Ukraine drone hits Russian high-rise 1,000 km from frontline

Drone attack hits Kazan, Russia, causing damage to a high-rise building but no casualties reported.

Kyiv on Saturday (December 21, 2024) staged a major drone attack on the Russian city of Kazan, 1,000 kilometres (620 miles) from the frontier, the latest in a series of escalating aerial attacks in the nearly three-year conflict.

A drone smashed into a high-rise apartment building in Kazan, a city of more than 1.3 million, damaging a skyscraper but leaving no victims, local officials said.

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Though attacks so far into Russian territory are rare, Kazan and the surrounding oil-rich region of Tatarstan have previously been targeted by Ukrainian drones.

Such strikes are seen as embarrassing for Russia, almost three years into its military offensive on Ukraine.

"Today Kazan suffered a massive drone attack," Rustam Minnikhanov, the head of Tatarstan, said in a post on Telegram.

"While before industrial enterprises were attacked, now the enemy attacks civilians in the morning," he added.