Russia says more Ukrainian drones downed over Crimea

Russia said it repelled Ukrainian drone attacks over several parts of Crimea, outer Moscow and two border regions on Sunday.

Crimea has been targeted by Ukraine throughout Russia’s offensive but attacks there have recently intensified as Kyiv vows to recapture the Black Sea peninsula, which Moscow annexed in 2014.

And since Ukraine launched its counter-offensive in early June, Russia has weathered waves of drone attacks that have sporadically damaged buildings, including in the capital Moscow.

Russian officials have downplayed their significance.

“Drones were intercepted over the western, southwestern, northwestern and eastern parts of the Crimean peninsula; Istra and Domodedovo districts of Moscow region, Belgorod and Voronezh regions,” Russia’s defence ministry said on Telegram in the round-up of Sunday’s attacks.

The drones “have been thwarted”, it added.

Most of the attacks were early Sunday.

Late Sunday, three drones were destroyed over southwestern Crimea, as was a solitary drone over the Belgorod border region, defence ministry updates said.

The Telegram updates throughout the day totalled 13 drones destroyed, including nine over Crimea.

They did not say whether there had been any casualties or damage in the attacks.

In their Sunday round-up, the Russian ministry claimed that production workshops at a military vehicle repairs plant in the eastern Ukrainian city of Kharkiv had been hit.

The buildings, “where the repair and restoration of armoured vehicles of the armed forces of Ukraine were carried out, were hit by a missile strike,” it said.

Kharkiv regional governor Oleg Synegubov had said earlier in his own Sunday round-up that shortly after midnight, Russia “launched a missile attack on the city of Kharkiv”, but claimed it was a civilian business that had been hit.

“Missiles hit the building of a civilian enterprise. There was a fire,” he said on Telegram.