Tragic Drone Strike in Belgorod Claims Life Amid Heightened Tensions over Nuclear Plant Threats

A woman lost her life due to a Ukrainian drone strike in Belgorod, a southwestern city, as reported by local officials on Friday. This comes after the Russian Defense Ministry stated that it intercepted numerous drones across the country overnight.

Vyacheslav Gladkov, the governor of the Belgorod region, confirmed the woman’s death but did not elaborate on the circumstances. Local Telegram news channels shared images of police securing a bus stop and covering the deceased with aluminum foil.

Approximately an hour later, Gladkov mentioned that a civilian was wounded in a separate strike on the nearby village of Krasny Oktyabr, situated 13 kilometers (8 miles) from the border with Ukraine.

Russia’s Defense Ministry claimed to have downed 10 Ukrainian drones over Belgorod between 8 a.m. and 9:15 a.m. on Friday, although it did not specify if any drones successfully reached their intended targets.

The military reported that it intercepted a total of 221 Ukrainian drones across the nation overnight. More than half of these were shot down in the Bryansk and Smolensk regions, which border Belarus and are currently the site of joint military exercises between Russia and Belarus.

According to the state nuclear agency Rosatom, a drone attempted to strike a nuclear power plant in Smolensk around 4 a.m. local time, but air defense systems successfully destroyed it near the facility. Rosatom assured that the power plant continues to operate normally and that there were no changes in radiation levels.

In the northwestern Leningrad region, local officials reported the downing of 28 drones. A fire erupted on a vessel in the coastal town of Primorsk, but Governor Alexander Drozdenko indicated that the fire was quickly extinguished.

Primorsk, located by the Gulf of Finland, is Russia’s largest oil-loading port, handling approximately 72 million tons of crude oil each year.