Several dozen Ukrainian drones have been spotted and destroyed over the Black Sea and the northwestern part of the Crimean Peninsula, the Russian military said early Sunday morning.
Russian air defenses have prevented yet another “attempted terrorist attack by the Kiev regime” with 36 plane-type drones intercepted en route to Crimea, the military said in a brief statement shortly before 2am local time, without providing any further details.
There were no reports of damage or casualties on the ground, and local officials have yet to comment on the incident.
Kiev has stepped up rocket and drone attacks on Crimea in recent months. On September 13, Ukraine struck a shipyard in Sevastopol with cruise missiles, damaging two naval vessels, according to the Russian military. Nine days later, a missile struck the headquarters of the Black Sea Fleet in Sevastopol.
Ukraine has also used sea drones to attack Russian port infrastructure in Sevastopol on multiple occasions. Maritime drones have targeted key transport infrastructure such as the Crimean Bridge, which was badly damaged in an attack in July, but was repaired and fully reopened earlier this month.
Russian officials have accused Kiev of plotting acts of sabotage targeting the country’s major infrastructure sites, including nuclear power plants. Earlier this week, a Ukrainian attack involving multiple drones was stopped in the Russian city of Kurchatov, home to the Kursk Nuclear Power Plant, but one of the UAVs reportedly damaged a nuclear waste storage building at the site.