Seven unmanned aircraft were intercepted over Kaluga Region
FILE PHOTO: A Russian 9K35 Strela-10 (Arrow) air defence system © Evgeny Biyatov / Sputnik
Russia has shot down seven Ukrainian drones as they traveled over Kaluga Region, civilian and military officials report. Kiev recently attempted two UAV attacks on the Russian capital.
The interception of six UAVs was first reported on Thursday morning by the region’s governor, Vladislav Shapsha, who said the aircraft were trying to fly across the territory.
Kaluga Region lies between Moscow Region in the northeast and Bryansk Region in the southwest, with the latter bordering Ukraine. There were no casualties or damage on the ground, the governor said.
The report was confirmed by the Defense Ministry, which said the drones were downed by air defense forces before they could be used in a terrorist attack. Later in the day, Shapsha reported that a seventh aircraft was shot down by the air defenses.
Ukrainian UAVs reached Moscow last Sunday and again on Tuesday, both times hitting the city’s financial district. The military said both incidents happened after electronic countermeasures were deployed against the aircraft.
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Mikhail Podoliak, an aide to Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky, bragged after the second attack that Moscow was “rapidly getting used to a full-fledged war” and stated that there will be “more unidentified drones” in the future.
Russian officials claim that Kiev is increasingly using terrorist tactics, after failing to produce battlefield successes during its much-lauded summer ‘counteroffensive’.
