Russia accused the Ukrainian Army on Tuesday of having tried to attack several civilian infrastructures with drones in the south of the country, in regions close to the border between the two countries. Another drone, however, did manage to get well into Russian territory and came down in the Moscow region, apparently missing its target.
According to the Russian Defense Ministry, there were two overnight drone strikes in Krasnodar and Adygeya. The devices were shot down by the Russian air defense before they damaged the civil infrastructure of these regions, which according to Moscow, were the purpose for which they were launched.
Krasnodar Krai has a coastline on the Black Sea and the Azov Sea and since 2018 it has been connected to the Crimean peninsula by the Kerch Bridge. Adygeya is a small Russian republic nestled within the Krasnodar Krai.
The ministry does not specify what the targets of the winged projectiles were. “Both drones lost control and deviated from the flight path. One fell into the field and the other, deviating from the trajectory, did not damage the attacked civilian infrastructure,” the Defense statement said.
A third drone was shot down in another Russian region, the Briansk Oblast, which borders Ukraine. “The incident has caused neither victims nor damage,” regional governor Alexánder Bogomaz said on his Telegram channel.
Hours later, the Moscow Oblast administration reported the crash of a drone near the city of Kolomna, just 110 kilometers from the Russian capital.
“It took place near the village of Gubastovo. The target was probably a civilian infrastructure facility, but it was not damaged,” Moscow Region Governor Andrei Vorobyov said on Telegram. The politician added that the fall of the drone did not cause any victims or damage.
Gubastovo is located about 20 kilometers north of Kolomna. According to the Russian Emergency Service TV channel, the drone was found a hundred meters from a gas compressor station. This is part of a gas pipeline built in 2009 to ensure uninterrupted supply to both Moscow and the region.
The drone alert also went off for several hours in St. Petersburg. Airspace was closed and arrivals and departures of civilian aircraft at the city’s main airport, Pulkovo, were suspended.
The first versions spoke of the presence of an unidentified flying device. But after the alert, the Ministry of Defense assured that it had been a training exercise carried out by the air defense of Russia’s second city in collaboration with civil air traffic control authorities, emergency services and the security agencies.
During this year of armed conflict, Ukraine regularly attacks neighboring Russian regions, especially Belgorod, Bryansk, Kursk and Krasnodar. But its drones have also hit targets farther away. In December, Soviet-made Ukrainian drones struck military airfields in Ryazan and
Saratov, the latter 500 kilometers from Ukraine and home to Russian strategic bombers (with nuclear capabilities).
In Belgorod, capital of the oblast of the same name, this Tuesday morning a drone crashed into a building, causing no damage.
The day before, Belgorod Governor Viacheslav Gladkov said the remains of three exploded drones had been found in the city.
