A drone exploded this morning near Kaluga , a Russian city about 180 kilometers from Moscow.
The governor , Vladislav Shapsha , reports this on his Telegram channel. The aircraft, specified Shapsha - quoted by the Russian news agency Ria Novosti - exploded at an altitude of 50 meters at 5 am (3 am Italian time) in a forest. According to some statements by the residents , the roar caused by the unmanned aircraft would have been very strong. However, no deaths or injuries were reported .
Russia has already denounced - in the past - the presence of Ukrainian drones flying over its territory but Kiev has always denied.
Similar episodes to those of this morning occurred last October , when a drone exploded crashing into an airport and - after a week - another was shot down by Russian air defenses in the south of the region. In both cases, according to local authorities, no damage or casualties were reported.
Meanwhile in Bakhmut , on Ukrainian territory, the battle is increasingly fierce and Kiev insists on its relentless campaign to obtain more weapons from the West , in view of a major Russian offensive scheduled for this month. Ukrainian Defense Minister Oleksii Reznikov tries to reassure partners by promising that Kiev " will not use foreign weapons to strike Russian territory ". On this there is "consensus" with the Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky , the German Chancellor Olaf Scholz also assured. And so Kiev is once again calling for fighter jets, because Western reluctance to deliver them "will cost more lives" on the ground.
And even if the defense minister voices the Ukrainian demands, his seat seems to hang in the balance, at least according to media reports. Today is the news that " there will be no changes at the top of the Ukrainian Defense Ministry this week ": this was stated on his Telegram channel by David Arakhamia , head of parliament of the Servant of the People party of President Volodymyr Zelensky. According to Arakhamia, however, the new interior minister and the new head of the SBU , the intelligence services of Kiev , will be appointed this week. Yesterday Arakhamia himself said that the head of military intelligence Kyrylo Budanov would be appointed as the new defense minister to replace Oleksiy Reznikov .
Meanwhile, the Ukrainian president Zelensky could arrive in Brussels in the next few days to participate in person in an extraordinary session of the plenary meeting of the European Parliament. "There is an open invitation to Brussels for President Volodymyr Zelensky", confirms the spokesman of the EU Council, Barend Leyts.
( HERE all the news about the war)
(Unioneonline/vf)