Ukrainian drone hits police barracks in Chechnya
A Ukrainian drone damaged a police barracks in the city of Grozny in Russia’s Chechen Republic on Thursday, injuring four servicemen, local leader Ramzan Kadyrov has said.
According to Kadyrov, around 1am local time an enemy UAV was shot down over the barracks housing a specialized police regiment. The drone exploded, with its falling fragments damaging the roof and windows, as well as starting “a small fire that was quickly put out,” he added.
“Four servicemen on guard duty have been slightly injured,” Kadyrov wrote on his Telegram channel, describing the attack as “pathetic.”
“As for morale, such attempts only strengthen our faith in victory and the will to quickly rout the enemy,” Kadyrov wrote.
He posted a video of a fire truck and a small fire on the building’s upper section.
It is the second high-profile attack on the Chechen Republic in southern Russia since late October, when a Ukrainian drone struck a military academy in Gudermes.
According to the Russian Defense Ministry, Ukraine fired six US-made ATACMS missiles at a military airfield near the southern city of Taganrog on Wednesday. All of the missiles were intercepted, with the “falling fragments” injuring an unspecified number of servicemen and causing minor damage to infrastructure, the ministry said.
“This attack by Western long-range weapons will not go unanswered, and appropriate measures will be taken,” it added.
Moscow has not ruled out using its new Oreshnik missiles to hit command centers and other targets in Ukraine in response to missile strikes deep inside Russia’s internationally recognized borders.
Russia first used the Oreshnik last month when it hit a weapons factory in the Ukrainian city of Dnepr. President Vladimir Putin described the strike as retaliation against Washington’s decision to lift restrictions on the use of American-made missiles by Kiev.
