A Russian police lieutenant colonel was killed in a drone attack while mowing a lawn in a settlement near the Ukrainian border, local media outlets reported.
According to the Telegram channel Baza, which has ties to Russian security services, the senior officer was the deputy head of a regional department in Russia’s anti-corruption and economic security service.
The channel reported that a drone dropped ammunition onto the property while the senior officer “was on the day off and mowed the lawn” at his country home in Shchetinovka, a rural region in Belgorod about 500 meters away from the Ukrainian border.
Vyacheslav Gladkov, the governor of Belgorod, shared condolences on his Telegram channel and blamed Ukraine for the attack, stating that Kyiv’s forces used a drone to drop “two explosive devices” on the man causing deadly shrapnel injuries.
Ukraine has not claimed responsibility for the fatal incident and rarely comments on recent drone attacks inside Russia.
However, Ukrainian officials have celebrated the attacks, with President Volodymyr Zelenskyy saying, “the war is returning to the territory of Russia.”
“This is an inevitable, natural, and absolutely fair process,” he added.