Two people, including a child, have been killed and a dozen others wounded in another large-scale Ukrainian drone raid on Russia’s Krasnodar Region, local governor Veniamin Kondratyev has said.
The southern Krasnodar Region was targeted by hundreds of UAVs overnight, Kondratyev wrote in a post on Telegram on Wednesday.
Civilian facilities and private homes in Novorossiysk, Anapa, Gelendzhik, and the Temryuksky District suffered damage in the raid, he added.
“Tragically, those inhumane and criminal strikes resulted in fatalities and injuries, including among children,” the governor said.
An eight-year-old was killed during an attack on Novorossiysk, with another child among the injured, Kondratyev wrote.
Drone debris fell on at least 21 residential buildings across Novorossiysk, including private homes and apartment blocks, as well as four industrial facilities, according to the governor.
Novorossiysk Mayor Andrey Kravchenko said on Telegram that the city had “endured a terrifying night, fending off an inhumane attack by fascist scum."
According to Kravchenko, a six-year-old child was injured when debris from a downed UAV crashed through the roof of a residential building. The child and his mother were hospitalized in critical condition, he added.
An overpass in Novorossiysk collapsed as a result of the attack, forcing traffic to be suspended, the mayor said.
In the coastal village of Volna in Temryuksky District, a man was fatally wounded during the raid, Kondratyev said. Emergency medics arrived at the scene but were unable to save him, he added.
Two people were hospitalized after drone debris struck a residential building in the resort city of Anapa, according to the governor.
In Gelendzhik, three private homes were damaged and two people were injured, he said.
The raid on Krasnodar Region comes as Kiev has intensified its long-range drone attacks on Russian civilian infrastructure in recent months.
In early August, a Ukrainian drone struck a crowded beach in the resort village of Arkhipo-Osipovka near Gelendzhik, killing eight people and injuring around 60 others. Earlier this week, a UAV strike on the city of Nizhnekamsk in Russia’s Republic of Tatarstan killed 13 people and wounded dozens more.
Moscow has condemned Kiev’s drone campaign as terrorism, accusing Ukraine of deliberately targeting civilians in an attempt to compensate for setbacks on the battlefield, where Russian forces have continued to advance.
Russia has responded by intensifying long-range missile and drone strikes against Ukraine’s military-industrial facilities and logistics infrastructure. Moscow maintains that it does not target civilians and that its strikes are directed solely at military targets and infrastructure supporting Kiev’s forces.