Narrow escape for Belgorod governor as Ukrainian drone strikes courthouse during visit

A Ukrainian drone has struck a court building in the Belgorod region of southwestern Russia as Governor Vyacheslav Gladkov was present to inspect the aftermath of a previous drone strike, he said on Friday morning.

The strike, which blew out windows and damaged the façade of the building, caused no fatalities, though Gladkov said that a man who happened to be driving past the court building when the drone strike took place had been hospitalised with his injuries.

Earlier on Friday, a diesel locomotive derailed in the region in what is being treated by the authorities as another act of sabotage, according to preliminary investigations. Gladkov said that no one was injured in the incident, but the affected section of railway had to be closed to traffic for over two hours.

Railways were attacked in suspected Ukrainian sabotage operations in the western Bryank and southwestern Kursk regions of Russia on Sunday. Seven people were killed and dozens more injured when a road bridge collapsed as a passenger train carrying 388 passengers was passing underneath it in the Bryansk region. The train crashed into the wreckage of the bridge, causing the locomotive and four carriages to derail.

Ukraine’s Defence Intelligence (GUR) also reported on Sunday that a Russian military train had been blown up near the village of Yakymivka, in the Russian-occupied part of Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia region, while on its way to annexed Crimea.