Russia’s Defense Ministry said early Monday that its air defense systems destroyed 251 Ukrainian drones overnight in one of Ukraine’s largest retaliatory attacks on Russia this year.
Around 40,000 residents of the southwestern Belgorod region were initially left without power after authorities reported strikes on local energy infrastructure. At least 5,400 residents were still without power as of early Monday morning, according to Belgorod region Governor Vyacheslav Gladkov.
In the western Bryansk region, where its governor warned residents twice about incoming drone strikes, emergency authorities told local media that energy infrastructure was damaged due to three “man-made fires.”
The Telegram news channel Astra said it identified one of the locations of a Ukrainian drone strike in the Bryansk region as the Klintsy power station. Bryansk region Governor Alexander Bogomaz said eight Ukrainian drones had been intercepted overnight, causing no injuries but triggering responses from emergency crews.
Astra, citing eyewitness videos, also reported that Ukrainian drones may have targeted an explosives factory in the Nizhny Novgorod region town of Dzerzhinsk, east of Moscow. Governor Gleb Nikitin said 20 drones had targeted the town’s “industrial zone,” causing at least one injury, damage and fires in residential areas.
Meanwhile, mass overnight drone strikes were reported across annexed Crimea. A pro-Ukrainian Telegram channel claimed a major fire erupted at an oil loading terminal in the coastal town of Feodosia.
The Moscow Times could not immediately verify the reports.
Russia’s Defense Ministry said almost half of the 251 Ukrainian drones destroyed between Sunday night and Monday morning had been downed over Crimea, the Black Sea and the Sea of Azov. Dozens of others were shot out of the skies over the Kursk and Belgorod regions, it added.
Eight airports across southern and central Russia introduced flight restrictions on Sunday evening. Most had resumed operations by the following morning.
Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin reported that one drone was shot down while approaching the Russian capital before dawn.
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