Ukraine has launched a massive overnight aerial assault on targets inside Russia and on the occupied Crimean Peninsula.
Moscow’s defense ministry claimed 42 drones were downed near Crimea, which would be the biggest attack by Kyiv to date and larger than many of Russia’s own drone attacks against Ukrainian cities.
Nine drones were “destroyed... over the territory of the Republic of Crimea,” the Russian defense ministry wrote on Telegram early Friday.
Thirty-three others “were suppressed by electronic warfare and crashed without reaching the target,” it said, without specifying whether there had been any damage or casualties.
Earlier, a local Russian-installed official said several drones had been destroyed over the sea off Crimea's Cape Khersones.
The cape is located in the southwest of the peninsula near Sevastopol, which is home to Russia’s Black Sea fleet.
It comes less than 24 hours after Ukraine announced it flew its flag in Crimea, in a symbolic win during a "special operation" to mark its second wartime Independence Day on Thursday.
Elsewhere, Russia’s defense ministry also said it had “detected and destroyed” a Ukrainian missile “over the territory of Kaluga region” which borders the Moscow region.
Kaluga is also home to the Shaykovka Air Base from which Russia operates bombers used to launch missiles against Ukraine.
Flights to and from Moscow’s Vnukovo and Domodedovo airports were briefly halted, the TASS news agency reported Friday, citing aviation services and without specifying why.
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Kyiv has yet to comment on the overnight attacks.
Earlier this month, Kyiv warned those living in Moscow to expect more attacks, adding that the Russian capital’s air defenses appear incapable of protecting its citizens as the drone war between the two countries continues to escalate.
Andriy Yusov, a representative of Ukrainian military intelligence (HUR), told Kyiv Post that “the concept of security is increasingly distant from the residents of Moscow.”
Ukraine’s drones have been regularly reaching the capital and causing damage, though in numbers that are so far incomparable to Russia’s almost daily mass attacks throughout Ukraine.
Yusov suggested that Ukraine could ramp up its drone attacks on the Russian mainland however, saying: “Given the dynamics of recent months, the number, geography and intensity, it would be logical to assume an increase in daily attacks.”
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