Ukraine war: Drone strikes, military drills and concert cancellations

Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered officials to tighten control of the border with Ukraine after a spate of drone attacks on Tuesday.

A flurry of drone attacks on Monday night and Tuesday morning targeted regions inside Russia along the border with Ukraine and deeper into the country, according to local Russian authorities. 

While Putin didn’t refer to any specific attacks in a speech in the Russian capital, his comments came hours after drone attacks targeted several areas in southern and western Russia.

A drone fell near the village of Gubastovo, 100 kilometres from Moscow, Andrei Vorobyov, governor of the region surrounding the Russian capital, said in an online statement. Russian authorities closed the airspace over St. Petersburg in response to the series of events.

Russian forces early Tuesday shot down a Ukrainian drone over the Bryansk region, local Governor Aleksandr Bogomaz said in a Telegram post. He said there were no casualties.

Ukrainian officials didn’t immediately claim responsibility for the attacks, but they similarly avoided directly acknowledging responsibility for previous strikes and sabotage.

The Russian Defense Ministry said that Ukraine used drones to attack facilities in the Krasnodar region and neighbouring Adygea. It said the drones were brought down by electronic warfare assets, adding that one of them crashed into a field and another diverted from its designated flight path and missed an infrastructure facility it was supposed to attack.

Also Tuesday, several Russian television stations aired a missile attack warning that officials blamed on a hacking attack.

The Ukrainian military has increased its daily military exercises in Kupiansk, as Russian forces have intensified the push to capture