In the early hours of this morning, Ukraine launched 42 unmanned drones at the annexed territory of Crimea, the Russian ministry of defence has claimed. Announcing on Telegram that the attack had been ‘thwarted’, the Russian MoD said nine of the drones had been shot down, while the remaining 33 were electronically jammed and downed ‘before they reached their target’. If the number of drones Russia claims to have been attacked with is correct, this would amount to the largest Ukrainian air attack on Russian-held territory since the beginning of the war.
This could amount to the largest Ukrainian air attack on Russian-held territory since the beginning of the war.
Mikhail Razvozhayev, the Kremlin-installed governor of the Crimean city of Sevastopol, said that several drones were destroyed over the sea by the city’s outskirts. No casualties or significant damage have been reported.
The news of Ukraine’s latest drone attack comes just two days after Kyiv announced that it had destroyed a Russian S-400 missile defence system in annexed Crimea. Sharing a video allegedly showing the hit, the Ukrainian intelligence services heralded it as ‘a painful blow to the occupiers’ air defence system’. Meanwhile drone attacks on Moscow have continued to intensify, with the Russian capital subjects to attacks six times in the past week alone.
If Ukraine is able to start penetrating Russian air defences in Crimea more regularly, this would represent a significant breakthrough in Kyiv’s counteroffensive efforts. Zelensky’s administration considers Crimea to be a strategic, as well as symbolic, target in the war; Ukrainian drones would look to destroy as much of the Russian military infrastructure based on the peninsula and supporting Putin’s invading forces as possible.
Separately, the Russian MoD claims to have shot down a Ukrainian S-200 missile shortly after midnight over the Kaluga region, just over 120 miles from Moscow. Again, there appears to have been no casualties or significant damage to infrastructure, although Moscow’s Vnukovo and Domodedovo airports were temporarily closed.
As has become standard for Zelensky’s government, Kyiv has made no comment on the attacks on Crimea and Kaluga overnight.
But if these reports are accurate, they are a bold test of Putin’s pledge to escalate the war in the event that Russian territory is attacked. Crimea, and in particular the Kerch bridge which connects the peninsula to mainland Russia, has been subjected to many attacks in the 18 months since the invasion. But the Kaluga attack is one of the first times missiles – as opposed to drones – have been sent this far into mainland Russia.
Source : TheSpectator
