Drone attack on Voronezh in Russia kills 1 person, wounds 3
A Ukrainian drone strike killed one person and wounded three others in the Russian city of Voronezh, local officials said on Sunday. A young woman died overnight in a hospital intensive care unit after debris from a drone fell on a house during the attack on Saturday, regional Governor Alexander Gusev said on Telegram.
Three other people were wounded, and more than 10 apartment buildings, private houses and a high school were damaged, he said, adding that air defences shot down 17 drones over Voronezh. The city is home to just over 1 million people and lies some 250 kilometres (155 miles) from the Ukrainian border.
The attack came the day after Russia bombarded Ukraine with hundreds of drones and dozens of missiles overnight into Friday, killing at least four people in the capital Kyiv, according to Ukrainian officials. For only the second time in the nearly four-year war, Russia used a powerful new hypersonic missile that struck western Ukraine in a clear warning to Kyiv and NATO.
The intense barrage and the launch of the nuclear-capable Oreshnik missile followed reports of major progress in talks between Ukraine and its allies on how to defend the country from further aggression by Moscow if a US-led peace deal is struck.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Saturday in his nightly address that Ukrainian negotiators “continue to communicate with the American side.” Chief negotiator Rustem Umerov was in contact with US partners Saturday, he said.Separately, Ukraine’s General Staff said Russia targeted Ukraine with 154 drones overnight into Sunday and 125 were shot down.
The Ukrainian Defense Ministry’s main intelligence directorate said Sunday that Russia this month deployed the new jet-powered “Geran-5” strike drone against Ukraine for the first time. The Geran is a Russian variant of the Iranian-designed Shahed. According to the directorate, the drone can carry a 90-kilogram (200-pound) warhead and hasa range of nearly 1,000 kilometers (620 miles).
