Ukraine has targeted Russian-controlled Crimea with tens of drones in an overnight raid, Russia’s Defense Ministry has said, as both Moscow and Kyiv keep up the pace of intensified winter drone attacks on key infrastructure.
Russia’s Defense Ministry said on Tuesday that its air defenses had shot down 41 Ukrainian aerial unmanned vehicles (UAVs) over the Moscow-controlled Crimean peninsula and the Sea of Azov overnight. It did not specify exact locations in its brief statements.
This is the largest reported Ukrainian drone attack on Russian-controlled territory for months, despite Kyiv’s frequent focus on targeting the annexed peninsula and Russia’s border regions with explosive UAVs. The Kremlin said on August 25 that Ukraine had used 42 drones in overnight attacks. Although Ukrainian drone strikes on Russian border regions, Crimea and Moscow are frequent, they do not typically come in such high numbers.
Ukraine often avoids claiming public responsibility for drone attacks. Kyiv’s military has been contacted for comment via email.
Russian authorities closed the Kerch Bridge, also known as the Crimean Bridge, in the early hours of Tuesday, and Russian Telegram channel Astra reported a series of explosions around the city of Kerch. The Kerch Bridge connects Crimea with mainland Russia, and has been a previous target of Ukrainian drone strikes, including with naval drones.
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Russian-language Telegram accounts and local channels in Crimea reported that two Ukrainian drones had fallen around an oil depot in the eastern Crimean town of Feodosia. One drone exploded around 330 feet from an oil tank at the facility, Astra reported.
Newsweek has reached out to the Russian Defense Ministry for comment via email.
In its own statement on Tuesday morning, Ukraine’s armed forces said the Kremlin had attacked Ukraine with Iranian-designed Shahed kamikaze UAVs from two sites overnight. Moscow launched a total of 17 strike drones from the country’s Kursk region, which borders northeastern Ukraine, and from Primorsko-Akhtarsk, in the Krasnodar region on the Sea of Azov. Ukraine shot down 10 of these drones, Kyiv’s air force said.
Russia also launched six S-300 anti-aircraft guided missiles over the eastern Donetsk region and southern Kherson regions of Ukraine, Kyiv added.
In late November, Ukraine’s military said Russia had launched a “record number” of Shahed drones on its territory, sending 75 UAVs over Ukraine from two sites in Russia. The Ukrainian military said the drones hit at least six regions, including Kyiv.
Ukrainian officials and Western experts had predicted ahead of Ukraine’s tougher fall and winter seasons that the Kremlin would repeat its bruising winter missile and drone strike campaign of 2022. Ukrainian Air Force spokesperson Colonel Yuriy Ignat said in early October that Kyiv was bracing for even larger drone attacks than the previous year, adding that 500 Russia-launched Shahed drones were recorded in September 2023 alone.
Ukraine “must be prepared for the fact that the enemy may increase the number of drone or missile strikes on our infrastructure,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said in mid-November.
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Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.