LONDON — Ukrainian drones attacked Crimea until Wednesday, Russia’s Defense Ministry said, in another night of UAV exchanges between the two warring nations.
“Overhead air defense systems destroyed and intercepted 25 Ukrainian unmanned aerial vehicles in the Black Sea and on the territory of the Republic of Crimea,” the ministry wrote on Telegram, using the name of the peninsula annexed by Ukraine in 2014 from Moscow.
The Kremlin-installed governor of Sevastopol, Mikhail Razvozhaev, wrote on Telegram that air defenses had been activated to repel a combined air strike against the city, which is the core of Russia’s Black Sea Fleet and Moscow’s power projection over the occupied peninsula.
Razvozhaev said several drones were shot down over the Black Sea in the Orlovka and Kacha areas, as well as over Victory Park on the outskirts of the city. Two missiles were also fired over the Black Sea, the governor said.
This file photo shows a rehearsal of the Russian Navy Day parade in the Black Sea port of Sevastopol, Crimea, July 26, 2019.
Alexey Pavlishak/Reuters
Rescue services reported falling debris near the Kachinsky highway, Razvozhaev added.
In total, Russia’s Defense Ministry said it had shot down at least 54 drones in Russian-controlled regions on Tuesday night.
Ukraine’s air force on Tuesday night launched 89 Russian drones into the country, shooting down 36 of them and losing 48 in flight. Five UAVs were flown to Belarus, the air force said on Telegram.
He added that drone debris damaged buildings in the Kiev region, although there were no casualties.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy praised the country’s anti-drone defense teams on Wednesday morning, saying they are active every night.
Tuesday night’s drone strike was significantly less than the record 188 drones launched into Ukraine on Monday night.
Zelenskyy said the attack caused “damage to our critical infrastructure” and called on foreign partners to do more to curb Moscow’s use of foreign components in its drones and missiles.
In a statement to X on Tuesday afternoon, Zelenskyy said the continued attacks on Ukraine show Kyiv’s need to strike military targets inside Russia — a sensitive political issue that has sparked tensions with Ukraine’s Western partners and nuclear threats from Moscow.
In this handout photo taken and released by the Emergency Services of Ukraine on November 26, 2024, Ukrainian rescuers work to put out a fire in a residential area after a missile attack in Sumy.
Handout/EMERGENCY SERVICE IN UKRAINE/AFP
Referring to a deadly rocket artillery attack in the eastern city of Sumy, the president said “the only effective way to protect against them is to destroy Russian weapons and Russian launchers directly on Russian territory.”
“That’s why the ability to attack Russian territory is so important for us,” Zelenskyy added.
“This is the only factor that can limit Russian terror and, in general, Russia’s ability to wage war,” he said. “I thank all the partners who understand this and pass it on to other partners.”
