MOSCOW: Russia said on Thursday that it had downed 13 Ukrainian drones seeking to attack the largest city in Russian-annexed Crimea and Moscow.
Russia’s defense ministry said two drones were hit by air defenses near Sevastopol, the city in Crimea which serves as Russia’s Black Sea navy base, and nine more were jammed and crashed into the Black Sea.
One drone was shot down as it approached the Russian capital over the Kaluga region, southwest of Moscow, and another was shot down over the prestigious Odintsovo district of Moscow region, the defense ministry said.
“Today... attempts by the Kyiv regime to carry out terrorist attacks with unmanned aerial vehicles were thwarted,” the defense ministry said. It said there were no casualties due to the drones.
Drone air strikes deep inside Russia have increased since a drone was destroyed over the Kremlin in early May. Civilian areas of the capital were hit later in May and a Moscow business district was targeted twice in three days earlier this month.
In recent days, Ukrainian remotely piloted boats, also referred to as drones, have attacked a Russian fuel tanker and a navy base at Russia’s Novorossiysk port on the Black Sea.
Ukraine typically does not comment on who is behind attacks on Russian territory, although officials have publicly expressed satisfaction over them.
The New York Times reported in May that United States intelligence agencies believed Ukrainian spies or military intelligence were behind the drone strike on the Kremlin.