An employee works at a production facility of Unwave company, a Ukrainian producer of jammers and radio electronic warfare, amid Russia’s attack on Ukraine, in an undisclosed location, Ukraine October 28, 2024.
| Photo Credit: REUTERS

Russia downed 59 Ukranian drones overnight, the majority across border regions, the Defence Ministry said on Monday (November 18, 2024).

“During the past night, attempts by the Kyiv regime to carry out terrorist UAV attacks against targets on the territory of the Russian Federation were thwarted,” the Ministry said in a statement.

“Fifty-nine Ukrainian UAVs were destroyed by air defence systems,” it added.

The Ministry said the majority of drones were downed across three regions bordering Ukraine: 45 in Bryansk, six in Kursk and three in Belgorod.

Three drones were intercepted in the region of Tula, south of the capital, while two others were downed over the Moscow region.

Sergei Sobyanin, mayor of Moscow, said one was destroyed over the Ramenskoye district without causing casualties or damage.

The second was located in Pavlovo-Possad district, he said on Telegram.

Moscow announces almost daily that it has destroyed Ukranian drones, but the number is usually lower than Monday’s figure.

Kyiv says it carries out such attacks, which often target energy infrastructure, in response to Russian bombardment of its territory.

Ukrainian servicemen prepare for a test fly of a grenade-attached drone. File
| Photo Credit: Reuters

Russia shot down 51 Ukrainian drones from above several regions, including near the border, Moscow’s Defence Ministry said on Sunday (October 27, 2024).

Eighteen were intercepted in the Tambov region, about 400 kilometres from the Ukrainian border, and 16 in the area of the border town Belgorod, the Ministry said in a statement on Telegram. 

The others were shot down in the regions of Oryol, Briansk, Lipetsk and Voronej. 

One was intercepted in the Kursk region, where Ukrainian troops have been conducting a ground offensive since August and control several hundred square kilometres of Russian territory. 

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Russia announces almost daily that it has destroyed Ukrainian drones. 

Kyiv claims that the strikes, which often target energy infrastructure, are in response to Russian bombardments of Ukrainian territory.

Ukrainian air defence intercepts a Shahed drone mid-air during a Russian aerial attack on the capital in Kyiv, Ukraine, Saturday, Sept. 7, 2024.
| Photo Credit: AP

Seven Ukrainian drones were also destroyed over the western Smolensk region, Vasily Anokhin, governor of the region, which borders Belarus

A Ukrainian drone attack sparked a fire and forced the partial evacuation of residents in Russia’s Tver region, with officials saying on Wednesday (September 18, 2024) that Kyiv targeted several western regions in strikes overnight.

Wreckage from a destroyed Ukrainian drone sparked a fire in the town of Toropets in the western part of the Tver region, Igor Rudenya, the governor of the region located northwest of Moscow said on the Telegram messaging app.

Firefighters were trying to contain the fire, Rudenya said, but he did not say what was burning. Russian air defence units were still trying to repel “a massive drone attack” over the town, he added.

According to a RIA state news agency report from 2018, Russia was building an arsenal for the storage of missiles, ammunition and explosives in Toropets, a 1,000-year-old town, which has a population of just over 11,000.

Seven Ukrainian drones were also destroyed over the western Smolensk region, Vasily Anokhin, governor of the region, which borders Belarus, said on Telegram.

Fourteen more drones were downed over the Bryansk region that borders Ukraine, and several more were destroyed over the regions of Oryol and Tula, the governors of those regions said.

Reuters could not independently verify the reports. There was no immediate comment from Ukraine.

Kyiv has previously said its strikes on Russia target military, energy and transport infrastructure key to Moscow’s war efforts.

Russian officials rarely disclose the full extent of damage inflicted by Ukrainian attacks.

As Ukraine has ramped up its domestic drone production over the past two years, it has increased attacks on Russian territory.

Ukraine’s biggest-ever drone attack targeted the Russian capital in September, killing at least one, wrecking homes and disrupting flights at Moscow’s airports.

Russian law enforcement officers stand guard on the roof of a building near a damaged multi-storey block of flats following an alleged drone attack in Saint Petersburg, Russia, on March 2, 2024. File
| Photo Credit: REUTERS

Russia said on Saturday it had destroyed 47 Ukrainian drones over its southern regions overnight, mostly in the Rostov area bordering Ukraine.

Kyiv has regularly launched drones into Russia during Moscow’s military offensive in Ukraine, now in its third year.

“Air defence systems on duty intercepted and destroyed over the territories of Belgorod region (one drone), Kursk region (two drones), Volgograd region (three drones) and Rostov region (41 drones),” the Russian army said on social media.

The southern Rostov region is a hub for the Russian army to plan its military operations in Ukraine.

Rostov governor Vasily Golubev said on social media that a drone attack had hit the city of Taganrog, on the Azov Sea near a Russian-occupied part of Ukraine.

He said a rescue worker was wounded but there were “no dead”.

Social media channels close to the Russian army said Ukraine had targeted an aviation plant in Taganrog.

“In Taganrog, in all likelihood, the target of raid was the Beriev aviation plant,” Telegram channel Rybar, with close army links, said.

The channel also alleged that another target was a military air base further into Russia in the town of Morozovsk.

Authorities in the Kursk region, which lies further north and also borders Ukraine, said a clinic had been damaged in the main city of Kursk.

Regional governor Roman Starovoyt posted a video of himself outside “polyclinic number 6 in Kursk”. The top of the green building was visibly damaged.

“Luckily, everyone is alive,” Starovoyt said, adding that medics had evacuated patients from a nearby hospital.

Kursk is a city of around 440,000 people, around 120 kilometres (75 miles) from the Ukraine border.

View of a damaged Russian ship following a Ukrainian missile attack on Sevastopol, Crimea September 13, 2023 in this social media image obtained by REUTERS.
| Photo Credit: VIA REUTERS

Russia said it destroyed nearly two dozen Ukrainian drones trying to hit Moscow-annexed Crimea, patrol ships in the Black Sea and border regions on Thursday.

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.

“At about 5.00 a.m. (0200 GMT), the Ukrainian armed forces attempted to attack the Black Sea Fleet patrol ship Sergey Kotov in the Black Sea with five unmanned sea boats,” Russia’s defence ministry said.

“While repelling the attack, five unmanned enemy boats were destroyed by fire from the ship’s standard weapons,” it added in a statement.

Moscow previously reported attempted attacks on the Sergey Kotov in July and in August.

At about 5.30 a.m. on Thursday, “air defence systems on duty destroyed 11 unmanned aerial vehicles” over the Crimean peninsula, the ministry said.

Russia annexed Crimea from Ukraine in 2014.

The ministry did not say whether either attack caused any casualties or damage.

Ukraine, however, said it had destroyed an S-400 Triumph air defence missile system near Yevpatoria, a city on the western coast of Crimea.

“On September 14 overnight, the military counter-intelligence of the security service and Ukrainian navy conducted a unique special operation near Yevpatoria,” a source in Ukraine’s SBU security service told AFP.

“They destroyed a Russian air defence Triumph system,” it said.

Russia said earlier that overnight it had also destroyed several Ukrainian drones that targeted its border regions of Bryansk and Belgorod, with no casualties or damage yet reported.

The defence ministry said six drones had been shot down in four separate locations over the Bryansk region, which lies roughly halfway between Kyiv and Moscow.

Another drone was destroyed further south over the Belgorod region on Wednesday evening.

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.