Ukrainian drones launch ‘massive air attack’ on Russia’s Bryansk, Rostov oblasts, local authorities claim
Editor’s note: This is a developing story and is being updated.
Ukrainian drones launched a “massive air attack” on Russia’s Bryansk and Rostov oblasts overnight on Oct. 21, local authorities claimed, injuring two people and causing limited damage.
Three cars were damaged, alongside the exterior of two apartment buildings in the Russian city of Klintsy as a result of a Ukrainian drone attack, Bryansk Oblast Governor Alexander Bogomaz said in a post to Telegram.
“A teenager born in 2010 sustained bruises. The ambulance team provided the boy with all necessary medical assistance on site,” he added.
Meanwhile, in Rostov Oblast, a residential building, a medical clinic, shops, and several homes have been damaged as a result of a drone attack, local authorities claimed.
One person was injured in the city of Rostov-on-Don as a result of falling debris.
“According to the military, a massive air attack was repelled last night,” Rostov Oblast Governor Yuriy Slyusar said in a social media post.
“Due to the damage to the transformer substation in the village of Nedvigovka in the Myasnikovsky district, about three thousand residents remain without electricity,” he added later.
Residents were evacuated from a residential building in Rostov Oblast’s Bataysk as authorities worked to determine if the structural integrity of the property was intact following damage, Slyusar said, later adding that residents were allowed to return to their homes afterwards.
The details could not be immediately verified by the Kyiv Independent.
Ukraine’s army regularly strikes military infrastructure within occupied territories and deep within Russia in an attempt to diminish Moscow’s fighting power as it continues to wage its war against Ukraine.
On Oct. 19, Russia’s Orenburg gas processing plant was forced to halt gas intake from Kazakhstan following a Ukrainian drone attack on the facility, Kazakhstan’s Energy Ministry announced.
The Kremlin has refused to agree to a ceasefire and, in recent days, reportedly continued to insist that Ukraine surrender all of Donetsk Oblast as a precondition for a peace as the White House pushes to broker a settlement to end Russia’s war.
On Oct. 20, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said that Moscow’s position regarding the possibility of ceasing hostilities along the current front lines in Ukraine has not changed.
The Russian comments follow a meeting between U.S. President Donald Trump and President Volodymyr Zelensky in the White House on Oct. 17.
Two sources familiar with the matter told the Kyiv Independent that the meeting was effectively derailed by Russian President Vladimir Putin’s phone call with Trump a day earlier.
During the call, Putin again demanded that Ukraine hand over full control of Donetsk Oblast to Russia as a condition for ending the war, the Washington Post reported.
Trump and Putin are set to meet in Budapest in the coming weeks. No date has been publicly announced, but U.S. and Russian officials are expected to meet this week for the first stage of a planned summit between the two leaders.
EU mulls hitting Russia where it hurts — its shadow fleet
LUXEMBOURG, Luxembourg — The EU is preparing to strengthen its authority to board and inspect tankers linked to Russia’s so-called shadow fleet and is negotiating with some of the flag and coastal states to take measures, according to a draft proposal by the EU’s diplomatic service (EEAS), seen by Kyiv Independent. Moscow’s covert network of tankers, which operate under false flags, obscure ownership, and often nonexistent insurance, deliberately sail in legal grey zones of international waters
