Moscow has blamed Kiev for the rocket attack in the southern Russian city of Taganrog on the Sea of Azov. “The Kiev regime launched a terrorist attack (…) against the residential infrastructure of the city of Taganrog in the Rostov region,” the Russian Defense Ministry said on Telegram. The Russian air defense intercepted the rocket, but debris fell down.
On Friday afternoon, Russian authorities reported the impact near a café in central Taganrog. According to Rostov region governor Vasily Golubev, 15 people were injured, 9 of whom were taken to hospitals. According to Moscow, the Ukrainians are said to have converted the S-200 anti-aircraft system into an offensive weapon and fired with it. This could not be verified at first.
Golubev later reported a second rocket fired over Azov district not far from Taganrog. The debris is said to have come down here in an uninhabited area and not caused any damage. The Russian information could not be verified independently.
The investigative committee in Moscow initiated criminal proceedings on terrorism charges over the impact in Taganrog. The authority’s press release mentions 13 injuries. In addition, several residential and administrative buildings were damaged.
Kyiv denies responsibility
Ukraine, which has been defending itself against a Russian war of aggression for more than 17 months, denied blame for the rocket hit in the city center in the evening. “What is happening in Taganrog is nothing but the absolutely incompetent actions of Russian anti-aircraft defense operators,” Oleksiy Danilov, secretary of the National Security and Defense Council, wrote on Twitter. The statement is also likely to be a rhetorical tit-for-tat: Moscow has repeatedly claimed in the past that it only fires on military targets in Ukraine. Destructions in Ukrainian cities are the work of the Kiev anti-aircraft defense.
In the evening there were air alerts again in many Ukrainian cities, including the capital Kiev. The media reported impacts in the metropolis of Dnipro and in the city of Zaporizhia. Russian media had previously written that the rocket was fired at Taganrog from the area around Zaporizhia.
Taganrog is located on the Sea of Azov in the immediate vicinity of the Ukrainian region of Donetsk, which Russian troops have largely occupied. The distance to the front line is about 120 kilometers. Russia regularly shells cities and towns in the neighboring country. Russian border regions are increasingly complaining of shelling from the Ukrainian side, with the number of victims and damage there being disproportionate to the consequences of the war on the Ukrainian side.
