Russian President Vladimir Putin vowed on Sunday to bring more “destruction” to Ukraine in response to a drone attack on the central Russian city of Kazan a day earlier.
Russia accused Ukraine of a “large-scale” drone attack that targeted a luxury apartment block in the city, about 1,000 kilometers (620 miles) from the border.
Videos on Russian social media networks showed the drone hitting a tall glass building and releasing a fireball, although no casualties were reported as a result of the attack.
“Whoever, and no matter how much they try to destroy, they themselves will face many times more destruction than what they are trying to do to our country,” Putin said during a televised government meeting on Sunday. , they’ll regret that.”
Putin was addressing the local leader of Tatarstan, the region where Kazan is located, at a road inauguration ceremony via video link.
The attack on Kazan was the latest in a series of escalating air strikes in the nearly three-year conflict.
Ukraine has not commented on the attack.
Putin previously threatened to target the center of Kiev with hypersonic ballistic missiles in response to Ukrainian attacks on Russian territory.
And the Defense Ministry has called Russian attacks on Ukrainian energy facilities in recent weeks a retaliation for Kiev using Western-supplied missiles to attack Russian airports and weapons factories.
The latest threat comes as Russia claims fresh advances on the battlefield in eastern Ukraine.
The Defense Ministry said on Telegram that its troops had “liberated” the villages of Lozova in the northeastern Kharkiv region and Krasnoye – known as Sontsivka in Ukraine.
The latter is close to the resource center of Kurakhov, which Russia has virtually encircled and would be a key prize in Moscow’s effort to capture the entire Donetsk region.
Russia has stepped up its advances into eastern Ukraine in recent months, seeking to secure as much territory as possible before US President-elect Donald Trump comes to power in January.
Republicans have promised a quick end to the nearly three-year-long conflict, without proposing any concrete terms for a ceasefire or peace deal.
Moscow’s military claims to have seized more than 190 Ukrainian settlements this year, while Kiev is struggling to hold the line despite a shortage of manpower and ammunition.
(This story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
