Ukrainian drone strike hits children – Russian region governor
Five children in a Russian town near the border with Ukraine were injured when a Ukrainian drone dropped an explosive on the courtyard where they were playing, regional governor Vyacheslav Gladkov said on Thursday.
The attack happened in Shebekino, a town in Belgorod Region north of Volchansk, the site of heavy fighting between Russian and Ukrainian forces in Kharkov Region since May.
“An explosive device was deliberately dropped from a drone into the courtyard of an apartment building,” Gladkov said on Telegram. “There were no military installations at the site and no soldiers, but five boys, one of whom was only 8 years old.”
Two of the boys suffered serious injuries and were urgently evacuated to a regional hospital. Local paramedics rendered first aid to the other three, before sending them to the hospital as well.
Remotely controlled aircraft have been widely used in the Russia-Ukraine conflict to take out targets such as tanks, armored vehicles, artillery, radars, fortifications, and even individual soldiers in the field. Drone operators are usually perfectly aware of what they are targeting.
Last month, a Ukrainian drone dropped a mortar shell on a Russian TV crew near Gorlovka, in the Donetsk People’s Republic, killing the camera operator and seriously injuring the reporter. Another Russian TV journalist was killed in April in Zaporozhye, this time with a kamikaze drone.
Ukrainian forces have repeatedly targeted Belgorod Region over the past two years, striking mainly civilians. Russian President Vladimir Putin suggested last year that the continued attacks would require the creation of a “buffer zone” in Ukraine’s Kharkov Region.
An artillery attack on Shebekino last month caused an apartment building to collapse, injuring at least six residents.
