Two drones were shot down near Rostov-on-Don, the nerve center of Russia’s ongoing invasion of Ukraine. The incident occurred in the early hours of September 7, 2023.
According to Vasily Golubev, the governor of the Rostov region, two drones were downed in separate incidents around 3 a.m. local time. The first drone was intercepted west of the city without causing any casualties.
The second drone, which injured one person, crashed in the historic city center, a mere 500 meters (1,600 feet) away from the headquarters of Russia’s Southern Military District, from where operations in Ukraine are coordinated. It was in Rostov that, in June 2023, the infamous Russian private military company Wagner Group took control of military sites in its thwarted mutiny against Vladimir Putin’s regime.
The day before the attack on Rostov, a Russian missile struck an open-air market and the shopping area in the city center of Kostiantynivka, Donetsk region. The same day, the US Secretary of State Antony Blinken was on an official visit to Kyiv.
The attack claimed the lives of 17 people, according to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
“The Russian troops are terrorists who will not be forgiven and will not rest,” Denys Shmyhal, the Prime Minister of Ukraine, commented. “There will be a fair retribution for everything.”
“Russia continues to terrorize the civilian population in Ukraine,” an EU spokesperson said in a statement. “Intentional attacks against civilians are war crimes. All the instigators, perpetrators and accomplices of these atrocities will be held accountable.”
