Ukraine launched a major drone attack on the Russian city of Kazan, 1,000 km (620 miles) from the front lineOn Saturday, it damaged residential buildings and temporarily closed the airport. A drone crashed into a high-rise apartment block and damaged a skyscraper in the city of more than 1.3 million, local officials said, but there were no injuries. Video posted on Russian social media networks showed the drone hitting a tall building and releasing a fireball. Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said the two drones targeted a 37-story apartment block and that Ukraine was targeting an unspecified industrial facility, but caused no damage.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Saturday, without specifically mentioning the attack on Kazan: “We will definitely continue to attack Russian military targets with drones and missiles.” Some Kazan residents were evacuated – Russian officials did not provide figures – and all major public events in the region were canceled as a precaution after the attacks. Russian civil aviation authority Rosaviatsiya temporarily closed Kazan International Airport, the country’s busiest, but reopened it later on Saturday. The Foreign Ministry said that along with the drones that attacked the apartment block, three drones were shot down and three were suppressed by air defense systems. The attack in Kazan – about 800 km east of Moscow – came a day after Russian attacks on the Ukrainian capital Kiev, which killed one person and wounded 13, and a Ukrainian attack on the Russian border area of Kursk that killed five people .
Zelensky said on Saturday that he had met with CIA Director William Burns in Ukraine – A rare public disclosure of the meeting between the couple. The Ukrainian President said that he had met Burns on several occasions throughout the war but that their meetings were not disclosed. “Bill Burns made his last visit to Ukraine as CIA director,” Zelensky said, posting a photo on Telegram of him shaking hands with Burns in front of the state crest of Ukraine. “He and I have had many meetings during this war, and I am grateful for his help. Typically, such meetings are not publicly reported, and all of our meetings – in Ukraine, in other European countries, in the US and in other parts of the world – were held without official information. Burns is set to leave the CIA post as US President-elect Donald Trump is fielding his own candidate.
Russia’s Defense Ministry said troops captured a new village on Saturday near the key city of Kurakhov in eastern Ukraine.Where Russian forces have made major advances in recent months. The village of Kostiantinopolske is about 10 km south-west of Kurakhov, an industrial town that is a Russian target.
On Saturday the Russian Embassy in London described Britain’s planned transfer to Ukraine of more than £2 billion ($2.5 billion) backed by frozen Russian assets as a “fraudulent scheme.”Britain said in October it would loan Ukraine £2.26 billion as part of a much larger loan from the Group of Seven countries backed by the Russian central bank’s frozen assets to help buy weapons and rebuild damaged infrastructure. Will give. Britain’s defense minister, John Healey, said the money would be solely for Ukraine’s military and could be used to help develop drones capable of traveling farther than some long-range missiles.