Russia downed 11 Ukrainian drones nearing Crimea and two headed for Moscow, officials said on Thursday, the latest in a blitz of air strikes on Russian-held territory.

“Two UAVs (unmanned aerial vehicles) flying in the direction of the city of Moscow were destroyed,” the Russia’s defence ministry said in a statement on Telegram.

It said one drone was shot down over the Kaluga region southwest of Moscow, and another over the Odintsovsky district bordering the capital.

Those drones were shot down at around 4:00am (0100 GMT), Moscow mayor Sergei Sobyanin said on Telegram.

Two other Ukrainian drones were shot down near the city of Sevastopol on the Crimean coast, the defence ministry said, and “another 9 were suppressed by means of electronic warfare and crashed in the Black Sea”.

It said there were no reports of damage or casualties in any of the affected areas.

The strikes come a day after Russia said two Ukrainian combat drones headed for Moscow were shot down, and constitute at least the fourth attack near the capital within a week.

Russia previously said it downed a drone over Kaluga on Monday, as well as seven drones in the region last Thursday.

Until a series of attacks in recent months, Moscow had not been targeted during the conflict in Ukraine, which began more than a year ago.

Attacks reach Russia

The Russia-annexed Crimean peninsula, however, has been disrupted by several strikes throughout the hostilities, and has seen more frequent attacks in recent weeks.

Russia said on Saturday it had downed a drone over the ocean near Sevastopol, the base of its Black Sea fleet.

Naval drones have targeted Russian vessels in the Black Sea several times in recent weeks, including an attack on an oil tanker on Saturday.

In July, Ukrainian drone strikes on Crimea blew up an ammunition depot and damaged the bridge across the Kerch Strait linking the peninsula to Russia’s mainland.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky warned last month that “war” was coming to Russia, with the country’s “symbolic centres and military bases” becoming targets.

Air attacks have multiplied since Kyiv began a counteroffensive in June, though Ukrainian forces have made modest advances on the ground in the face of stiff resistance from Moscow’s troops.

On Wednesday, Russian officials said one person was killed and four others wounded by Ukrainian shelling on the border town of Gorkovsky in the southern Belgorod region, which has seen regular strikes.

On the other side of the front line, an oil depot in Ukraine’s Rivne region was destroyed during a “massive drone attack” on Thursday, governor Vitaliy Koval said, adding that emergency services and investigators were on the scene.

On Wednesday, a strike killed two people in Ukraine’s southern city of Zaporizhzhia, while shelling killed a woman and a young girl in the Donetsk region.

Opinion

Editorial

Electable politics
Updated 04 Dec, 2023

Electable politics

With the PTI still on the wrong side of the political equation, the prospects will be bright for whoever takes the lead.
War of narratives
04 Dec, 2023

War of narratives

MILITARILY, there is no match between the Israeli war machine, and the defenceless people of Gaza. On one side is a...
Returns on deposits
04 Dec, 2023

Returns on deposits

DESPITE the deceleration of deposit mobilisation, bank deposits have jumped to a record high of Rs25.6tr in FY23. ...
Promises, promises
Updated 03 Dec, 2023

Promises, promises

The climate crisis transcends national borders and political agendas, demanding a unified, decisive response.
PCB’s strange decision
03 Dec, 2023

PCB’s strange decision

THE Pakistan Cricket Board’s decision-making and the way it is being run has become a joke. A day after appointing...
Resettling Afghans
03 Dec, 2023

Resettling Afghans

FOR two years now, since the Afghan Taliban took Kabul, thousands of Afghans in Pakistan who had worked for Western...