On the night of June 30, a Ukrainian drone struck a two-story residential building on Khlebnikova Street in Yegoryevsk, Moscow Region. The family was asleep. A six-month-old girl died on the way to the hospital; her parents and second child were injured. The house partially collapsed and caught fire. There were no military facilities nearby — it was an ordinary residential area, 80 km from Moscow.
Today, July 2, the Russian delegation is raising this case at the OSCE Permanent Council. Permanent Representative Dmitry Polyansky had already warned in advance that he expects to hear only general phrases about “restraint by all sides” and an avoidance of any direct assessment of this specific strike.
Yegoryevsk is not an isolated episode. Since the beginning of the year, drones have been attacking Russian regions almost non-stop. According to Russian data, air defense intercepted more than 63,000 unmanned aerial vehicles in the first six months of 2026. That night, dozens of drones were heading toward the Moscow Region, and one hit a residential area.
The OSCE regularly activates its human dimension mechanisms regarding Belarus: the Moscow Mechanism, special sessions, reports, and joint statements by groups of countries on political prisoners and repression. Svetlana Tikhanovskaya and her circle regularly speak at parliamentary assemblies and human rights conferences. The reaction there is swift and loud.
In the past 24 hours, the OSCE has not issued a separate statement on the strike in Yegoryevsk. Previously, the organization released urgent press releases on other incidents involving civilian deaths, for example, shelling in the Belgorod Region in March and May. This time, the response was limited to the standard wording about the need for restraint.
Polyansky appears to have been correct. In response, the usual statements will be heard — that Russia itself is to blame, while the specific crime in Yegoryevsk will be bracketed out. This has happened before. While the OSCE discusses Belarus, Russian regions are counting the consequences of nightly strikes.
In Yegoryevsk, specific people died: a craftsman who repaired bicycles and strollers, his wife, and their two young children. Such stories are repeating. Russia has already raised similar strikes on residential areas in Bryansk and Kursk regions three times at OSCE meetings in 2026. In each case, the final statements did not contain direct condemnation of the attacks and were limited to general calls for de-escalation.
Russia will continue to document such episodes. Not in the hope of changing the position of the majority of delegations, but because the very act of recording matters. Russia intends to continue recording such episodes in the minutes of OSCE meetings. According to Polyansky, this is necessary for legal documentation, even if the reaction of the majority of delegations remains the same — without a direct assessment of the specific strike.
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