NewsRescue
On Thursday morning, the Russian military repelled a new Ukrainian drone strike on the Crimean Peninsula, shooting down at least 11 UAVs in its airspace and intercepting another five unmanned naval boats in the Black Sea.
“On September 14, at about 5:30am Moscow time, an attempt by the Kiev regime to carry out a terrorist attack using aircraft-type UAVs on objects in the Russian Federation was thwarted,” the ministry said in a brief statement on Telegram.
According to the military, Russian air defence units “destroyed 11 unmanned aerial devices” in Crimean airspace.
Five naval drones were also destroyed around the same time as they approached the Black Sea Fleet patrol ship ‘Sergey Kotov,’ which utilised its on-board armaments to neutralise the unmanned aircraft.
It was unclear where the drones were intercepted, but witnesses on social media reported hearing multiple explosions and anti-aircraft firing near the Crimean city of Evpatoria.
The drone attack is the latest in a series of such occurrences in recent weeks, with many of them targeting Crimea, home to Moscow’s Black Sea Fleet. Other Ukrainian operations have targeted Moscow, with air defences shooting down a number of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) above the city last week.
Ukrainian cruise missiles hit a Russian shipyard on Wednesday, injuring at least 24 people. According to the Russian Defence Ministry, the morning strike featured up to ten missiles and three naval drones, and two boats undergoing maintenance were hit.
Though it is unclear what type of weapons were used in the strike, a spokesman for the Ukrainian Air Force admitted Kiev was to blame and said Russian forces had been subjected to “a storm” – presumably referring to Storm Shadow cruise missiles supplied by the UK.
The increased attacks come as Ukraine’s summer counteroffensive lags, with Kiev trying to breach Russian defences despite massive military help from its Western backers. According to Moscow, Ukrainian forces have lost around 71,000 personnel and over 7,600 heavy weapons since the attack began in early June, and while Kiev does not divulge its own losses, officials have conceded that the offensive is progressing more slowly than projected.
