Update: The suspect has been arrested, Rostov region governor Vasily Golubev said on Wednesday.
Police in Russia’s Rostov region are searching for a suspected Russian army deserter who shot at police officers in the southern Russian city of Novoshakhtinsk near the Russian-Ukrainian border on Tuesday, Russia’s TASS news agency reported.
The man reportedly shot police officers after emerging from a wooded area on the outskirts of the city in southern Russia’s Rostov region, injuring one officer.
According to the Russian news agency Mash, the man is suspected of being a deserter from the Russian army.
Kindergartens and some roads in and out of town have been closed and local authorities have advised residents to stay indoors.
Security concerns in the city, just 20 kilometers from the Ukrainian border, follow a spate of attacks on Russian soil believed to have been carried out by the Ukrainian military as Kiev’s tactics in the war continue to shift.
An oil tank was set on fire in a drone strike on an airfield in Russia’s border region of Kursk on Tuesday, while Moscow blamed Kyiv for two similar attacks on Monday after explosions at airbases in the Ryazan and Saratov regions killed three soldiers and wounded four others had been.
Russia’s border regions continue to feel the effects of the conflict. Satellite images last month show ditches being dug and roadblocks set up in the Belgorod border region.
However, Tuesday’s shooting in Novoshakhtinsk is the first suspected case of a deserter returning to Russia shooting at security officials.