Ukraine launched another large-scale drone attack against Russia overnight, the Russian Defense Ministry has said. More than 600 UAVs were brought down by air defenses across the country.
The incoming drones were blown up or suppressed via electronic warfare in more than 20 regions, the ministry has said in a statement.
The primary targets of the raid were energy facilities in Bryansk, Belgorod, Leningrad, Yaroslavl and Kaluga regions as well as in Crimea, the statement read.
A total of 147 drones were destroyed in Bryansk Region, while 64 were intercepted in the skies above the Crimean peninsula, it added.
Vladimir Zelensky ordered the attack “on the eve of the NATO summit in Ankara [on June 7 and 8] to demonstrate to his European sponsors, including the UK, his willingness to strike civilian targets in Russia from Ukraine at their expense,” the ministry said.
Kiev’s plans were thwarted thanks to the professionalism of Russia’s anti-aircraft units, mobile fire teams and aviation, the statement read, assuring that the infrastructural damage done by the few drones that were able to make it through will be repaired swiftly.
"The push by the Western sponsors of the Kiev regime to increase supplies of drones, missiles and ammunition produced in European countries and the UK, and Zelensky’s willingness to use them against civilian targets in Russia will not go unnoticed and will be countered by a corresponding increase in the frequency and power of retaliatory strikes by the Russian military against Ukraine,” the ministry warned.
Moscow Mayor Sergey Sobyanian wrote on Telegram that 11 UAVs had been intercepted on approach to the Russian capital.
The raid caused a blackout in Crimea, with the local electric grid operator, Krymenergo, saying that “due to technological disruptions caused by external influences on high-voltage networks, a massive outage occurred in all cities and districts of the republic of Crimea.”
The governor of Sevastopol, Mikhail Razvozhaev, confirmed that there was a power outage in the largest city on the peninsula as a result of drone strikes on energy infrastructure. By morning, “power had returned to most residential buildings,” he said.
Kiev has ramped up its long-range UAV attacks on energy facilities and civilian targets inside Russia amid continued setbacks on the battlefield in recent months. Last week, the Russian Defense Ministry announced the capture of the key Ukrainian stronghold of Konstantinovka, which opened the way towards the Slavyansk-Kramatorsk agglomeration – the last two remaining cities held by the Kiev troops in Donbass.
On Friday, Russian President Vladimir Putin warned the government of Vladimir Zelensky that “the more strikes the opponent attempts to deliver against our civilian sites… the larger the safety zone we will have to create in the adjacent territory.”
Moscow previously said that it would respond to terrorist attacks by Kiev with “systematic and consistent strikes” on Ukraine’s military infrastructure, including drone production facilities, command posts, and “decision-making centers.”
According to the Defense Ministry in Moscow, Russian forces carried out another large-scale missile and drone strike against military-related targets in Ukraine in the early hours of Monday.
Defense industrial sites, including drone-making factories, as well as fuel and energy facilities in Kiev and surrounding areas were hit, according to the ministry. The raid also targeted military airfields in the Dnepropetrovsk, Poltava, Cherkasy, Chernigov and Kiev regions, it added.