Russian Military Grounds Hit by Explosive Drones

A drone attack on a Russian military training ground in Russia has left 14 troops injured, according to local reports.

Russian-language Telegram channels Baza and Astra wrote that two unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) filled with explosives blew up at the Pogonovo military training site in the Voronezh region, in western Russia, at around 4 a.m. local time on Wednesday. Preliminary data suggested there were no fatalities. Baza, which has links to Russia's law enforcement agencies, said there were 14 troops injured.

Governor of the Voronezh region, Alexander Gusev, said that the drones were trying to attack the military site, which is around 350 miles south of Moscow, and one of them had deviated from its intended path and crashed.

An investigation is ongoing and "additional measures aimed at ensuring security is being implemented," he said, without giving details about injuries. Newsweek has contacted the Russian Defense Ministry for comment.

Baza also reported that on Tuesday morning an object flying at an altitude of around 1,500 feet had been shot down around 4 miles from the Baltimore military airfield, also in the Voronezh region, although no one was injured from the falling debris.

The fragment was found to be non-explosive with preliminary data suggesting that it was part of the radar of an unidentified missile.

Moscow has accused Kyiv of numerous cross-border attacks and there has been a spate of recent suspected drone strikes inside Russia, in particular in regions close to the border with Ukraine. Kyiv does not claim direct responsibility for the attacks but often celebrates them on social media.

On May 3, Russian media reported that an oil refinery in the Krasnodar region of Russia, around 120 miles from the Crimean border, had been targeted by drones. In April, a drone came down in the town of Kireyevsk, about 250 miles from the Ukraine border.

Kyiv also recently rejected Moscow's claims that it was behind a drone attack on the Kremlin as part of a plot to assassinate Vladimir Putin. It came ahead of Victory Day celebrations in the Red Square, which were scaled back across the country due to security concerns.

In December, a strike hit the Engels-2 air base, which hosted strategic bomber planes equipped to carry nuclear weapons, in the Saratov region deep inside Russian territory. In February, a drone crashed in Kolomna, less than 100 miles from Moscow.

The head of the mercenary Wagner Group, Yevgeny Prigozhin, referred to the spike in strikes into Russian territory, in particular in the city of Belgorod, during a video address on Tuesday in which he asked: "Why can't the state protect its country?"