Russia’s Investigative Committee has opened a criminal case into a drone strike that killed two people in late October in the village of Durovo-Bobrik in Russia’s southwestern Kursk region.
In a statement issued on Friday, the Investigative Committee said that the drone strike had been carried out by “Ukrainian militants” and had purposely targeted the Holy Trinity women’s monastery in the village.
The village of Durovo-Bobrik is located to the southwest of the regional capital of Kursk, but is outside the area of the region currently controlled by the Armed Forces of Ukraine (AFU) following its surprise incursion into Russian territory in August.
The Investigative Committee did not give an exact date for the attack, but pro-war blogger Roman Alyokhin said that it took place at around 11pm local time on Sunday night.
Alyokhin said that two men who had been driving to the monastery “to rescue their sister, her husband and her child” were killed after their car was struck in the attack. In addition to that, another man who was attempting to evacuate villagers was injured and taken to hospital, according to Alyokhin.
Ukraine launched a surprise incursion into Russian territory in August, seizing almost 1,300 square kilometres of Russian territory. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said in October that the AFU was “maintaining the necessary pressure on Russia” in the region.
The AFU, which has not yet made any comment on the reported drone strike, has accused Russia of wiping the Ukrainian-held town of Sudzha “off the face of the earth”, regularly shelling it with guided aerial bombs and kamikaze drones.
In a report published by Ukraine’s General Staff in October, the AFU accused Russia of dropping 68 aerial bombs on the Kursk region in the span of 24 hours, and mounting some 260 attacks on local settlements.
.jpg){kind=link}