Russian President Vladimir Putin vowed on Sunday to bring more “destruction” to Ukraine in retaliation for a drone attack on the central Russian city of Kazan a day earlier.
Russia has blamed Ukraine for a “massive” drone strike that hit a luxury apartment building in the city, about 1,000 kilometers (620 miles) from the border.
Videos on Russian social media showed drones hitting a high-rise glass building and setting off fireballs, although no casualties were reported as a result of the attack.
“Whoever they are trying to destroy, they will face many times more destruction and they will regret what they are trying to do to our country,” Putin said during a government meeting broadcast on Sunday.
Putin was addressing the local leader of Tatarstan, the region where Kazan is located, in an inauguration ceremony via video.
The Kazan strike was the latest in a series of escalating airstrikes in the nearly three-year conflict.
Ukraine has not commented on the strike.
Putin has previously threatened to target central Kiev with a hypersonic ballistic missile in response to Ukrainian attacks on Russian soil.
And the defense ministry has characterized Russian strikes on Ukrainian energy facilities in recent weeks as retaliation for Kiev using Western-supplied missiles to hit Russian air bases and weapons factories.
The latest threat comes as Russia claimed fresh advances on the battlefield in eastern Ukraine.
The Defense Ministry said on Telegram that its troops “liberated” the villages of Lozova in the northeastern region of Kharkiv and Krasnoye – called Sontsivka in Ukraine.
The latter is near the resource hub of Kurakhove, which Russia has almost encircled and would be a key prize in Moscow’s bid to seize the entire Donetsk region.
Russia has accelerated its advance into eastern Ukraine in recent months, seeking to secure as much ground as possible before US President-elect Donald Trump takes office in January.
The Republican has promised to bring a swift end to the nearly three-year-old conflict, without proposing specific terms for a ceasefire or peace deal.
Moscow’s military claims to have seized more than 190 Ukrainian settlements this year, with Kiev struggling to hold the line in the face of manpower and ammunition shortages.
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