By the evening of January 20, a large fire broke out in a residential building in the settlement of Novaya Adygeya in Russia’s Krasnodar region after a series of explosions. Preliminary reports indicate an air-defense missile struck a residential high-rise.
Eyewitnesses and videos published by the Telegram channel “Exilenova+” corroborate the flight of a missile.
“The moment a [expletive] missile hits a building in Krasnodar,” reads the caption to one video, which shows a missile plunging at high speed and triggering a large explosion and fire at the point of impact.
The footage clearly shows the projectile’s trajectory; instead of intercepting a target, it struck a residential area.
However, local Russian authorities and pro-government media began a campaign to shift blame to Ukraine. According to their accounts, a Ukrainian drone allegedly hit the apartment building in Novaya Adygeya.
“At least twenty-five apartments were damaged after a Ukrainian drone attack on a high-rise in the settlement of Novaya Adygeya,” pro-Kremlin channels said.
At the same time, the Russian outlet Astra conducted its own open-source analysis and says the building was hit by a Russian air-defense missile.
“ASTRA analyzed numerous eyewitness videos from the scene, including the moment of impact, and concluded that a Russian air-defense missile struck the residential building,” the outlet said.
Analysts noted that eyewitness footage clearly captures the missile’s overflight and impact; a power substation is located roughly one kilometer from the building.
As of publication, Ukrainian officials had not commented on the incident in Novaya Adygeya.
Earlier, in the early hours of January 18, partisans damaged a key substation in Russia’s Bryansk region.
