top four floors, media reported, cited preliminary reports.
Khinshtein wrote on Telegram “To our deep sorrow, one woman died. I offer my sincerest condolences to her family”.
He said that 10 other residents were injured one seriously and all are receiving medical treatment.
Russia accused Ukraine of boosting up attacks ahead of the August 15 meeting between US President Donald Trump and his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, in Alaska.
Russian Foreign Ministry in a statement shared on X, stated that 22 people have been killed and 105 injured due to Ukraine’s shelling and drone strikes over the past week.
The ministry also shared a map marking the attacked areas in the Russian territory.
Alexei Fadeev, the Russian Foreign Ministry’s Deputy Spokesperson said “With the Russia-US Summit approaching, the Kyiv regime has stepped up its terrorist activity against Russian regions. Over the last week, 127 Russian citizens suffered from shelling and drone attacks. 22 died, 105 were wounded.”
Russian Defence Ministry accused the Ukrainian government of planning a provocation aimed at disrupting the upcoming meeting between Trump and Putin.
Russian Defence Ministry in a post on Telegram said, “According to available information received through several channels, the Kyiv regime is preparing a provocation to foil the Russian-American talks scheduled for 15 August 2025.”
The ministry asserted that with this objective, the security service of Ukraine has sent a group of foreign journalists to Kharkiv’s Chuguev, which is under the control of Kyiv, under the pretext of doing “reports on the residents of the city in the frontline zone.”
The defence ministry claimed that the Ukrainian forces will carry out the strikes on the city and blame it on Russia.
“Immediately ahead of the summit on Friday, the Armed Forces of Ukraine plan a provocative strike using UAVs and missiles against one of the densely populated residential quarters or a hospital with a large number of civilian casualties, which will have to be immediately recorded by the foreign Western journalists,” said the Russian Defence Ministry.
The ministry said that the Russian forces will be considered fully responsible for the strikes and civilian casualties.
“This will create a negative media background and conditions for disrupting Russian-American cooperation on settling the conflict in Ukraine,” the statement read.
