Russia Destroys 20 Ukrainian Drones over Crimea

By Staff, Agencies

Russia’s defense ministry announced that it has destroyed a wave of 20 Ukrainian drones over the Crimean Peninsula.

There were no casualties and no damage as a result of the attempted attack early on Saturday morning, the defense ministry said on the Telegram messaging app.

Fourteen drones were destroyed by air defense systems and six were suppressed by electronic warfare, the ministry said.

It was not immediately clear what was the target of the reported attacks on the peninsula.

Sergei Kryuchkov, an adviser to the Russia-installed governor of Crimea, said earlier that air defense systems were engaged in repelling air attacks in different parts of the peninsula.

Crimea transport authorities said on their Telegram channel that traffic on the Crimean Bridge, which links the Black Sea peninsula with the Russian region of Krasnodar, was suspended for about two hours from 01:30am local time.

The reported attack on Crimea is just the latest use by Ukraine of armed drones targeting deep inside Russia and Russian-controlled territory, though Ukraine almost never publicly claims responsibility for such operations.

On Friday, Russian officials said that Ukrainian drones were shot down while attempting to attack Moscow – the third straight day of attempts to hit targets in the Russian capital, while Russian missiles killed an 8-year-old boy in Western Ukraine on the same day.