A wave of Ukrainian drone attacks targeted the capital of the republic of Tatarstan early Saturday, regional authorities said, damaging several residential buildings and forcing the closure of at least two nearby airports.

Tatarstan regional head Rustam Minnikhanov described the attack as unprecedented in its scope and said emergency teams had evacuated residents of the impacted buildings, set up temporary shelters and provided them with hot meals.

Q: Who is flying the drones that are appearing over the East Coast?

A: On Dec. 17, four federal agencies said they followed up more than 5,000 reported drone sightings and determined that they were lawful private and law enforcement drones and other aircraft “mistakenly reported as drones.” The agencies said the drones do not pose a security threat.

FULL QUESTION

Are there currently drones from China in Atlanta, GA?

FULL ANSWER

It is not clear why there have been so many drone sightings at night in the Northeast during the past month. People believe they are seeing increased drone activity, and these unexplained sightings upset them, which is hardly surprising. But we can change the policy on drones. What is happening now is not inevitable and does not have to become the new normal. Congress can regulate the skies to match voters’ preferences.

As a New Jersey resident, I’m alarmed by government officials like White House national security spokesperson John Kirby minimizing reports of unidentified drones in our state as posing no threat to public safety. As someone who researches UFOs and unidentified anomalous phenomena (UAP), Kirby’s dismissal seems blatantly disingenuous and deceptive.

By engaging in a game of semantics on two distinct points, the Pentagon and White House are hiding from accountability on one of the most egregious national security failures in decades.

The hundreds of unexplained drones reported flying over New Jersey and other states across the East Coast in recent days have caused both confusion and anxiety. Who is flying these unmanned aircraft over homes, military bases, and President-elect Donald Trump’s golf course? What do they want? And what are they trying to do — or find out?

The loss of public trust in U.S. institutions is well-chronicled, and for an example of its cost consider the national mini-panic over unidentified aerial objects. No one in America seems to believe what anyone in authority says about them, and unproven claims are filling the vacuum.