Ukraine’s drone attacks damage grain warehouse, school in Rostov, Russia says

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(Reuters) -Ukrainian drone attacks overnight damaged a grain facility, a school, residential houses and a sport complex in Russia’s southern region of Rostov on the Ukrainian border, Russian authorities said on Wednesday.

The Russian defence ministry said in a post on the Telegram messaging app that its units destroyed a total of 40 Ukrainian drones overnight over several Russian regions and the Crimean Peninsula. Seven drones were downed over the Rostov region.

Rostov Governor Yuri Slyusar said on Telegram that there were no injuries in result of the strikes, but the attack sparked a fire at a sports complex and damaged a high school and two apartment buildings in the city of Taganrog.

In the town of Azov, situated on the Don River about 16 km (10 miles) from the Sea of Azov, the attack damaged a grain storage warehouse and an industrial facility, Slyusar said, without elaborating.

According to several unofficial Russian and Ukrainian Telegram channels, there were reports of a possible drone strike on the Russian Atlant-Aero drone facility in Taganrog.

Reuters could not independently verify the reports of the possible attack on the drone factory.

Russia’s Voronezh regional Governor Alexander Gusev, writing on Telegram, said more than 40 drones were destroyed over urban areas and near the border with Ukraine on Tuesday, but there were no injuries.

Ukraine has beefed up its capacity of drone construction and strikes since the start of the 40-month-old war against Russia. In an attack earlier this month, dubbed “Operation Spider’s Web”, it targeted Russian long-range bombers at air bases.

Russia has intensified its drone and missile strikes on Ukrainian cities in recent months. A missile attack on Tuesday in southeastern Ukraine killed at least 17 people.

(Reporting by Reuters; Writing by Ron Popeski and Lidia Kelly; Editing by Cynthia Osterman, Jamie Freed and Raju Gopalakrishnan)