Russia Says Ukraine Targeted Crimea With Dozens of Drones

Russia’s Ministry of Defense stated on Friday that Ukraine had launched 42 drones at Crimea and fired a missile not removed from Moscow in a single day, in a volley that could possibly be one of many greatest recognized aerial assaults on Russian-held territory because the struggle started.

The assaults — the day after Ukraine claimed that its particular forces had staged a short raid into the occupied Crimean Peninsula and fought with Russian forces — come because the tempo of long-distance Ukrainian assaults has intensified in current weeks.

Russia’s Defense Ministry stated that all the drones had been intercepted by air defenses or electronically jammed. It additionally stated it had shot down a Ukrainian missile over the Kaluga area of Russia, which borders the Moscow area.

As Kyiv presses a grinding counteroffensive within the east and the south of Ukraine, it has additionally been conducting strikes removed from the entrance strains in an obvious try and disrupt the Russian provide strains that feed Moscow’s struggle effort. It stays unclear if the strikes have affected Russia’s broader operations on the battlefield.

Ukraine didn’t touch upon Friday’s assaults. But its announcement Thursday — on Ukraine’s Independence Day — of an apparently small incursion into Crimea means that Kyiv is more and more capable of strike deep behind Russian strains. While missile and drone assaults are frequent, there have been few if any earlier stories of Ukrainian troops setting foot on the peninsula because the full-scale invasion started in February 2022.

President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine and different senior Ukrainian officers have stated that they intend to recapture Crimea, which Moscow illegally annexed in 2014. However, some U.S. army analysts say that retaking Crimea by drive may show an nearly insurmountable problem for Ukraine within the quick time period, given Russian defenses.