Two elderly people have been killed in Ukrainian shelling of the village of Zvannoe in Kursk Region, western Russia, Governor Aleksandr Khinshtein said on Tuesday.
The victims were identified as a woman, 59, and a man, 69, Khinshtein said on Telegram, expressing condolences to their families. At least four homes and a local school were damaged in the attack, he added.
The governor denounced the strike as “barbarian” and branded the Ukrainian military behind it “cruel and merciless.” He also urged the region’s residents to avoid travelling to areas bordering Ukraine because of “very high” security risks. Zvannoe is located less than 20 kilometers from Ukraine.
Ukraine launched a large-scale incursion into the region last August, in what Kiev officials hyped as a blow to Russia. However, Russian forces quickly turned the tide, and by the time the Ukrainians were fully expelled in late April, the Defense Ministry in Moscow estimated that Kiev had sustained more than 76,000 casualties in the operation.
Ukraine has regularly launched cross-border drone, artillery, and missile strikes targeting Belgorod, Kursk, and Bryansk regions, since the escalation of the conflict in February 2022.
In recent weeks, Ukraine has significantly ramped up drone attacks targeting Russian territory, both border regions and more distant targets, including Moscow. Russia has accused Kiev of “terrorist” attacks on the country’s railway infrastructure, which have led to civilian fatalities. According to the Kremlin, the indiscriminate raids are intended to derail direct bilateral talks that resumed between Moscow and Kiev in Istanbul in May.
Earlier on Tuesday, the Russian Defense Ministry reported intercepting almost 150 Ukrainian drones overnight that targeted a dozen Russian regions. Rodion Miroshnik, the Russian Foreign Ministry’s ambassador-at-large, reported on the same day that nearly 70 civilians, including 14 children, were casualties of Kiev’s FPV drone strikes over the past week.
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