News|Russia-Ukraine war

Ukraine drones destroyed in latest raids on Russian territory

Russian defence ministry says three drones were shot down over the Russian regions of Tula and Belgorod.

A couple sit in a park in Moscow, Russia, Tuesday, Aug. 1, 2023, with the "Moscow City" business district in the background. The glittering towers of the Moscow City business district were once symbols of the Russian capital's economic boom in the early 2000s. Now they are a sign of its vulnerability, following a series of drone attacks that rattled some Muscovites shaken and brought the war in Ukraine home to the seat of Russian power. (AP Photo/Dmitry Serebryakov)
People in a park with the Moscow City business district in the background - an area that has been the target of several Ukrainian drone attacks in August, 2023, Moscow [File: Dmitry Serebryakov/AP Photo]
Published On 29 Aug 2023

Russian air defences shot down three Ukrainian drones flying over the Russian regions of Tula and Belgorod, the Ministry of Defence has reported, in the latest attempted attacks on targets inside Russian territory.

Two drones “were destroyed” by air defences over the Tula region south of Moscow, the defence ministry said in a statement on the Telegram messaging app early on Tuesday morning.

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Another drone was “destroyed by air defence forces” over the Belgorod region, which borders Ukraine, at about 11pm Moscow time (20:00 GMT) on Monday, the ministry said in a separate statement.

The ministry did not say whether there had been damage or casualties as a result of the drone raids.

Moscow and other Russian regions have been hit by a barrage of Ukrainian drone attacks in recent weeks with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy saying late last month that the war would be returning to Russia.

“Gradually, the war is returning to the territory of Russia – to its symbolic centres and military bases, and this is an inevitable, natural and absolutely fair process,” he said at the time.

Ukrainian drones repeatedly raided Russian territory last week, leading to multiple temporary suspensions of flights at Moscow’s three main airports – Sheremetyevo, Domodedovo and Vnukovo.

The defence ministry also reported on Monday that two Russian jet fighters were scrambled to intercept two United States reconnaissance drones that were on a flight path over the Black Sea.

According to the ministry, the two US drones, a Reaper and a Global Hawk, were “carrying out aerial reconnaissance in the region of the Crimean peninsula”, near the Black Sea.

After the arrival of the Russian warplanes, the drones “changed their direction of flight and left the areas where aerial reconnaissance was being conducted”, the ministry added.

On Sunday, Russia said it had scrambled a fighter plane to deter a US Air Force reconnaissance drone from crossing its borders over the Black Sea.

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[Al Jazeera]
Source: Al Jazeera and news agencies