Luhansk under increasing Ukrainian fire, according to Russia

The city was attacked several times by Ukrainian missiles on Monday. “It cannot be ruled out that the latest attack took place where rescue teams are dealing with the consequences of the previous missile attack,” wrote the Foreign Ministry’s special envoy, Rodion Miroshnik, on the short message service Telegram.

Russian governor Leonid Pasechnik had previously reported on the social media platform that a fire had broken out in Luhansk as a result of a Ukrainian missile attack with cluster munitions. Information about possible victims is still being checked. The Russian news agency RIA also reported a series of explosions in the city. Ukrainian war bloggers, for their part, published a picture that supposedly shows a major fire in the city. There was no confirmation of the reports at first. The government in Kiev initially made no comment. The Ukrainian army had flown at least three attacks on Luhansk and the surrounding areas in recent weeks. The main targets were fuel depots. Luhansk is located in the part of eastern Ukraine conquered by Russia.

Meanwhile, a drone was shot down near Moscow. The drone was shot down by air defense on Monday evening in the town of Balashikha in the Kuchino district east of Moscow, regional governor Andrei Vorobyov said on the online service Telegram. The debris fell on a private house, and the people inside the house were brought to safety in time. No one was injured.

The Russian Defense Ministry had previously announced that the air defense had shot down a “small balloon.” According to Russian aviation officials, there were restrictions at the capital’s Domodedovo and Zhukovsky airports for just over half an hour. In order to ensure the safety of civilian flights, there were “temporary restrictions between 8:46 p.m. and 9:20 p.m.”, explained the representative of the aviation authority Rosaviatsia, Artjom Korenjako, on online networks.