Russia/Ukraine war: Drone strike forces over 300 residents to flee homes

More than 300 residents were forced to leave their homes overnight after a Ukrainian drone strike on Rostov-on-Don, the capital of Russia’s Rostov region.

Acting governor of the region, Yuri Slyusar, announced this on Tuesday.

According to the Russian defence ministry, air defence systems intercepted 13 Ukrainian drones over the region during the night, though it did not specify how many had been launched.

Slyusar explained, “An unexploded (drone) shell was discovered in one of the apartments.

“As a precaution, 320 residents of the building are being evacuated.”

Several apartment blocks in Rostov-on-Don sustained damage from the strike, with three people, including one child, suffering minor injuries, he said.

Mayor Alexandr Skryabin confirmed that evacuees were temporarily housed in a local school while bomb disposal teams worked to clear the unexploded ordnance.

Both Moscow and Kyiv maintain that they do not deliberately target civilians in their operations during the ongoing conflict, which began with Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022.