Ukraine drone attack kills 5 in Russian border village

MOSCOW (AFP): A Ukrainian drone attack on a house in a Russian border village killed five people, including two children, the regional governor said Saturday.

The drone hit a house in the village of Gorodishche, a tiny village in Russia’s Kursk region, just a few meters from the border with Ukraine.

“To our great grief, five people were killed … including two small children. Another two members of the family are in a serious condition,” Kursk governor Alexei Smirnov said in a post on Telegram.

The attack was with a “copter“-style drone, he added, a small device that can be fitted to carry grenades or other explosives that are dropped over targets.

Both sides have used drones, including larger self-detonating craft with ranges of up to hundreds of kilometers, extensively throughout the conflict which began in February 2022.

Ukraine has stepped up its attacks on Russian territory this year, targeting both energy sites that it says fuel Russia’s military, as well as towns and villages just across the border.

Russian President Vladimir Putin launched a major new land offensive on Ukraine’s northeastern Kharkiv region last month in what he said was an operation to create a “buffer zone” and push Ukrainian forces back to protect Russia’s border Belgorod region from shelling.

The Kursk region, where Saturday’s attack occurred, lies further north, across from Ukraine’s Sumy region, which Kyiv controls.