Ukraine claims drone strike on military target in Russia

Ukrainian special forces said on Monday they destroyed an unmanned observation tower in Russia's Bryansk region using a drone strike, a rare reconnaissance of a cross-border attack that underscored Kiev's growing willingness to directly strike Russian territory.

The Kraken unit, which reports to Ukrainian military intelligence, has posted a video which she says shows the assault on her Telegram channel on Monday.

The timing of the strike was unclear, but the video came a few days after a brief armed incursion into a Russian border village in Bryansk by a group claiming to be fighting for Ukraine, a known rare case of a raid inside Russia. The Kremlin called it a "terrorist" attack.

The Russian Volunteer Corps, a group opposed to Russian President Vladimir V. Putin, claimed on Thursday that it briefly took control of the small village of Lyubichane, near the border with northeastern Ukraine. There were conflicting reports about the episode and what happened in Bryansk, but at the end of the day Russian authorities said the group had been deported to Ukraine.

Russia and Ukraine share a land border stretching over 1,200 miles, including several hundred miles in the eastern Donbass region, parts of which are controlled by Moscow. Russia has used territories near Ukraine - including Bryansk, along Ukraine's northern border - to stage assaults, fire rockets, launch air assaults and mount other attacks throughout war.

Officials in Kyiv have said they reserve the right to strike targets in Russia which they say are being used to attack Ukrainian cities, but promised not to use weapons supplied by Western allies for such attacks, because the allies fear that Moscow will consider this a provocation.

During the war year there were reports of explosions and fires at oil depots, railway hubs and other military targets in Russia, but Ukraine maintained a policy of deliberate ambiguity on such attacks, very rarely claiming responsibility.

Ukraine has reportedly struck inside Russia on several occasions, including in December, when the Engels air base, which is about 300 miles from the Ukr Ainian border, was attacked two times.

On Monday, the governor of Russia's Belgorod region, which also borders Ukraine, said Russian air defenses shot down three missiles in the town of Novy Oskol. Ukrainian authorities have not commented on the Russian claims.

But the Ukrainian government has expressed growing concern that Moscow is using the Bryansk region to launch drone assaults. The last such attack, he said, took place before dawn on Monday. Alarms sounded across kyiv as air defense guns echoed. The Ukrainian Air Force said it detected at least 15 drones launched from Bryansk and claimed to have shot down 13.

Kyiv forces also continued to target Russian strongholds in occupied areas of Ukraine. Two large explosions were reported Sunday evening in the Russian-occupied town of Melitopol in southern Ukraine, the town's exiled mayor, Ivan Fedorov, said in an appearance on national television. Mr Federov said the Ukrainian military was still working to confirm the damage caused by the strike.

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