Two Ukrainian drones were disabled and brought down off the coast of Crimea on Monday evening, the Russian Defense Ministry said. Kiev has stepped up unmanned aircraft attacks on Russian soil in recent months.
The UAVs on a mission to “conduct a terrorist attack” were intercepted around 11pm local time, the ministry said in a brief statement in the early hours of Tuesday.
“The two Ukrainian drones were spotted by air defenses and downed by means of electronic warfare,” the MOD said. It added that the UAVs then veered off course, crashing into the Black Sea 40 kilometers (24.8 miles) northwest of the Crimean Peninsula.
Kiev has increased drone attacks in Crimea and elsewhere in Russia in recent months. According to Russian officials, a drone heading for Moscow was downed on Monday morning. Multiple UAVs were shot down over the weekend in the Belgorod Region, which shares a border with Ukraine, the local governor said.
Several unmanned aircraft crashed in Moscow’s financial district earlier this month, without causing any fatalities. On July 17, a Ukrainian seaborne drone struck the Crimean Bridge, which connects the peninsula with mainland Russia, killing two people and injuring their teenage daughter. Moscow responded by striking port infrastructure in the Ukrainian city of Odessa.