All of Kiev’s drones were either downed by air defenses or neutralized by electronic warfare, the Defense Ministry has said
A Russian Tunguska air defense system. © Sputnik
Russian forces have intercepted a Ukrainian attack on the Crimean peninsula involving 25 drones, the Defense Ministry in Moscow has said, adding that the raid caused no casualties or destruction.
In a statement early on Sunday, the ministry said Moscow had repelled “an attempt by the Kiev regime to carry out a terrorist attack with 25 aircraft-type unmanned aerial vehicles” on facilities in Crimea.
It said 16 Ukrainian drones were shot down by Russian air defenses while another nine were suppressed by electronic warfare, and crashed in the water near Cape Tarkhankut in the western part of the peninsula.
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Crimea, which serves as the key base for the Russian Black Sea Fleet, has come under recurring Ukrainian missile and drone attacks in recent months. On Monday, the Russian Defense Ministry reported a similar raid involving 17 drones, claiming all of them were downed. However, Sergey Aksyonov, the region’s leader, said the strike hit a local ammunition depot.
Earlier this month a Ukrainian UAV raid on the Crimean Bridge damaged a section of the roadway and claimed the lives of a Russian married couple, while injuring their teenage daughter. Moscow responded by intensifying missile strikes on Ukrainian military facilities in the port city of Odessa.
In an interview with CNN on Monday, Ukrainian Defense Minister Aleksey Reznikov vowed further attacks on Crimea, describing the strikes as “normal tactics to ruin the logistic lines of your enemy to stop the options to get more ammunition, to get more fuel, to get more food, etc.”
