KYIV, Ukraine — Explosions rocked the area around one of Russia’s largest military hubs before dawn Thursday, as Russian officials said that air defenses shot down two drones in the southern region of Rostov, home to a command center for Russia’s forces in Ukraine.
The source of the drones was not immediately clear. The Ukrainian military had no immediate comment, in keeping with its standard practice about blasts in Russia, although Ukrainian officials in recent weeks have said that such strikes are a legitimate way to fight Russia’s invasion.
The southern city of Rostov-on-Don, where at least one of the explosions occurred, is home to Russia’s southern military headquarters and is a key command center for its forces in the war. Russian news outlets posted a series of videos showing an explosion in the center of the city, but it was not clear what caused the blast. The Russian Defense Ministry said that drone attacks in other regions were thwarted.
Vasily Golubev, the regional governor of Rostov, said that Russian air defenses had shot down two drones overnight and that falling debris had damaged cars and buildings, leaving one person injured. One drone fell in the city center, he said in a post on the Telegram messaging app, listing an address that is across the street from the military headquarters. Another was shot down outside the city in the western part of the region, he added.
Rostov-on-Don was briefly occupied by Russian mercenary fighters when Yevgeny Prigozhin, the leader of the Wagner Group, launched a brief armed rebellion against the Russian military’s top brass in June. Prigozhin died in a plane crash in late August.
Although it does not always claim responsibility, Ukraine has stepped up assaults inside Russia in recent weeks, employing a variety of weapons to strike military targets across the country. President Volodymyr Zelenskyy of Ukraine has described the strikes as a “fair and just” bid to take the war home to Russia.
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