Russian Colonel Killed in Drone Strike While Mowing Lawn at Belgorod Dacha

A Russian lieutenant colonel has reportedly been killed during a drone strike on a village in the Belgorod region, close to the border with Ukraine.

Police Lieutenant Colonel Alexei Chernykh of Russia's anti-corruption police was mowing the lawn at his dacha (country cottage) in the village of Shchetinovka on August 26 when he was killed, according to Russian Telegram channel Baza, which is linked to Russia's security services.

On the same day, Belgorod Governor Vyacheslav Gladkov accused Ukraine of being behind a drone attack that targeted Shchetinovka, killing a "civilian," without naming the individual. Ukraine hasn't claimed responsibility for the drone strike, in line with its policy of distancing itself from attacks on Russian soil.

Baza on Monday reported that Chernykh died "after a Ukrainian drone dropped ammunition on his garden in Shchetinovka."

"Alexei had a day off and was mowing the lawn," the channel reported.

Newsweek has contacted the foreign ministries of Russia and Ukraine for comment via email.

The Belgorod governor accused Ukraine's armed forces of dropping "an explosive device from a drone" which struck a civilian who was "at his summer cottage mowing the grass." He died from shrapnel wounds, Gladkov said.

In a post on Telegram, Gladkov extended his condolences to the family and friends of the deceased.

Russia has been hit with numerous drone strikes since President Vladimir Putin launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, with attacks more recently targeting the capital, Moscow.

An attack on May 30, which Ukraine hasn't claimed responsibility for, marked the first time the capital had been hit in a large-scale drone strike since the war began.

Andriy Yusov, spokesperson for Ukraine's military intelligence, told the Kyiv Post in July that the fact that drones have been able to reach Moscow "testify to the fact that the Putin regime is unable to fully control the sky even for the protection of the most important facilities."

"Obviously, this situation will continue and increase in scale," Yusov added.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky previously said that attacks on Russian territory are an "inevitable, natural and absolutely fair process."

Boris Bondarev, who worked as a diplomat in the Russian ministry of foreign affairs from 2002 to 2022, told Newsweek in February that Ukraine must strike legitimate targets inside Russia to win the war.

"You cannot win the war if you don't hit your enemy," Bondarev said in a phone interview from Switzerland. "Of course, [Ukraine] must not hit civilian targets like Russia does in Ukraine."

Bondarev was a counselor at the Russian Mission to the United Nations Office in Geneva, Switzerland, before he quit in May 2022 over Putin's war in Ukraine.

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