KEY POINTS
- The high-rise residential building was targeted 1,000 km from the border.
- The strike causes fires and disrupts flight operations at Kazan Airport.
- Russia claims Ukraine is intensifying attacks on civilian areas.
- Ukraine targets Russia’s Kursk region with US-supplied missiles.
MOSCOW: Ukrainian drones on Saturday hit a high-rise residential building in the Russian city of Kazan 1,000 kilometres from the border, presenting a resemblance to the 9/11 attack in the US when planes rammed the Twin Towers of the World Trade Centre in New York in 2001.
The major drone attack 1,000 kilometres from the frontier was the latest in a series of escalating aerial attacks in the nearly three-year conflict.
The Russian Ministry of Defence said the city, located some 800km (500 miles) east of Moscow, was attacked by three waves of drones between 7:40am and 9:20am (04:40 and 06:20 GMT) on Saturday.
In unverified videos shared on X, aerial objects were seen flying into two skyscrapers in Kazan. The strikes on the high-rise apartment building set off massive balls of fire that left a plume of black smoke.
Eight drones were used in the attack, according to the press service of the Tatarstan regional government. Six hit residential buildings, one hit an industrial facility and another was shot down over a river, it said in a statement.
Airports Temporarily Halt Flight Operations
Local authorities said there were no casualties. The Kazan airport temporarily halted flight arrivals and departures, Russia’s aviation watchdog Rosaviatsia said via Telegram.
Rosaviatsia said it was also introducing temporary restrictions at two other airports, in Izhevsk, a smaller city northeast of Kazan, and in Saratov, which lies some 400 miles (650 km) south of Kazan. The restrictions at Saratov were later lifted.
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.
“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.
Public Events Cancelled
Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said two drones hit a 37-storey apartment block. She said Ukraine had been targeting an unspecified industrial facility, but that it suffered no damage.
Ukraine, which has staged regular attacks on targets inside Russia since the start of the full-scale military offensive in February 2022, did not immediately comment.
Some residents were evacuated, but authorities did not provide figures, and all major public events in the area were cancelled as a precaution.
Alongside the two drones that hit the apartment block, three drones were shot down and three were suppressed by air defence systems, Zakharova said.
In a post on Telegram, she said Kyiv was taking out its “anger for tangible military defeats on the peaceful population of Russia.”
“Today Kazan suffered a massive drone attack. While before industrial enterprises were attacked, now the enemy attacks civilians in the morning,” Rustam Minnikhanov, the Tartarstan republic leader, said in a post on Telegram.
Resemblance with 9/11 Attacks
The city had been attacked by three waves of drones between 7.40 am and 9.20 am (0440 and 0620 GMT), Russia’s Defence Ministry said. It said six drones had been neutralised or destroyed but did not say how many had been involved.
The deadly 9/11 attacks saw nearly 3,000 people killed after hijacked planes rammed into the Twin Towers in New York and the Pentagon in Washington, with another crashing in a Pennsylvania field.
Saturday’s strikes come weeks after Russia said there were no grounds yet for negotiations on how to bring the war to an end.
The incident comes after Russia’s President Vladimir Putin proposed a “high-tech duel” with Kyiv during his end-of-year news conference on Thursday, suggesting he would test his claims that Russia’s new hypersonic ballistic missile was impervious to air defences.
Escalation in Russia-Ukraine Conflict
Ukraine targeted the town of Rylsk in Russia’s Kursk border region on Friday, deploying United States-supplied missiles in an attack that killed six people, including a child.
Ukrainian officials said Moscow sent 113 drones into Ukraine overnight into Saturday, 57 of which were shot down. Another 56 drones were “lost,” likely having been electronically jammed.
Ukraine’s air force said Russia also fired one S-400 missile at central Ukraine but that there was no damage from it.
Russia is also continuing its battle to take control of the Donetsk region of eastern Ukraine. On Saturday, the defence ministry claimed its troops captured the village of Kostiantynopolske, called Ostrovsky by Russia.
The settlement lies 10km (six miles) southwest of Kurakhove, which Russian troops have stormed and are threatening to encircle, according to DeepState, a Ukrainian group mapping the fighting.
In late November, Reuters reported that Russian President Vladimir Putin was open to discussing a ceasefire deal in Ukraine with US president-elect Donald Trump and could agree to freeze the conflict along the front line.
Russian forces control about 20 percent of Ukraine’s territory and have been advancing lately at the fastest pace since the early days of the war.
But the Kremlin has said repeatedly it will not negotiate with President Volodymyr Zelensky unless Ukraine renounces its ambition to join NATO and withdraw troops from territories now controlled by Russian troops.
