Video has shown the destruction caused when a drone carrying explosives struck the center of a Russian town.
After flying over Kireyevsk in the central Tula region and damaging residences and injuring three people, the drone created a sizable crater.
According to a law enforcement source cited by the Russian news agency TASS, Ukrainian soldiers used the drone.
On Sunday, the device struck Kireyevsk, which is located around 180 kilometers from the border between Russia and Ukraine.
Kyiv has yet to comment, but has previously rebuffed claims by the Kremlin that Ukrainian drones have flown into its territory and caused damage to civilian infrastructure.
The footage, which appears to have been captured on a mobile phone, pans around the crater, reported to measure 15 meters (50 ft) in diameter and five meters deep (16 ft), showing how properties have been reduced to rubble.
A person can be heard saying ‘There is nothing left of the house, everything is smashed.
‘And the crater is so f******g huge, this is awful’.
A voice adds: ‘The main thing is we are alive’ before speculation that the explosion ‘must have been a drone’.
The blast lays bare the carnage caused by Vladimir Putin’s war on Ukraine – as the Kremlin today said it had plans to base submarines with ‘super torpedoes’ in the Pacific Ocean by early next year.
Moscow said it had produced the first set of Poseidon missiles – said to be a cross between a torpedo and a drone, launched from a nuclear submarine – in January.
The decision was made in response to the West increasing military support for Ukraine, Mr Putin said.
NATO on Sunday criticised the Russian president for what it branded his ‘dangerous and irresponsible’ nuclear rhetoric.
It follows Mr Putin’s announcement on Saturday that tactical nuclear weapons would be stationed in Belarus – which has been taken ‘hostage’ by its ally, according to a top Ukrainian security official.
Mr Putin likened the move to the US stationing weapons in Europe and vowed Russia would not violate its nuclear non-proliferation promises.
But a NATO spokesperson said Russia’s reference to NATO nuclear sharing was ‘totally misleading’, adding: ‘NATO allies act with full respect to their international commitments’.
The announcement is said to represent one of Russia’s most pronounced nuclear signals since the invasion began in February last year, with Kyiv calling for a UN Security Council meeting in response.
Ukraine’s foreign ministry called on the international community to take ‘decisive action’.
‘Russia once again confirms its chronic inability to be a responsible steward of nuclear weapons as a means of deterrence and prevention of war, not as a tool of threats and intimidation,’ it said.
Russia-Ukraine war: Everything you need to know
Since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine began on February 24, the country has suffered widespread damages and loss of life amid a major bombing campaign.
Millions of people have fled the country, with thousands of British people opening up their homes to Ukrainian refugees.
During the course of the war, Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky has remained in Kyiv, despite the Ukrainian capital being subjected to a barrage of bombing.
Zelensky has continuously pushed for aid and support from world leaders, as well as pressing for fast-tracked NATO membership.
Meanwhile, Russia’s President Vladimir Putin has been widely condemned for his attack on Ukraine.
His actions have been met by harsh economic sanctions, bans from competing in major sporting events, and countries moving away from using Russian oil.
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However, a senior advisor to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Mr Putin’s statement was ‘too predictable’.
‘Making a statement about tactical nuclear weapons in Belarus, he admits that he is afraid of losing & all he can do is scare with tactics,’ Mykhailo Podolyak wrote on Twitter.
But in Washington, the Republican chair of the US House of Representatives foreign affairs committee, Michael McCaul, said he regarded Russia’s plans to store tactical weapons in Belarus as ‘disturbing’.
And the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons warned: ‘In the context of the war in Ukraine, the likelihood of miscalculation or misinterpretation is extremely high.
‘Sharing nuclear weapons makes the situation much worse and risks catastrophic humanitarian consequences,’ it said on Twitter.