On Sunday, a new round of Ukrainian drone attacks and shelling targeted Russia, inflicting three casualties and forcing an airport to divert planes, according to officials.
Russian areas have accused Kiev’s military forces of practically daily drone strikes and shelling civilian sites since Ukraine began its counteroffensive in early June.
“On Sunday morning, the armed forces of Ukraine shelled the area of the central market in Shebekino,” said Vyacheslav Gladkov, governor of Russia’s Belgorod region bordering Ukraine.
“According to preliminary information, there are three victims — a woman suffered shrapnel wounds to the neck… Two other men suffered shrapnel wounds to their legs,” he said.
The governor of Bryansk region, also on the border, said Ukrainian shelling of a village damaged houses and two administrative buildings but that there were no casualties.
The attacks came as officials said five drones were shot down over the region of Smolensk, west of Moscow, while another was shot down over Krasnodar region on the Black Sea coast.
“On the morning of 1 October, Sochi airport imposed a temporary flight restriction. Six flights were diverted to alternate aerodromes,” Sochi airport said.
The Crimea bridge, which connects the Moscow-annexed peninsula to the Russian mainland, also briefly closed on Sunday for undisclosed reasons.
Last week, Ukraine claimed responsibility for a missile attack that struck the headquarters of Moscow’s Black Sea fleet in annexed Crimea, marking a major blow for the Kremlin.
