One dead and three injured in drone strike on Voronezh as Ukrainian attacks leave Belgorod in dark

One person was killed and three others were injured in a Ukrainian drone strike on the western Russian city of Voronezh, regional Governor Alexander Gusev said on Saturday night.

One of the injured civilians suffered a traumatic brain injury, another received a penetrating wound to the abdomen, and two others experienced minor cuts, according to Gusev, who added that all four victims had been taken to hospital where one of them subsequently died.

The Russian Ministry of Defence said on Saturday evening that a total of 33 Ukrainian drones had been shot down over Russia in a three-hour period, 17 of which had been flying over Voronezh. Another eight drones were intercepted over the Kursk region, five over the Bryansk region, and three over the Belgorod region, the ministry added.

As the western Russian region of Belgorod suffered a large-scale blackout on Saturday, Belgorod region Governor Vyacheslav Gladkov urged residents to purchase their own power generators.

“We have gone door to door and talked to each home owner about the need to purchase a generator for themselves,” Gladkov wrote on Telegram, adding that those who could afford to do so should not simply wait for the issue to “blow over and that somehow this trouble will pass them by”.

On Thursday, over half a million residents of the regional capital Belgorod and some districts surrounding the city were left without heating and electricity following Ukrainian drone strikes on a thermal power plant and an electricity substation. Another 200,000 people were also left without water.

Gladkov, who described the situation as “extremely difficult”, said that the emergency services were attempting to activate backup power sources and carry out infrastructure repair work and pledged that heat, power and water would be restored to all residents “by the end of the day”.